Yes They Can!

With James F. Duffy H’16, Dean of the Middle Division

Adults forget what it’s like to be 12 or 13 years old. Remind us. What are 12- and 13-year-olds like?

Twelve- and 13-year-olds are full of energy. They don’t always think before they do something. Kids this age are curious. And in many cases, they are looking for someone to show them the right way or what direction they should go in. They are looking for guidance. 

What do middle schoolers need?

They need consistency. That’s not unique to St. Benedict’s Prep, that’s everywhere. They need that structure giving them guidelines to work within certain lines and then they can get creative if you allow them to. It’s an age group that frustrates adults everywhere, and the first instinct of adults is to yell at them, which stifles their creativity and curiosity. Allowing middle schoolers parameters that they can operate within — and then when they mess it up — you walk them through the mistake and give them the opportunity to fix it. 

What do Middle Division faculty like about working with seventh and eighth graders?

You can get students on board at this age, whereas, as they get older, buy-in becomes, “That’s not cool and I’m not a child.” Middle schoolers are looking for their own independence, and the potential is tremendous with them. That’s why it’s important to pay attention to that potential. And if they buy in to Benedict’s responsibilities and traditions now, usually you’ve got them through high school. 

There are faculty alums who currently teach or have taught in the Middle Division. What do they bring to the role?

They bring the understanding of Group, Convo and the tradition of, “Don’t do for the student what they can do for themselves.” Alumni come with all of that instilled because they lived it. So, there’s a certain value to it. I’m an honorary alumnus, but I think it has the same value to have me organizing the Middle Division, because I had so much experience with the Prep Division. 

The Middle Division was established in 2017 when St. Benedict’s became a K-12 school. How has the Division, which operated as the Lower Division for many years, grown and evolved? 

A lot of this stuff that we do in the Middle Division with student leadership was not done in the former iteration of the Lower Division. It’s been an intentional process of taking practices and principles from the Prep Division and appropriately applying them to the Middle Division. 

Can you give us some examples?

We now have five Groups in the Middle Division and the Group Leaders do attendance. They are responsible for knowing where students are. We have a Middle Division student who runs lunch, because we’ve identified kids who can slide in and out of different social settings and can get their peers to listen to them. Aniluz, who is lunch manager this year, will count backwards, three, two, one and the entire cafeteria will go quiet. She doesn’t have to raise her voice or use a microphone. Middle schoolers are capable of a lot if you give them guidance and some latitude. 

The Middle Division introduced Assistant Group Leaders to the Group System this year. What was your thinking behind that? 

We decided to have two Assistant Group Leaders in every Group to give middle schoolers two years of progressive experience. Phones are a good example of this. We don’t collect phones in the Middle Division; students are expected to turn them in. Group Leaders are ultimately responsible for making sure every phone is turned in, but the Assistant Group Leader is the one paying attention. 

Classrooms now have shoe racks with 20 to 25 slots where students turn their phones in each day. Each slot has an index card with the kid’s name, like, “Jim Duffy.” If I’m the Assistant Group Leader, all I need to do is open the closet door, see whose phone is missing and say, “Hey Duff, where’s your phone?” If a kid says they didn’t bring their phone to school, the Assistant Group Leader can have that conversation real fast. “Did you really not bring it, or is it in your bag?” So, it’s having Assistant Group Leaders take on those kinds of responsibilities. 

One of my goals for the leaders is to have them plan an event every month. They don’t always reach it, but that’s part of the learning process. The event can be during school hours, like the group that organized a Christmas movie for the Middle Division with hot chocolate, or on the weekend. One group was confounded how to plan a Trunk-or-Treat for Halloween during the week, and they pulled it off on a Friday night in the HAB parking lot. The point is to give them the opportunity and the experience. 

What’s something you don’t do in the Middle Division?

The bonding experiences like The Overnight and The Trail are so critical to freshman year that I don’t want to do anything that looks like, sounds like or feels like those freshman year, rite-of-passage experiences. I know I’ve done a good job when students come back and say, “You never told me. You didn’t warn me.” It needs to be a bonding experience for everybody.  

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Jim Duffy H’16 has served as Dean of the Middle Division since 2017. He joined the St. Benedict’s Prep faculty in 2000, serving as a history teacher, coach, dean and in other roles. Mr. Duffy holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Scranton and has completed work for a
master’s degree in history from Seton Hall University.