Tag Archives: John Dodig

Leaving The Nest

Posted on January 17, 2011 | 4 comments

John Dodig is one of Staples' -- and Staples students' -- biggest fans.

After 42 years in education, Staples principal John Dodig has a deep and perceptive understanding of teenagers — their minds, their moods, the rhythms of their lives.

He knows too how those rhythms affect those around them.

Last week, Dodig sent a note to the parents of Staples seniors.  His message was tailored for them, and for the next few months of the school year — but it deserves to be read by everyone.

He said:

One of the great joys of being a principal is watching young people enter the school as freshmen and seeing how they grow and mature into young adults over four years.  This senior class is one that will be remembered by adults in this building for many years to come.

From the moment they walked into Staples they have lived up to our expectations and, in many regards, exceeded what even we thought they could do.  We have reached the halfway point of the year, which means I am beginning to feel pangs of loss.  I don’t want to see them leave, but leave they must.

If you have never had a high school senior, I warn you that you will begin to feel “strange” in the near future.  Some of you won’t know what it is, and it will border on depression.  Not being a physician, I can only tell you from experience that it will be feelings of impending loss and not clinical depression.  Your wonderful child is growing up faster than you imagined, will soon live elsewhere, and will become whomever she/he is destined to be.

All of those trips delivering your child to sporting events, play rehearsals, and other extracurricular activities will come to an end.  You might even begin to wonder what you will do with your time when your child is gone?  My experience tells me that it all works out in the end, but the transition is always difficult.

Even if you have other children yet to reach senior year, hearing your senior child talk about Senior Prom, Baccalaureate Night, Awards Assembly, senior trip and graduation will take its toll on you.  I remind myself each year that if I am feeling a sense of loss, I can only imagine how you must feel.

Assistant principal Jim Farnen and I have been meeting with small groups of seniors since October.  We invite one homeroom at a time, and about half of the students show up each time.  These are kind of like exit interviews where I ask what we can do to make Staples even better than it already is.  I also take the opportunity to thank them for what they have contributed to making Staples the wonderful school that it is.

Students in all other grades take their cue from the senior class each year. Believe me from experience, if 1,800 students want to make life miserable for the 200 adults each day, they can.  We work hard to treat your children with kindness and respect and, in turn, we are treated the same way.  You have done a remarkable job raising your sons and daughters.  You should be proud of who they have become.  Your job will continue to change, but you will always be an important part of their lives.

The countdown to graduation has begun.  It is an exciting, challenging, introspective, frightening, joyful, overwhelming and invigorating time for students.  John Dodig, his staff, the parents of Westport — the entire community — share those emotions.  It’s all part of preparing the next generation, and ourselves, for the future.

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Channeling Jasper McLevy

Posted on January 13, 2011 | 3 comments

Jasper McLevy, the former mayor of Bridgeport, once famously responded to the question of snow removal:  “God put it there, let Him take it away.”

Well, He certainly has His work cut out for Him right now.

In related news, when principal John Dodig arrived at Staples at the crack of dawn today, he realized parking would be tough.  He immediately texted and emailed students:  Please don’t drive.

Amazingly, many heeded his call.  Today’s lots were almost empty.

Sure, plenty of teenage drivers hadn’t yet dug their cars out.  (Or had them dug out.)  Still, it’s the thought that counts.

Staples High School, 9 a.m. today.

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They’ll Drink To That

Posted on October 28, 2010 | 14 comments

It’s no secret:  Westporters like to drink.

We boozed it up during Prohibition, when speakeasies flourished all around town.  (One of the most popular, in Saugatuck, was run by a blind man.)

We drank — heavily — in New Haven Railroad bar cars, coming home from Mad Men jobs in the 1950s and ’60s.

We drink today — in restaurants, on the beach, at our well-stocked basement bars — and so do our kids.

Staples yearbooks as far back as the 1940s feature drinking references.  In 1975 — when the legal age was 18 — there’s a photo of 7 guys in sports jerseys hoisting steins, surrounded by beer cans.

Teen drinking in Westport is no longer in the shadows.

So there was no lack of alcohol-related opinions Tuesday night, when the Westport Library sponsored a “Community Conversation on Underage Drinking.”

After brief remarks from Staples principal John Dodig — whose mantra has long been that the schools alone can’t deter teen drinking; the issue demands a town-wide response — that community work began.

The 100-plus participants came up with 12 topics.  Next, they formed small discussion groups — ranging in size from 3 to 20 — based on the subject that most interested them. 

At the end of the session, each group presented its most important points to everyone.  Here are the groups, and their main ideas:

Understanding the motives behind teen drinking

  • Teens drink because of peer pressure, “normality,” relaxation, stress relief, self-medication, Facebook, games, and thrills
  • High school students feel the need to drink because it offers an emotional connection, an unwritten rite of passage, and provides “liquid courage”
  • Solutions include stricter consequences, and open parent-child relationships

Parental enabling; choosing to be the parent and not a “friend”; parental involvement; parents who condone drinking and its implications

Ultimately, parents’ responsibility is to keep their kids safe.  They can do that by enforcing consequences (and “checking in” with teenagers when they get home); making expectations clear, and forming strong, early trust between parents and children.

External pressure/influence (media, peers, etc.)

  • Peer pressure is overrated
  • Parental influence can be positive or negative
  • There are mixed messages and hypocrisy, including adults not enforcing their own rules

The importance of a strong relationship between parents and kids

  • Building trust with parents is crucial
  • Dinners together — any time together, in fact — is also very important

Code of silence

There is a code of silence between parents, to “save their relationships with their kids.”  But parent-to-parent communication should include parents asking other parents if they allow drinking.

There is also a code of silence that comes from coaches, who ingrain a “we are family” dynamic beginning in elementary school.  Coaches also need to be part of a conversation, not only regarding loyalty but also moral behavior.

Strengthening teens’ self-esteem so they can say “no”

The top 3 ways:  parents provide healthy role models; parents show positive, trusting belief in their teenagers; parents support teenagers’ expecations and goals, rather than imposing their own.

Other ways:  giving a reason beyond just “no”; open communication; being able to call parents at any time; relaxed and trusting parents lead to better and healthier decisions by kids; physical affection, calmness and praise from parents; unconditional acceptance of teenagers; lack of comparison of one kid to another

Alternatives to drinking-based activities

  • Parks & Rec-sponsored day trips (skiing, concerts, Lake Compounce, hiking/rafting)
  • Explore why Newtown and Greenwich teen centers are reputed to work

Where are kids getting alcohol; methods of making it more difficult for teenagers to drink

Kids get alcohol in Bridgeport and Norwalk, with and without fake IDs.  They also get it from homes and parents (though “kids are drinking such large amounts of alcohol that it’s unlikely they are getting it all from parents”).

Making it more difficult to obtain would include having more immediate consequences, and more parental communication both with teenagers and other parents.

Education on drinking-related accidents beyond driving

Topics could include damage to reputation, and consequences due to intoxication; also consistent reinforcement of repercussions (“even with varsity athletes!”).

To what degree is the code of conduct for teams enforced?

  • Administration, faculty and coaches must be held responsible for enforcing the contract players and parents sign
  • Coach and parent denial implies tacit approval
  • Players have a general consensus that there will be no enforcement
  • Who will report the behavior?
  • What’s the point of a code of conduct if it’s not enforced?  And does this provide a “false sense of security”?

Preparing kids for life beyond high school

  • Teenagers need help developing a mature perspective before leaving high school
  • Parents need guidance for the transition too
  • There is a need to distinguish between “use” and “abuse”

That’s a ton of stuff to digest.  And it came from a relatively small group — parents who (it was noted) may be part of the “choir” to which the night was preaching; members of Staples’ Teen Awareness Group; a smattering of others. 

But — if this is to be a true “community conversation” — then more voices must join in. 

Click the “Comments” link — and please be respectful.

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A Real Community Conversation

Posted on October 23, 2010 | 26 comments

This Tuesday, the Staples PTA and Westport Library co-sponsor a “Conversation in the Community on Underage Drinking.”

The event (7:30 p.m., Bedford Middle School cafeteria) opens with John Dodig.  The Staples principal will describe the steps his high school has taken to reduce drinking before and during next weekend’s Homecoming football game.

The bulk of the meeting, though, involves an open discussion about kids and alcohol, in all areas of Westport life.  (Students are strongly encouraged to attend.)

Attendees will break into small groups to discuss areas of interest.  At the end of the evening, each group will summarize its conclusions for everyone.

If Tuesday is at all like previous forums, it should be an interesting evening.

It would be even more fascinating if someone steps up to the mic and asks questions like these:

  • The Homecoming game is scheduled for 10 a.m., in part to stop drinking beforehand.  How many students plan to drink afterward?  And how many parents know not only that their kids will drink then — but also exactly where?
  • How many parents had a cocktail or two after work — and before driving to Tuesday’s meeting — “just to unwind.”
  • How many students are willing to talk openly about their drinking habits — the “secret lives” few Westport adults are privy to?
  • How many parents actually want to hear about those secret lives from their own kids?

If we are to have a true “community conversation,” those are important questions to ask.

They’re even more important to answer.

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A Rising Tide

Posted on September 25, 2010 | 43 comments

Unless you live in a cave — or a 20th century classroom — you know that one of the goals of Staples High School is to infuse critical thinking into everything students do.

Whether it’s analyzing environmental issues or connecting the health class curriculum with rising rates of obesity, principal John Dodig’s mission is to ensure that every graduate has the knowledge, confidence — and skills — to compete in the fast-changing, terrifying, challenging and exciting world they’ll soon inherit.

Actions, of course, speak louder than words.

Last week, Dodig spent 15 minutes of “Communication Time” to introduce a schoolwide goal.

Every student watched a sophisticated, inspiring TED.com video featuring Hans Rosling.  The Swedish professor described his own youth in the 1960s, when there was an enormous gap between “the West and the rest.”

Since then, the world population has increased by 4.6 billion.  Using simple boxes and props, Rosling showed the difference between then and now.

In 1960 the developed world wanted cars; the undeveloped world, clothes.

Today, China — the symbol of the newly developed world — has cars; the country owns Volvo, the ultimate Swedish symbol.  Most of the world population, Rosling said, is now found in the middle, between the poorest and the wealthiest people.

Projecting to 2050, Rosling said that 4 billion people can leave poverty — provided the world avoids climate change, and energy remains cheap.

How could this happen?  By raising the living standards of the world’s poorest people.

Rosling showed a fascinating graph.  In it, child survival rates lead to greater wealth; this creates smaller families, which in turn leads to slower population growth — and ultimately, sustainability.

What does all this have to do with Staples?

As Dodig explained in a televised address, over the next 50 to 60 years, today’s students will form the foundation of the world.  To build a firm foundation, they’ll need real-world skills.

The problems they’ll face may be ill-defined.  But tomorrow’s leaders will need to:

  • Know where to find information
  • Know how to synthesize and evaluate that information
  • Be able to collaborate across many disciplines.

“If all Staples students can master those skills,” Dodig said, “you will be successful.”

They’ll be able to handle the economic, environmental and other global challenges they face — and they’ll make the entire planet a better place.

Dodig then asked each classroom teacher to lead a discussion of the video.  Among the questions:

  • Why was the video shown?
  • How did the video relate to Staples students, and what you learn in school?
  • What part will you play in the future?

Dodig asked for feedback.  Teachers told him the video sparked insightful discussions; students said it made them think, and posed questions of their own.

Much has changed since 1960, as Rosling pointed out.  But a button from that decade remains true:  “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.”

Staples High School has challenged its students to make sure, 50 years from now, that the saying is a long-forgotten relic of a dim, dusty past.

(Click here to view the Hans Rosling Ted.com video.  Click here to see the video that Staples students saw, including Dodig’s introduction and conclusion.)

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Robert Kaufmann’s “Annealing Forces”

Posted on September 18, 2010 | 13 comments

“06880” has devoted many pixels to today’s parenting styles — the well-known “helicopter,” the less familiar “lawnmower” (they clear away every obstacle their children face), and (we’re mixing and matching here), the result of all that:  “boomerang” kids (they return right back to their place of origin).

I’ve weighed in; I’ve cited Staples principal John Dodig; our chorus of commenters has thrown in their two cents’ many dollars’ worth.

Time now for Robert E. Kaufmann.

He recently stepped down after a year as headmaster at Fairfield Country Day School.  Now in his late 60s, he’d been away from head mastering for 15 years when he took the interim gig.

Before leaving, Kaufmann shared some reflections in the FCDS alumni magazine.

Kaufmann described several “new realities,” along with “the reinforcement of some established ones.”  He said:

Apples fall near the trees on which they grew. “Kids have been, and remain, a reflection of their parents,” Kaufmann wrote.

“Parents who live lives of integrity tend to have kids with the same qualities…. The way we, as parents, take care of our daily obligations, the way we treat others each day, and the way we deal with rules (laws) are extremely important ingredients in raising ethical and moral children.

“Conflicting or inconsistent messages are confusing to kids.  The apple needs to be sure the message from the tree is strong and steady.”

The medium is not the message. Though “technology has altered the entire landscape in which our children grow up” — and kids are extremely comfortable in that environment — Kaufmann worries that “the hours spent on this aggregated electronic pile is being confused with thinking and learning.”

While “Google provides a lot of answers,” it does not offer much training in “thinking or deduction.”  Retrieving information, Kaufmann said, demands “intellectual perspiration.”

The parenting airplane is best flown at 35,000 feet. “Loving parents,” he noted, “run the risk of being too protective.”

At FCDS — and many other places — there is “a sense that all the errors of the young are to be eliminated and all possible blemishes on a student’s record be eradicated, lest they have some impact on college admissions.”  (And remember:  FCDS is a K-9 school!)

“Even loving parents tend to rush to defend; to excuse; to shift causality; to protect their kids in ways that are often counter-productive,” Kaufmann said.

While “records may appear ‘cleaner,'” the youngsters themselves “are denied the learning opportunity of dealing with whatever ‘sticky wicket’ had arisen.”

Crucial life skills can’t be learned, he continued, “if parents run interference too fast, too often.  The focus seems to have become a search for perfect justice in daily events involving children’s interactions with other children and even with their teachers.”

Both parenting and teaching are difficult jobs, Kaufmann said — and they’re probably harder now than before.

“There is no perfect parenting formula,” he acknowledged, and usually no one correct answer.

However, “kids need to be encouraged and enabled to begin to handle more of life’s daily bumps on their own.  Imperfection and occasional failure are annealing forces in developing personalities.

The children, he concluded, will grow up “straighter and stronger.”

And, he promised,  they “will not love their parents less.”

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Posted in Children, Education, People, Staples HS, Teenagers

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A Special Graduation Day

Posted on July 24, 2010 | 2 comments

Last month, more than 400 seniors graduated from Staples.

Yesterday, 1 did.

In a special ceremony in principal John Dodig’s conference room, Eitan Dror — who missed the June ceremony due to illness — received his diploma.

And more.

Principal John Dodig hands Eitan Dror his diploma, and a DVD.

Dressed in a cap and gown, Eitan marched in to a recording of “Pomp and Circumstance.”  As superintendent of schools Elliott Landon — and secretaries, vice principals, a nurse, Class of 2010 salutatorian Morgan Patrick and Eitan’s parents all smiled broadly — Dodig presented the better-late-than-never grad with a DVD of the baccalaureate and graduation ceremony he’d missed.

Eitan turned the tassel on his cap.  He tossed it in the air.  He thanked everyone for coming.

Then they all dug into a celebratory cake, baked by the school’s attendance guru Patty McQuone.

This fall Eitan joins 3,000 other freshmen at Binghamton College, .

He’ll be the only one, though, who had his own graduation ceremony.

(Click on this YouTube clip of Eitan’s ceremony.)

Patty McQuone baked this special cake -- shaped like a graduation cap, complete with tassel.

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Internships Spark Seniors

Posted on June 23, 2010 | 17 comments

When 400-plus seniors earn diplomas at today’s Staples graduation they’ll smile, whoop, and feel good about reaching an important milestone in life.

But 286 of them will walk especially tall.

Moving far outside their comfort zones, they spent the final 4 weeks of senior year — a time traditionally reserved for chilling out, planning pranks and being bored — getting a taste of the real world.

They moved far beyond Staples, working at scores of sites through the school’s innovative internship program.

And “work” is the operative word.

Two students interned at the Norwalk Hour. They performed mind-numbing but necessary journalistic tasks like rewriting press releases and compiling calendars.  But they also did hands-on work:  interviewing victims of tragedies, devising story ideas, writing articles for Page 1.

One girl asked for an internship at a funeral home.   She watched an embalming and dressing; set up a room and flowers for a visitation; wrote an obituary; picked up a body from a morgue — and learned Quickbook accounting.

Larry Abel interned at Boccanfuso Brothers.

Some students worked at elementary and middle schools.  They immediately grasped the difference between sitting at desks, and standing in front of them.  They dealt with kids who didn’t want to learn, kids disrupting the cafeteria, kids having a tough time in gym.  The Staples interns — “kids” themselves a few days earlier — became adults very quickly.

Several students got a taste of financial services — in Fairfield County, and New York.  One day they were hanging out in high school; the next they were on a train, heading for a high-powered office surrounded by men and women working 14-hour days and earning 7-figure salaries.

The salutatorian interned at the Town School Office.  At first, administrators were unsure how to use him.  But he wowed them by creating graphs, charts and analyses in areas like electric consumption.  Then he worked on a residency guideline project.  Each morning he walked through the office asking for work.  Employees eagerly gave him plenty.

The list of sites is long and intriguing:  Aldrich Art Museum.  Barcelona Wine Bar.  Beardsley Zoo.  Bridgeport Hospital.  Bridgeport Police Department.  Bridgeport Sound Tigers.  Christ & Holy Trinity Church.  Connecticut Humane Society.  Cox Radio.  Cycle Dynamics.  Daybreak Nursery.  Discovery Museum.  Earthplace.  Fairfield Theatre Company.  Fairfield Veterinary Hospital.  Gault.  Land-Tech Consultants.  Levitt Pavilion.  Linda McMahon for Senate.  Ned Lamont for Governor.  Peter Coppola.  Saugatuck Harbor Yacht Club.  Save the Children.  Sport Hill Farm.  Tauck World Discovery.  Terex.  Uppityshirts.  Voices of September 11.  Westport Country Playhouse.  Westport Public Library.  Yumnuts.

Students gave in-store demonstrations, created websites, farmed, and did thousands of other tasks.  They gained new knowledge, learned new skills — and occasionally taught what they knew to supervisors (and at least once to an even-newer college intern).

The 286 interns did not accomplish everything on their own, of course.  Over 100 faculty supervisors made sure they stayed on track (and worked the requisite 100 hours).  Supervisors also received weekly “reflections” from the interns, who wrote about everything from understanding office decorum to earning a nameplate on their very own cubicle.

The 100-plus site directors also played a key role.

But none of it would have been possible without the vision of principal John Dodig — who devised the idea 5 years ago, then spent 2 years selling it to an at-times-dubious faculty — and the yeowomanlike work of Joyce Eldh.  “Internship director” is a part-time job, with full-time responsibilities.  It’s a tribute to Staples — and all educators in town — that an idea like the internship can become not only a reality, but a huge success.

Most learning, the cliche goes, takes place outside the classroom.  For 12 1/2 years, Westport prepares students inside its classrooms well.

Finally, the familiar doors fling open.  Hundreds of students head toward new, unknown doors.  They have no idea what’s behind them.

But they’re ready for anything.

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Posted in Education, Local business, Organizations, People, Staples HS, Teenagers

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Students ♥ Staff

Posted on May 3, 2010 | 1 comment

This is Staff Appreciation Week at Staples.  Adopting the school’s mantra — “think outside the box” — the PTA is moving beyond the usual parental thank-you luncheon.

Last week, PTA members manned womanned a table in the library.  They invited students to write a few words of appreciation to any adult at Staples — anyone at all.  Teachers, administrators, coaches, substitutes, nurses, custodians, secretaries, cafeteria workers, librarians, counselors, paraprofessionals, counselors, pyschologists, bus drivers — whoever impacted their lives was fine.

It was a gamble — but it paid off.  Students lined up to share their thoughts on several hundred colorful apple-shaped Post-Its (“an apple for the teacher” — get it?).

Their words were heartfelt, and spanned the entire spectrum of the school:

  • There is no band teacher I’d rather have than Mr. M.
  • Ms. James, thanks for teaching us to love math!
  • To all the custodians:  You guys are fantastic.  Thanks for keeping our school clean.
  • Geraghty — you’re the man!
  • Señor B es el hombre! (The same exact sentiment as for Dan Geraghty, this time in Spanish)
  • Mr. Dodig, thanks for thinking about the students.  It does wonders.
  • Mrs. Honeycutt, you rock my world!
  • Addicks — you truly are the best.  Staples wouldn’t be the same without you.
  • Your the best English teacher.  (Hey, it’s the thought that counts.)
  • To everyone at Staples:  You are awesome.

And my personal favorite:

  • Staples ♥ Woog

The “apples” will be posted on the library walls all week long — throughout Staff Appreciation Week.

Parents:  You have no idea what your kids are doing when you’re not watching.

Odds are, it’s something nice.

Dozens of messages fill a table, ready to be hung on the Staples library walls.

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Staples Sticks it To Dodig

Posted on April 28, 2010 | Comments Off on Staples Sticks it To Dodig

Staples golf team captain Dylan Murray tapes principal John Dodig to the cafeteria wall.

A high school principal does many things each day:  Evaluates teachers.  Plans budgets.  Gets taped to a wall.

Staples principal John Dodig spent today’s lunch period letting students and staff immobolize him.

Each strip of tape cost $1.  The money raised will purchase insecticide-treated bed nets, used to prevent malaria in Africa.  It costs just $10 to buy a net, distribute it to a family, and explain its use.

Today’s fundraiser was sponsored by Staples’ Junior State organization.  For more information on the international “Nothing But Nets” campaign, click here.

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