In a recent New York Times article – “Two-Thirds of Kids Struggle to Read, and We Know How to Fix it” by Nicholas Kristof (February, 11, 2023) – there is data to illustrate that students in the United States, at the elementary school level, are behind in their ability to read and write compared to their peers of 25 years ago.

To be clear, this lag in reading skills is most apparent in students who do not have access to “resources” such as computers, wifi, quality teachers, etc. As you might imagine, the pandemic years from 2020-2022 only accentuated the issue.

And what about the impacts of excessive phone usage, with texting, emojis, Tiktok and acronym-based messages, and its potential impacts on reading and writing? Surely, 25 years from now, there will be data on this too.

But now, moms and dads, there is more. More to consider. Welcome to ChatGPT.

I had the pleasure, last week, of visiting Sydney and Melbourne, Australia. More importantly, I had the pleasure of meeting the people of Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, which included TCS alumni, a former faculty member, as well as local educators, administrators, students and parents, to talk about “the state of education” from the opposite side of the world.

It was fascinating on many fronts.

There is always something to learn when you visit different schools and talk about educational issues. Of course, schools, in general, tend to have more aspects in common than not, but it’s those “small” differences that make each school community unique.

There were many takeaways from my visits and meetings – some of which I will share at a future date. However, to give you an idea of the Australian educational landscape, I share a few of what I feel to be very interesting facts about independent schools “down under.”

If you have been watching the American news over the past couple of months, you may have witnessed the election of the U.S. Representative for New York’s 3rd Congressional District. It seems shocking that he was elected in spite of lying about his education, work experience and heritage – and even his legal name. As if it couldn’t get worse, he even fabricated the story of his mother’s cause of death. You would think this would all be more than enough to either pressure him to resign or to be disqualified from serving in public office. But, to date, that has not happened.

Meanwhile back at Trinity College School…

Here is what our Life at Trinity: A Handbook for Senior School Families states with respect to academic dishonesty: “Cheating, plagiarism…incur consequences ranging from red gating to expulsion.”

Shouldn’t there be a Life in the Senate: A Handbook for Anyone Running for Public Office document?

Twice a year the School publishes its alumni magazine, The TCS News. All members of the TCS community would have received their most recent copy with the cover story “The Secret Ingredient.” This publication is yet another source of immense pride for me and many others associated with the School.

Within each issue of The TCS News there are sections entitled Class Notes and Milestones. These sections provide updates on our alumni, as submitted by alumni. The fall 2022 issue included a broad representation, with alumni from more than 50 different class years submitting updates to their alma mater on their current state, educational pursuits, family developments and career accomplishments. Alumni news spanned from the class of 1947 to the class of 2022 with insights ranging from reminiscent to joyous as witnessed through the inclusion of 14 birth notices, 30 marriage announcements and, sadly, news of the passing of 35 members of our extended community.