Changing Face: Enduring Values

Piloting 'Harry Potter'

Then occurred an act of chance. In 1962, Robinson's second year at Evanston, Scholastic needed to replace the departing assistant editor of Literacy Cavalcade, a classroom literature magazine. A manager approached Maurice Robinson to ask if he thought his son Dick might be interested in the job. The elder Robinson reportedly said, "Do what you want, but leave me out of it,'" and the offer was made without his involvement. Dick took the job as an opportunity to try something new, without committing himself to a career at the company. "I never thought I would follow in my father's footsteps," he says. "I didn't intend to stay very long." He has, however, stayed nearly forty years. And he says his two years as a teacher had a lot to do with his success as a publisher.

In 1962, Robinson's recent experience of the

public schools made him an extremely useful employee in a company that produced not only children's books, but also, and increasingly, educational materials for classroom use. Robinson knew the company's market intimately. "I arrived here at age 25, in a company populated by people of my father's generation, and I could see that what I knew about schools was important," he says. "I knew I was enjoying the work and that the company needed what I could bring."

Where Is the Student Coming From?

At Evanston, Robinson had discovered that children learn best when they can picture themselves in the world they're supposed to learn about. And he had learned by his own mistakes. "One time I was teaching The Pocket Book of Short Stories," he says, "and one of the stories I assigned was 'Bliss' by Katherine Mansfield, a story about an upper class party taking place in England, in 1920s." One diligent student had read the story with special care, and yet was confused by its theme, the illusory nature of the female protagonist's bliss, undermined by her husband's infidelity. "No wonder," Robinson later thought.

"Appreciating the story required a certain sensitivity to the language, the culture, the mores, the setting," says Robinson, a sensitivity that could hardly be expected of a lower-middle class teenager in suburban Chicago in 1960. "It was the wrong story. The kid was making an intense effort to understand, but we were making it so hard for him. You need to consider, 'Where is the student coming from?'" This lesson has since become a cornerstone of Scholastic's philosophy of education.

Upfront

The 35 magazines Scholastic publishes for use in elementary and high school classrooms across the country treat their topics-whether science, literature, current events or something else entirely-with their readers' ages and frame of reference in mind. A new current events publication, the New York Times Upfront, published jointly with The New York Times Company, exemplifies Scholastic's simple, intuitive method: let the kids teach each other.

The cover story of a

recent Upfront issue, "Eyes Wide Shut," and a companion piece, "The War on Tobacco," report on teenage smoking and the role of some teenagers in the Federal government's battle against cigarette manufacturers. In highlighting teenagers' opinions about smoking and their experience with cigarettes, Upfront informs its readers about an issue of serious public debate, and engages them in it by showing that current events affect them as much as their parents.

The same issue of Upfront includes articles about the effect of the Internet on Chinese culture and politics, gun control in America, job opportunities for teenagers with high-tech skills, and Woodstock '99. Participants in their own education, the 23 million readers of Scholastic magazines are able to see themselves represented in the company's publications.

This ability

to deliver important messages to young people is, for Robinson, as gratifying an achievement as he once thought writing books would be. It is part of Robinson's commitment to developing and implementing innovative methods and solutions to help solve educational problems facing educators, parents, and students, especially in the areas of literacy and citizenship. "The major issue facing parents, teachers, and kids right now is the incredible pressure for grades, performance, even 'extras' that will enable kids to go to colleges of their choice. Too much teaching to the text shortchanges creativity and problem solving. Too much pressure stultifies school growth."

"One measure of success is knowing your work is needed and that it is having an effect," he reflects.

— Eric Gershon '93

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