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Leadership
Lise's Lens
Lise's Lens: September 11, 2025
This week I am reading a NYT interview with Brené Brown, thinking about how engaged and enthusiastic our students are, and watching our boarders perform fractured fairytales.
WHAT I'M READING
NYT Interview with Brené Brown.This past weekend I read a great Q&A with Brené Brown in the NYT around her upcoming book (to be released in October). To be honest, I’m not her most faithful follower in terms of reading everything she puts out but I have tremendous respect for her and her work. The content of this particular interview resonated so much with me and the context of what we are living in and also regarding the work force that I thought I should share that it’s truly worth the read. The interview also helped me find the word I’ve been looking for — the one that captures the incredible changes we are living in and experiencing. Apparently NYC Professor Amy Webb has called it: a “supercycle” of unprecedented change.
In the interview, Brené also cites the work of Harvard Business School Professor Linda Hill, a CSW parent from the Class of 2020!
WHAT I'M THINKING ABOUT
Student engagement.I’m thinking about the incredible desire and commitment so many students have to organize affinity, alliance, and interest groups here at CSW. While so many people in our society seem to underestimate or criticize our youth, I have the privilege of witnessing their enthusiastic engagement. This is something that the CSW culture fosters and supports, both by building specific time into the day for students to meet, and by providing adult support as needed. We also have a whole department dedicated to training and coaching our leaders, and offering support if and when they encounter challenges. In a world where so many young people feel disenfranchised, we have so many opportunities for agency, and I’m really proud of that!
WHAT I'M WATCHING/LISTENING TO
Fractured Fairytales.
On Sunday evening I watched the boarding community perform their “Fractured Fairy Tales,” a longstanding CSW tradition in which students write and perform skits based on popular movies and fairytales — all with a CSW twist. Skits are judged on a variety of criteria and the grand winner gets the honor of displaying “the stick,” a special totem engraved with the letters VRIC (Voice, Respect, Integrity, and Community) into their dorm common room. It never ceases to amaze me how a group of students, some new to CSW and others new to the dorm, can be given a performance assignment on Friday evening and perform it so creatively and well by Sunday evening. And they only have a limited amount of time to practice! This year Trapelo chose Megamind, Warren, Ratatouille, Aleph, The Incredibles, and Barn, Tangled.
On Sunday evening I watched the boarding community perform their “Fractured Fairy Tales,” a longstanding CSW tradition in which students write and perform skits based on popular movies and fairytales — all with a CSW twist. Skits are judged on a variety of criteria and the grand winner gets the honor of displaying “the stick,” a special totem engraved with the letters VRIC (Voice, Respect, Integrity, and Community) into their dorm common room. It never ceases to amaze me how a group of students, some new to CSW and others new to the dorm, can be given a performance assignment on Friday evening and perform it so creatively and well by Sunday evening. And they only have a limited amount of time to practice! This year Trapelo chose Megamind, Warren, Ratatouille, Aleph, The Incredibles, and Barn, Tangled.
WHAT CAUGHT MY EYE
Here's a look at the winners of this year's Fractured Fairytales competition: Warren Dorm, with their special CSW spin on Ratatouille.
CSW—a gender-inclusive day and boarding school for grades 9-12—is a national leader in progressive education. We live out our values of inquiry-based learning, student agency, and embracing diverse perspectives in every aspect of our student experience. Young people come to CSW to learn how to learn and then put what they learn into action—essential skills they carry into their futures as doers, makers, innovators, leaders, and exceptional humans who do meaningful work in the world.