Re-enrollment Contracts: Re-enrollment information and contracts have been mailed home. If you did not receive your packet, please contact Douglas Hamilton via e-mail or 440-716-0717. Please note that we do expect some grade levels to close out next year due to class size. In order to secure your child's spot, please return your contract no later than Friday, April 4.

High School Scheduling: High School course handbooks for the 2008/09 school year are now available. You may download a copy here, or receive a digital copy from Mr. Masa or advisory teachers. There is also a copy available for students to access on the network "R" drive at school. Students need to thoughtfully plan their schedules by consulting with teachers and parents. A schedule request form is available here (or from Mr. Masa and teachers). Parents need to sign the scheduling request form and students need to return it to their advisory teachers by Monday, April 7. Middle School scheduling will take place after the break.

Lower School Parent Coffee: Lower School parents are invited to attend a Parent Coffee on Tuesday, April 8, at 8:00 am. School psychologist Dr. Ethan Schafer will lead a discussion on "Are Summer Camps Appropriate for My Child?" We hope to see you there!

 
Attn. Upper School Soccer and Basketball Players: Invoices are being mailed home for any outstanding uniforms and Varsity Gold Cards that have not been returned to Mr. Messer. For questions, please contact Mr. Ron Messer via e-mail or 440-832-7824.

Online Auction: A select portion of the items for this year's Benefit Auction (taking place on May 3 at the Upper School) will be available online only - including all teacher outings and experiences. The online auction will take place between April 11 and April 19. Stay tuned for more details after Spring Break.

Benefit Auction Invitations: Invitations to this year's May 3 event will be sent the second week of Spring Break, so look for them in the mail. Many thanks to the wonderful parents who helped stuff envelopes all week!

Auction Items: We continue to welcome auction items. They can be dropped off at either the Upper or Lower School  offices. Contact Jayne Eiben via e-mail or 440-832-7828 with questions.

Lands End Dress Code: We are aware that a number of families have experienced frustration lately when ordering items from the Lands' End School Uniform catalog. We have related these concerns to Lands' End and have been assured that many of the issues related to back-ordering and size availability will soon be resolved. For more information, please click here to see a letter to Lawrence School from Lands' End.

Free Parent Tech Classes: The next free technology course is "Merging Excel with Word" on Thursday, April 3, from 4-5:30 pm in Room 303 of the Lower School. The course will demonstrate how to create labels and form letters from lists created in Excel with documents created in Word. A huge time-saver to help you work smart, not hard!  Parents, staff and friends of the school are invited to attend. For questions, contact Sally Garza via e-mail or at 440-832-7840. To see the complete list of free courses, click here.

Summer School: Lawrence is currently enrolling students for Summer School programs, from June 16 - July 11. The Lower School offers a morning academic program with remediation in reading, written expression, language arts and math. Its afternoon program will focus on creativity and fun with technology, art and physical education. The Upper School offers courses such as math, science, assistive technology, organization, music, drama, cooking, physical education, history, creative writing, keyboarding, forensics and more. High school students may take courses for credit. Students do not need to be enrolled at Lawrence during the school year to register, so please help us spread the word! For a complete listing of courses and details on enrollment, please click here  or visit the Summer School link on www.lawrenceschool.org .

CCIS College Fair: The Cleveland Council of Independent Schools is hosting a College Fair on Monday, April 14 from 6:30-9:00 pm at Hawken School (Gates Mills Campus). High School students are encouraged to attend. Please see Mrs. Mattes for more information.

  HEAD NOTES

I would like to use this space over the upcoming weeks to discuss the challenges and obstacles our students with ADD and ADHD face in the classroom and outside school. I hope you will contribute questions that will enrich the discussion - and I hope we can hear from a student who might share their experiences with ADD.

In a book recently published by the International Dyslexia Association, "Basic Facts about Dyslexia," authors Karen Daiken and Louisa Moats note that about 30% of children diagnosed with dyslexia also have some form of ADHD. Similarly, according to Russell Barkley, author of "Taking Charge of ADHD" (Guilford Press), approximately 30-35 % of children diagnosed with ADHD also have some other learning difficulty or disorder such as dyslexia. So, in a school like Lawrence, there is a good deal of overlap between language learning differences like dyslexia on one hand, and attention issues on the other. 

Some of you heard me speak at the "Living Room Chats" hosted by several of our parents this past fall. I may have included a quip about children with ADD and asked you if you thought ADD stood for "Avoids Due Dates!"  We may chuckle at this absurdity, but I include the humor to illustrate the common misconception that students who face the challenges and obstacles associated with ADD are sometimes blamed for being unmotivated, and deliberately uncooperative.  While these children struggle with a real syndrome - one that places obstacles in their path to learning and success in school - they are often treated as though they have a behavior problem.

This misunderstanding compounds the difficulties associated with ADD, and can contribute to feelings of low self esteem, or lack of confidence. This particularly manifests itself in academic environments where there so many demands concerning organization, time management, and the capacity to plan ahead. Focusing on one thing at one time and sustaining that focus over long periods of time is a highly prized and rewarded behavior in any school - even at Lawrence! We may be more sensitive to our students' need for activity and for opportunities to change setting and re-engage their focus, but school is still school.

The children we label as having "Attention Deficit Disorder" do not suffer from a lack of attention at all. They have lots of "attention!" Most of us who know these children know that they have the ability to pay attention to many things simultaneously. That is what drives them (and us) crazy sometimes! They can actually pay attention to everything going on around them, contributing to this "distractibility" we talk about when describing the challenge of ADD. In addition, these children can be "hyperactive," which means they like to get up and go when we want then them to stay put in their seats.

But let's take a moment and put these issues in to a broader perspective - let's admire their sensitivity to the environment and their capacity to attend to several things going on in that environment at one time! Let's applaud their high energy levels and their amazing ability to manage themselves in school, where their active learning styles and high energy levels place them at odds with their environment.  

High energy and multitasking are required and prized outside school in the marketplace (and even in the headmaster's office!), and may very well become a strength for our students once they are out of school - if they can learn to scan their busy "radar" screens, determine what is salient to the task or problem at hand, and bring focus to those factors that will drive success or solve those problems.

That ought to be the goal of any treatment or support program we employ at home or at school.  Let's begin our discussion by agreeing that ADD is not an issue of desire, or of motivation. It is not something we want to erase or remove from our children's personalities. Let's view ADD as a challenge to us -- a challenge to help each child develop a skill set and learn the tools necessary to apply the skills, so that their singular style of learning and work might survive into their adult lives.

It is our hope that as adults these children can look back and thank us for helping them understand and appreciate themselves, and acquire the knowledge to apply tools that will not only contribute to their success as individuals, but contribute to the success of the whole community.

Next week is the Ides of March  (Italian leaders always get a bit nervous at this time of year), but I am more worried about how much more winter is in the forecast than anything else! This is, after all, Cleveland!

Enjoy the break and please write in your questions and thoughts. I'll be scanning my radar screen and listening for your thoughts and questions!

Did this week's Head Notes column inspire you, puzzle you, or otherwise stir a response you would like to share? Let Lou know how you feel!  He welcomes all comments and correspondence via e-mail or phone (440-832-7820).