Mr. David is pleased to share his remarks from this morning's Grandfriends Day in place of his regular weekly update.
Welcome to our 3rd Annual Grandfriends Day! I want to spend a few minutes this morning telling you about the school and sharing some of my goals for Torit.
Torit takes its name from a special girl, Tori Theresa Mansharamani. When Tori was a very young child, her mom, Kristen, then a litigator at the Boston law firm of Ropes & Gray, noticed that she learned differently. Like any good parent, she put her child first. Kristen placed her degrees from Yale and Harvard in a box, left the law, and set out to found a school for her daughter. (Any rationale, practical parent would do that, right?) Tori Theresa lent her name to the effort, and the school became Torit. Torit T. And here we are, 19 years later.
What was established in 2008 by Founder and Board Chair Kristen Mansharamani with the pioneering efforts of faculty members Sherla Collymore-Philips (appointed 2010), Sandy Krauss (2010), Judy Cavanaugh (2011), Dounia Kabbaj (2011), and Natalia Bousios-Sesma (2013) is thriving with some 100 students today, serving ages 2 months to 12 years. Those founding faculty members, still here, represent 75 years of teaching experience at Torit alone. Torit provides deeply experienced teachers to your grandchildren. In many respects, it would be easy to assume they have seen it all, but I can assure you that they are curious and learn new things every day.
I am pleased to note that 100% of our lead teachers returned to Torit this year. My goal is to continue to promote that cohesion. Torit now employs about 30 faculty and staff, with an average tenure of 6.5 years. That stability is good for the children and good for the school. It speaks to employee satisfaction and dedication. We want families to choose Torit all the way through 6th grade because we know great things happen for our students thanks to the work of our teachers.
Torit is a school community of professionals. In such a setting, we all have to strive for excellence. What does excellence look like at Torit moving forward?
We prepare the Montessori environment with beautiful materials and spaces. We follow the child’s interests and, at the same time, have high expectations and individual work plans that reflect the Montessori philosophy and our knowledge of specific students and their needs. We optimally challenge each child to fulfill the school’s mission: to foster curiosity, independence, and an appreciation for knowledge along with the humility and awareness to value the ideas, support, and friendship of others.
I know you see your child’s growth in all of those areas. Faculty write biweekly comments and monthly newsletters that represent their expertise and ability to articulate each child’s progress and challenges. These communications represent the teachers’ impressive understanding of the children in their care. Doing so provides helpful insight about their growthfor the child, you, and our school.
To grow as educators, we need to reflect on our own strengths and weaknesses and actively seek ways to improve, me included. This is my 36th year as an educator, and I know I can be better. I owe that to myself and to your family.
In that spirit, I believe that professional educators are eager for feedback because they are constantly looking for ways to improve their practice. We have to be honest with each other and offer “radical candor in the spirit of growth.” This year and annually moving forward, everyone on staff will receive a formal evaluation. We owe them that feedback.
The school as a whole needs similar scrutiny and feedback, so we are committed to seeking accreditation for the first time from both the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the American Montessori Association (AMS). This is a big step for Torit and one that makes sense as we look ahead to our third decade. In both cases, that will mean faculty work on documenting what we do and how and why we do it. It will mean that teams of colleagues from peer schools visit us and peel back the layers. Accreditation will push us to be better individually and collectively for the sake of your children and grandchildren.
As you may know, we have new neighbors upstairs. Alpha School is an educational model driven by Artificial Intelligence, founded in Texas but expanding nationally, and getting lots of attention from the media. It’s a very different model from Montessori but uses some of the same language: Teachers are “guides” who tap into “intrinsic motivation”, but with AI K-12, two hours a day, to teach all the academic skills. Alpha make claims of test scores that are near perfect. Their day includes projects and fieldwork, which makes me think “imitation [really] is the sincerest form of flattery.” As schools like our neighbors become the newest “school du jour” and AI becomes ubiquitous, we’ll need to show how we compare and do better.
One abiding way is through the relationships we build. Torit faculty are expert relationship builders. We know your grandchildren as individuals, with individual needs and individual stories. We use human judgment and insight to determine how to best reach them. We trust the human head and heart to shape learning. We’re not interested in mechanically mastering material as much as we want to teach children to master themselves, both their curiosity and impulses. We want to give them agency. We believe in deeply knowing each other. No Large Language Model can explain how that actually works. It’s a feeling based on experience, intuition, and questioning. Knowing another person is about big “whys.” Why are we here? Why do I feel what I feel? Why do you? Where are we going together and why? No AI chatbot or agent can provide answers to questions that touch our souls. In my final assessment, school work is soul work. That’s the business Torit–and all great schools–are in. Thanks for joining us today.
David Liebmann
Head of School