This academic year, Dr. Pamela Greenblatt transitioned from her position as Head of the Lower School to become the Assistant Head of School for Academics, joining Haverford’s administrative team. The role was created to ensure alignment in the academic programs across the school’s three divisions.
Dr. Greenblatt explained that the purpose of her new role is “to ensure that the three divisions have one academic vision and that we are aligning the skills, competencies, and characteristics we want students to have when they graduate [from Haverford].”
The academic span of a K-12 school is wide, but a student’s experiences in Lower and Middle school impact their Upper School experience.
“It’s like building a house. An Upper School experience is like the roof on a house.”
Dr. Pamela Greenblatt
“It’s like building a house. An Upper School experience is like the roof on a house. Once there is a roof on the house, it’s ready to be occupied and used [to its fullest]. In this scenario, the lower school experience is the foundation — from the social-emotional skills, math, reading, and writing skills to the beginnings of higher level thinking,” Dr. Greenblatt said.
“If the Lower School is setting the foundation, then the Middle School needs to build upon that, expanding higher level thinking skills [along with] executive functioning skills, that is, the ability to hold an idea, do something with that idea, pull information from multiple sources and create something new from it.”
For Dr. Greenblatt, this new role embodies many of the things that interest her most about schools. It also offers her the ability to support faculty. In addition to the academic oversight aspect of the role, Dr. Greenblatt’s new position also encompasses the Dean of Faculty role, formerly held by Ms. Sara Adkins, who retired at the end of last year.
“[The Dean of Faculty role] has a real natural tie into the curriculum and helps to support the instruction being provided to students. There is an inherent connection between the two sides of this role,” Dr. Greenblatt said.
“We can create an environment that’s structured and nurturing in the way that benefits boys and creates opportunities where boys get to be vulnerable.”
Dr. Pamela Greenblatt
“I think we have an incredible faculty here and it is a privilege to work alongside all of them; this is my eleventh year here, so I know a lot of the faculty already and get to now build upon that.”
Dr. Greenblatt is thoughtful about her role within a school dedicated to the education of boys.
“We can create an environment that’s structured and nurturing in the way that benefits boys and creates opportunities where boys get to be vulnerable,” Dr. Greenblatt said. “And I think that that is so important for boys, especially now, when the world is changing and challenging men in a different way.”
In this era of ever-evolving technology, there is renewed focus on curriculum and many wonder what the biggest priorities for a school curriculum should be.
“For everything that changes in the world around us, there are some core things that I think [are important]. AI certainly is going to challenge students: it’s going to change industries and the world around us. We’re already seeing that,” Dr. Greenblatt said. “But I think the thing that is really important as the world changes is grounding kids in core virtues. And I think that’s what’s so incredible about Haverford is we have these core virtues and no matter what happens in the world around us if we can embody those we can respond to changes in healthy ways.”
