Weekly Message from HOS 2025/10/20-2025/10/24

Dear Keystonians, 

It has been a dynamic week at Keystone. As I write this on Thursday evening, I’ve just returned from a DP music recital. Earlier, I coached the U12 boys football team, and before that, I rushed to the pool to see our elementary students test the boats they built in their Engineering and Emergent Technology class. I was late and missed the action, but their teacher enthusiastically reported that most boats didn’t float well—some, she laughed, even broke in half.  

Why was she so thrilled? Because she knew this “failure” was a catalyst for learning. The students will now return to the drawing board, adjust their designs, and try again. This mirrors what I saw in a third-grade Chinese class this morning, where students tinkered with their compositions about autumn, sought feedback, and celebrated each other’s beautifully crafted sentences.  

What connects the recital, soccer practice, boat building, and writing? The opportunity to fail. The chance to take a risk without a guaranteed outcome. In each of these moments, failure is not just a possibility; it is a necessary step toward deep learning. This is as true on the soccer field as it is on the stage.  

This reminds me of Keystone’s early years when our community wore “Risk Taker” hats. Perhaps we should bring those back! Taking risks isn’t just about finding the right answer; it’s about learning to manage challenge and failure itself. How do we regulate our emotions? How do we support a friend who is struggling? These essential skills are practiced daily across our campus.  

One of the biggest threats to this kind of learning is “snowplow parenting,” a term that gained traction after the 2019 Operation Varsity Blues scandal in the US, where many parents faced prison time for falsifying documents and bribing their children’s way into university.  

While that is an extreme example, the underlying impulse—to clear all obstacles from a child’s path—is understandable. We all want our children to have good lives. However, learning is fundamentally incompatible with an obstacle-free journey. Learning requires obstacles. The kind of education we prioritize at Keystone—one that prepares leaders for China and the world—demands significant challenges. Becoming a resilient, healthy adult requires practice in navigating difficulty.  

So, how can we—as teachers, parents, and classmates—resist the urge to make things too easy? How do we allow for productive struggle?  

I encourage you to reflect on this. For the adults in our community, what challenges have you faced that led to unexpected growth? This could be a wonderful topic for a family conversation this weekend. 

Yours, 

Emily McCarren