An Interview With Andy Abbott, John Burroughs Head of School, Part II

This is the second and concluding interview with Andy Abbott, head of school at John Burroughs. The series included interviews with the heads of school at all five schools in the Ladue-Frontenac Patch.

Patch: Volunteering in the community seems very important to Burroughs.

Abbott: Every seventh-grader does several things. They will visit a home where someone has ALS, and they will spend the day helping them with chores that are difficult for them. Every eighth-grader will have a community service week. Every senior has a project in the month of May, and it's a designed project that they do with a community service element to it.

Each of the last five classes has graduated with over 10,000 hours of combined community service, and some have been over 13,000 hours, and that comes from the students.

Over the weekends, we have what we call the Montgomery Plan, where there is an opportunity for students to serve, and faculty will go with them. They will do weather stripping, or they will do a river cleanup, or they will go to a crisis nursery, or do city gardening, and Old Newsboys Day.

There is a real culture of volunteering at this school, and everyone does it. There is a spring break service trip this year, and they are going to Joplin. The younger kids can’t go, but they have bake sales to raise the money so the older kids can pay for the bus. Some 40-50 kids will go there on spring break.

Patch: How do you stay on the cutting edge of curriculum planning? Does this process evolve constantly?

Abbott: We do have new courses every year. We are offering courses in bioethics taught by one of our biology teachers and a history teacher who offers philosophy, and they think about the ethical dilemmas that come with the new scientific developments.

There is a new global issues course. One of the core of Burroughs is to apply progressive methods, discussion, class participation to traditional curriculum.

We have a lot of contemporary thinking and and our students read contemporary novels, but we also teach geometry with formal proof, and we teach Homer and Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes and Shakespeare, and there is a real belief in these core disciplines.

We don’t want to be responding to these whims in the educational world. The most important thing we can do for our kids is make sure they are creative, that they are adaptable, and they know how to overcome challenges, and they are curious, they are kind.

Those core qualities will prepare them when technology will change in three years from now and they will be able to apply their skills to new technology. Our style of education prepares people to be lifelong learners.

Patch: Many of St. Louis’ business leaders are graduates of John Burroughs. What role does that play in St. Louis’ progress?

Abbott: When I look around, it's pretty striking. Five different alums or parents were honored in the national community conference for justice. Three of the most recent United Way drive chairs were Burroughs alums.

In the Arts and Education Awards the last 10 years, six of the lifetime achievement awards went to Burroughs grads or parents. We had the Arts’ Educator of the Year from our school, Wayne Salomon.

Sixteen of the Women of Achievement winners the last 10 years have been Burroughs parents or alumni. Seven of the last 11 Citizens of the Year have been Burroughs alums. That didn’t include Peter Fischer of the City Garden, Peter Raven of the Botanical Gardens or Flynt Fowler of the Herbert Hoover Boys and Girls Club (or) Glenn Sheffield, the Mayor of Webster Groves. Dick Fleming of the RCGA is a Burroughs parent. These people serve as models for our school community, and our students see that it can be done.

Patch: Let’s talk about the diversity program that is a big part of the Burroughs school life today.

Abbott: Right now, we have 29 percent students of color, and we are very proud of the diversity in the student body. Our attrition rate the last five years for students of color has been about 1 percent. In fact, the attrition rate for African-American students the past five years has been zero.

We’ve done a much better job of helping people make transitions and feel connected to the community, and the school has been very much top down. We have a very much more diverse board of trustees and diverse faculty to go along with the student body.

There has been an ongoing goal of Burroughs to make every family feel connected to the school and to welcome them into a warm and inviting environment. We have kids from one-adult households, from families where they are raised by grandparents, where they may have two moms or two dads. We have kids where they might be the first one in the family to go to college. I say to all of our students:  “This is your school and we like to say, leave no part of yourself at the door. Bring your identity to our campus."

Patch: Briefly explain what the AIM High program is all about here at Burroughs.

Abbott: AIM High was developed over 20 years ago in San Francisco by a Burroughs alum to start a partnership between public and private schools because there was a disparity.

We developed partnerships between Burroughs and the City School System and the Wellston School District to invite students to come to Burroughs for the summer who are middle school students of great promise but are at risk of dropping out of school.

We now donate our academic building to AIM High at no costs. Many of our teachers are involved here, and many St. Louis city school teachers come here too. And we bring in nearly 200 kids and they do English, math, science, and have an athletic component and an do arts too. This is not a recruitment thing for Burroughs. I'd say over the past 20 years, maybe three or four of the AIM High students ended up enrolling here.

It's part of the service ethos of the school, and many of our students volunteer as teaching assistants. The kids will have a 3:1 ratio of volunteers, and they make incredible progress. The kids begin to develop an affection for goint to school and we see them go on to be successful at high schools in the city.

Patch: If I could grant you one wish, what would you wish for a Burroughs grad to accomplish that has never been done before?

Abbott: I am not going to answer it correctly. I tell our kids there are so many ways to go out there and be great. We believe in the uniqueness of the individual. I want everyone to walk out of the school and love the person he or she has become.

I am just as proud as the one who decides to stay at home and become a great volunteer as I am of those who want to be president of the United States. My hope and my expectation for these kids is they are true to themselves, and they usually are.