Thank you for publishing this parental tribute to Bob’s great educational leadership at AES.
From my years in India I still remember:

VISION
* Where the vision is one year, cultivate flowers
* Where the vision is ten years, cultivate trees
* Where the vision is eternity, cultivate people

Best wishes for our Global Giving Tree in his well-deserved retirement.

Martijn van Wijngaarden
Holland

Mark Twain also said,

“India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only.”

So by living in the “birthplace of human speech for six years”, I just KNOW you can learn German. We miss you but we’re so happy you are learning and growing in Germany!

Best,

Ty

His speech did coerce me to read Outliers, along with Gladwell’s other books–the core of a genre that is sadly overlooked or dismissed by most students my age.

This effort is a ROI made on technology over the years. This ROI though cannot be measured in numbers, but can be felt in the enthisiasm in the community.

There are many more good things to follow at ASB. Someone has rightly said “If we will do what we have done till now, we will get what we have got..so if we want different results, we have to do different things.” Thats how ASB has always achieved different results. Congratulations.

I have not yet read the book, I intend to as I am sure it will be of interest in the upbringing of my children.
As a parent I agree with you about setting boundaries between educators and students. My husband and I come from very different backgrounds education-wise, although from the same city, simply because he was educated in English and I was educated in French. In his education system the teachers had very clear boundaries with the students which was more conducive to mutual respect. In my education system the boundaries were more blurred, the simple fact that students were encouraged to call teachers by their first name led to the misconception that teachers were our friends, which then led to challenged authority.
While the times have vastly changed since then, I still believe that when teachers become over-friendly with students it is counter-productive to the learning experience of the students. In the case of Facebook, even when being very careful with the settings, there is still some information that students should not have access to regarding their teachers.
I find this similar to the movement in parenting where parents were encouraged to become their children’s friends as opposed to an authority figure… While it is important to cultivate a healthy, respectful relationship with children it is also very important not to forget that as growing young adults they need clear-set boundaries. It is the responsibility of adults to set and maintain these boundaries, whether at home or at school.
There you have it, my 2 cents on the matter… I do look forward to reading more comments on this. Eve