Indepth Interview With Lisa Lyle, Head of School at MICDS, Part I

Lisa Lyle came to MICDS six years ago. She has taught French her entire career   at different schools including the University of Pennsylvania and several prep schools. She uses her extensive knowledge and teaching skills and energy to guide MICDS into the future.

This is the second in a series of significant interviews with the heads of school for the five schools within the Patch community. Saturday, Lyle will talk about the hiring philosophy, the role academics and athletics play at MICDS and other contemporary topics.

Ladue-Frontenac Patch: MICDS plays a bigger role in this community. Please elaborate how you see this role beyond the walls of this institution.

Lisa Lyle: It has been interesting to see the long and deep history of alumni who have stepped up in the larger community in leadership roles. Whether we are talking about corporate leadership for Purina, or for government with Betty Sims serving in Jeff City. The school produced the three senators who graduated from Country Day—Pete Wilson, Jack Danforth and Tom Eagleton—who were all serving simultaneously in the Senate.

There’s been a long history. The role of our school is to prepare people to be engaged in the larger world and step up and to ensure that important work continues to be done, and done well. The moral compass of the kinds of leaders who’ve left our school and gone forth to provide good leadership is key here.

Patch: The recent gift from the McDonnell family and their foundation is very important going forward.

Lyle: The recent gift of of $21 million came from Jim and Libby McDonnell personally and also the other half from the McDonnell Charitable Foundation. That really will allow us to build the type of facility that will support the science and math pursuits our children need to do.

We want to make sure we have spaces for lots of labs and the appropriate work for plant sciences, for instance, which will allow for research and a very large space for robotics. The practical application of scientific tenants allows a deeper understanding of learning. Our enrollment in science classes has really gone up as our curriculum has moved away from the traditional year-long biology, chemistry and physics classes to an increasing number of electives. We offer nontraditional high school courses that look more like traditional college courses.

Patch: I understand some of your students are already engaged, doing some collaborative work like with the Danforth Plant Center and other learning institutions.

Lyle: Yes, that is true. The Starr Program has helped us to find placement with scientists throughout the area, and we’ve had a large placement of students at Danforth (Plant Center) and Barnes-Jewish Hospital. We’ve had kids step up to be actively involved on the junior board at the Danforth Science Center. They were excited to apply some of their leadership skills in collaboration with World Food Day with other committed youths from St. Louis.

We want to build on that. We have conversations with scientists at The Monsanto  Company who are eager to work with our students and to do research projects in our new facility.

What we’ve found is there is a real shortage of students graduating college who are ready to step up and take these positions. As Roger Beachy (retired director of the Danforth Center) said so eloquently, we have to begin to be doing a better job of educating students at the secondary level, then on to universities and into graduate research programs.

It's in the best interest of folks at Monsanto and Danforth to invest in young people, and so we can develop and maintain curious minds. It’s also true these scientists are ready to share what they know. Everyone wants to have a legacy with the next generation, so I think its something they really want to do.

Patch: Correct me if I’m wrong but you are the only private non-sectarian school junior Kindergarten through 12th grade in the area.

Lyle: That’s such a great opportunity. With careful scaffolding and vertical articulation, we can really build around big ideas. There is a great anchoring of the learning opportunity. We are reminded every day by our younger students what potential exists. We make sure everything we teach is curriculum appropriate. We develop our curriculum both vertically and horizontally.

You will see much more integration across disciplines. We link science and art, and history and literature and recognizing that integrating and linking what students learn is part of our role as educators.

We like the fact there are lots of opportunities for interaction between younger and older students. For example, everyone is busy, and the Beasley students are nestled in their campus as are the middle schoolers, but there are opportunities.

For example, the upper school field hockey team will work with the younger kids on their skills, or the upper school Spanish students will come down to the third grade and work with the kids on their pronunciations. Or you might have reading buddies or collaboration with the science students and sharing of their knowledge.

We are coming together as a full community. We do try and take advantage of the full school experience when it's appropriate and not when it isn’t.

Our younger guys look up to the older kids with great pride and admiration, and our older kids like being admired and recognized in their roles of being leaders within the school.

People will say we have an incredibly kind and respectful school community. When visitors come to school, like teaching candidates, they remark how there is no sense of cynicism and there is this warm environment. Students thank their teachers when they walk out of the classroom for the last time.

Students involved with our summer camp Pegasus and work with sports camps for example are able to make great gains. My own son, who is a freshman at Denison University (Ohio) taught younger kids some stick skills, and he was proud of that. And they (our students) even ask me about him today. He was big in their world.

During our homecoming events against John Burroughs, we see that as a whole school event. We have a carnival for children, and for the little guys there are all these games that take place and I love that part of our school.

When I was a candidate for this head position six years ago, I only looked only at junior Kindergarten through 12th grade schools. Before that I taught at the University of Pennsylvania and at the Lawrenceville School, a boarding school in New Jersey.

I taught at a JK through 12th grade school in Minnesota and saw the value of that whole experience. This is the opportunity to build a community across all age groups and one that serves children so well. French was my previous life. I taught French for many years. I don’t get to teach anymore, and I really miss that.

Saturday, Lyle goes into the hiring of teachers at MIDCS, the philosophy behind the development of the whole student and a few more surprises in Part II of this interview.