SAES NOTES - DECEMBER 2024 | |
Aeronautical Engineering and the Jesus Nut
My son is an officer in the US Air Force, and we recently enjoyed celebrating his graduation from helicopter flight school. (Shoutout to all the great educators and coaches at St. Francis Houston, St. George San Antonio, and TMI Episcopal for the exceptional preparation!)
As part of the full graduation experience, we had the chance to try flying a helicopter (virtually) in a full-scale, high-tech VR simulator. (Spoiler alert: turns out that flying something that is perpetually and actively trying to crash itself is amazingly complex and difficult, demanding extraordinarily high levels of skill, coordination, concentration, knowledge, attention to detail, and communication. Not surprisingly, I failed spectacularly.)
Another part of the graduation experience included an opportunity to climb aboard and on top of a helicopter, where my son proceeded to brief me on the engineering and physics behind rotary flight. This is where I was introduced to the functionality of components like rotor discs, swash plates, control rods, pitch links, cyclics, collectives, and hydraulic actuators valves. After this impromptu “Rotary Aeronautical Engineering for Dummies” session, my son pointed to this unassuming doodad and asked me, “Do you know what they call this?”
|
“Is that the fetzer valve?” I replied, my head still spinning and thumping from the science lesson like the rotors of a helicopter.
“Uh, no. That is the Jesus nut,” my son explained because that is the one thing that keeps the blades firmly connected so the aircraft can continue to fly. Without a properly installed and tightened Jesus nut, nothing else can work as designed. The blades would spin out of control and fly off the mast, and the result would be certain death and destruction. They call it the Jesus nut because it is what holds everything together and saves us from certain death. I later learned from my friend WikiPedia that this term has also been more generically applied in engineering circles to include any single component whose failure would cause catastrophic failure of the entire system.
Just as a helicopter, even in the hands of a well-trained and highly skilled pilot, would certainly crash and burn without this Jesus nut at the top holding things together, I submit that we all need Jesus in our lives to keep us from spinning out of control and ending in fiery demise. Piloting ourselves, our communities, and our families through the turbulence of life will demand extraordinarily high levels of skill, coordination, concentration, knowledge, attention to detail, and communication. But no matter how skilled we think we may be, we cannot function as designed without a Jesus nut. Therefore, as we fly through this Advent and Christmas season, let us prepare and give thanks for the one who holds us all together and saves us from catastrophic failure and certain destruction, ensuring that we can fly as designed. Better yet, maybe we should let Jesus be the pilot and the nut.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 (NIV)
LGLO
| |
Selected Resources for Reflection, Learning, and Growth | |
The SUMMA Theological Debate Summer Camp brings together high school students from across the country to one of the largest and most beautiful college campuses anywhere – the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. By exploring life’s biggest questions through theological debate, we broaden students’ understanding of Christianity and its enduring power to speak the truth in love. Contact us at summa.sewanee.edu with any questions. Admissions Video.
How to Handle Defensiveness
“Someone says something that hits a nerve, and before you know it, you’re on the defensive. Defensiveness is a normal reaction. But it can quickly escalate arguments and make things worse. Good news: there’s a better way to handle it.”
Helping Kids Spot Misinformation and Disinformation
“A lot of news media and social media content is designed to grab our attention and keep us engaged. And whether we're getting our news from a TV network, TikTok, or YouTube, it can be hard to tell what's accurate these days. Knowing that the news we consume can be biased, misreported, or even fake, it's crucial that all of us—especially young people—learn to decode the information we encounter.”
How the Ivy League Broke America
“...we’re all trapped in a system that was built on a series of ideological assumptions that were accepted 70 or 80 years ago but that now look shaky or just plain wrong. The six deadly sins of the meritocracy have become pretty obvious….”
Becoming Future Ready
“It’s really difficult to feel grounded in this world of constant and rapid change. Instead of anticipating the future, we react to change (often too late) or we give into uncertainty (and anxiety) and do nothing. There is another way forward: we can prepare and be ready.”
Overcoming Adversity
“From the research and experience of Charney and others, there is a growing consensus on what it takes to survive the major and minor insults life throws our way, whether a childhood of racial discrimination or poverty and deprivation, an intimate betrayal, a crippling accident, an earthquake, the death of a comrade in your arms, or a direct assault on your life.”
Cultivating Deep Thinking and a Democratic Learning Community
“Children must learn how to construct learning communities in which participants take each other’s ideas seriously, grow knowledge, and solve problems together so they are not dependent on the teacher to arrange such communities for them.”
The Atlantic 10: The books that made us think the most this year
“Which stories this year brought unexpected clarity to the subjects that most confounded our understanding? Which of them opened up new, enlivening ways of thinking about things we only thought we knew? It can come through an adventure story that reimagines an American classic, or from dogged reporting on systemic failures that lead to foreseeable catastrophes. The feature that distinguishes all of these titles—or any book worth cherishing—is the surprising experience of reading them.”
Strategies for Managing Endowments in Independent Schools (Webinar from Forvis Mazars) “Join us for an informative webinar to learn about the nuances related to endowments within the independent school sector. We'll also discuss an in-depth analysis of the footnote disclosures and accounting related to endowments.”
| |
Around the Association
Trinity Episcopal School
Austin, TX
Celebrates 25 Years!
| |
|
Virtual Learning Opportunities
| |
Managing Tears and Tempers in Middle School Using Calm Corners
January 23, 2024
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm CST
A Calm Corner can be a useful strategy for Tier 1 interventions at every level, K-12th. Come discover how to create, cultivate, and promote a space for students to self-soothe, learn to regulate big emotions, and realize that it truly is okay not to be okay. For students who are initially afraid to engage with school counselors, these spaces meet them on their terms and help them find their voice to build trust at school.
REGISTER NOW
| |
Navigating Workplace Conflict: How to Have More Influence, Less Drama, and Better Collaboration
January 29, 2025
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm CST
Master any workplace conflict with confidence and ease, have less drama, better results, and thrive at work. When there are problems to solve, and people who care (and there are so many things to care about), you’ll face conflict. And if you want to have more success, influence, and joy in your work, you’ve got to navigate it well. But conflict is hard. You weren’t born knowing the perfect words to say when you’re angry, dealing with a jerk, or when someone calls your game-changing idea “stupid.” You’ll leave with the courage, confidence, and competence to navigate even the trickiest conflict scenarios and build better, lasting collaboration. You will learn 1) Research-based reasons why conflict is so hard now-- and inspiration to have the conversation you would rather avoid. 2) The 4 Cs of more productive conflict and how to apply them to even the most challenging scenarios. 3) 12 Powerful Phrases for navigating any workplace conflict. 4) Practical techniques and tools to foster deeper trust and collaboration.
REGISTER NOW
| |
I write this article while traveling home from our most recent SAES On-Site Accreditation Visit. SAES has led three On-Site Visits so far this school year, with teams that included representatives from fifteen different SAES schools. Each of these team members generously volunteered time and professional expertise to assist another SAES member school in the accreditation process. Next semester another four schools will host On-Site Visits, and each of those schools will also benefit from the insights and wisdom of heads, administrators, and teachers of fellow SAES schools. I am blessed in my position to participate in each of these visits, and I come away from each impressed by and grateful to the team members who leave their schools and families to immerse themselves in the culture and operations of another school and offer recommendations for how the host school can continue to grow and become the best school it can be.
Next month I will, once again, be asking SAES Heads of School to volunteer themselves or nominate leaders from their school to serve as Visiting Team Members during the 2025-26 school year. Serving on a team or sending someone from your school to serve on a team is a tremendous opportunity for professional development and I hope that when you receive the nomination form you will thoughtfully consider whose name you can offer me as a potential team member!
Chris Carter
| |
SAES SOLUTION PARTNER HIGHLIGHT | |
Community | Faith | Integrity | Leadership | Support
The mission of the Southwestern Association of Episcopal Schools is to lead, nurture, and unify Episcopal schools in order to advance academic excellence within the faith community of the Episcopal Church.
| | | | |