This document summarizes an article about Bay Area Charter School and its science teacher, Mrs. Bondy. The school focuses on teaching students to be responsible members of their community and world through group-based learning and emphasizing cooperation over competition. Mrs. Bondy teaches her students to think of themselves as part of a "we" rather than only focusing on "me." She believes this helps students learn empathy, compassion, and social awareness. Her own experience with cancer was a lesson to students in empathy. The school aims to cultivate graduates who will make positive contributions to society.

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2. ACTIVISM | Higher Ground
At Bay Area Charter
School, raising Lessons Learned
for Life
responsible adults
begins with focusing
on “we” instead of “me.”
By Katherine Adams
Photography by
I n a world that is becoming more and more
competitive, it’s a daunting task to remind the
younger generation that winning isn’t just about who
to preparing considerate, sensitive future adults to
enter the business world as it is for them to master
academic skills. No one wants to work with an em-
Toman Imagery
has the most toys. Children must learn to go forward ployee who cannot control his emotional outbursts,
into adulthood with compassion and a sense of re- nor can such a person hope to advance in his career.
sponsibility. When a small child learns that donating Making this point is a daily priority for Mrs.
his outgrown toys or clothing is as natural as saying Bondy, as she puts her arm around student Travis
“please” and “thank you,” then the foundation is set Villarreal, a junior. He returns her hug. “This boy
for him to become an adult with integrity, empathy, Travis here, I learned to love him. He used to irritate
and generosity of both spirit and finance. me to death!” she says. “He came in at first, very
Today’s teachers are expected to educate kids to angry and self-centered. We have learned to be bud-
be the kind of winners who have learned with their dies because he finally understands I am here to be
heads as well as their hearts. Recent high school with him, not put up with his shenanigans. So now
graduates are finding that colleges and businesses we have settled with each other, and I see how much
are on alert to seek out students who display social he has matured.”
awareness and academic achievement. The world Mrs. Bondy’s calming, settling effect is evident
needs socially responsible people to run its corpora- in her class, which is busy working in groups on a
tions and be the leaders of future generations. But project. Every student is out of his seat, but no one
how can schools be equal to a task such as this? Bay is off-task, and each student is cooperating within his
Area Charter School in League City is taking this or her group. Students compliment each other on
challenge very seriously. their projects. “Kids must learn to calm themselves
within their groups and redirect themselves. I always
The first step: Take “me” out of the classroom tell them that whatever it is, this too, shall pass.
Indian-born Mrs. Madhuri Bondyopadhyay came Everything has a solution. You can’t be everyone’s
to teach science at Bay Area Charter School (also enemy. You must make the effort to find someone
known as Ed White Memorial High School) eight
years ago. No one could pronounce her name, so
students immediately christened her “Mrs. Bondy.”
Still, some kids are really in a hurry to get her atten- The Superintendent’s Speculations
tion, so occasionally they forget the “Mrs.” and just
call her “Bondy.” Whatever she’s called, her students
The Charter School’s mission is to teach stu-
certainly have heard her opinions about how they dents through project-based lessons driven
should conduct themselves. by the students. “We think this group-oriented
“Books are not enough to make the world a good approach helps students to care more about
place,” says Mrs. Bondy. “More than anything, kids each other. We’re cultivating empathy versus
are desperate to fit in, but they are angry about their sympathy,” says Bay Area Charter School Su-
disappointments in life. They cannot go forward perintendent Dr. Rosalind Perez.
top: Ryan Olivares spent all period on
like this. I teach them that when they enter a public Developing a sense of community awareness
his t-shirt creation and happily shows it place, it’s not about ‘me’ anymore. Everything is too is at the core of the school’s philosophy. “Every
to his fellow Pi Day celebrants. Bottom:
Mrs. Bondy gives a thumbs up for the
much about me, me, me. They must understand student has a contribution to make. We look at
day’s mathematics/creativity lesson. they have to be part of a group.” She says that help- what each individual has to offer, and then cre-
ing students control their feelings is as important ate an opportunity for them to offer it.”
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3. vISIT “May I never get too busy in my own affairs “Unless someone like you cares a
www.goodhabitsgoodstudents.com that I fail to respond to the needs of others whole awful lot, nothing is going
with kindness and compassion.” to get better. It’s not.”
for tips and anecdotes
-THoMAS JEFFERSon -dR. SEUSS
“When she’s mad, you’ll know it ‘cause she holds
her head and goes, Ayyaaaaaah!” says one student.
“Yeah, but you know she’s really mad when she
goes, “One Mississippi…” says another. “Or she of-
fers us a free trip to the moon.” Occasional aggrava-
tions notwithstanding, the students in Mrs. Bondy’s
class seem to be hearing the message. “I learned that
there needs to be more politeness in the world,” says
Travis. “I’m learning that I’m part of the school and
part of the world.”
an unlikely teaching tool
About five years ago, Mrs. Bondy received a breast
cancer diagnosis. “That really changed my teaching,”
Group work and collaboration make learning easier and help students get to know one another –
which is important to Ta’Shea Callis, Alexandria Simmons and Zoe Walcott. It’s also an important
she says. “I always told my students to remember
part of Bay Area Charter School’s philosophy of education. that this, too, shall pass. Sometimes we get names
that are not our names, but we get past it. I got the
who is your friend, and if you can’t, then your friend can be just your- name “cancer patient” but I got past it. Now I have the name “cancer
self,” she explains. “When they come into the class on the first day, I tell survivor.” She recalls that when she was ill, she came to school and
them, don’t say, This work is too hard for me. It is my class policy to say, fainted a few times. “I would black out and the kids would help me. My
We are going to learn this together, Mrs. Bondy and I. There is no ‘just students told me to sit. I never liked sitting. This was really challeng-
me’ here. There is only ‘us.’” ing. All my students figured out how to help me through. We talked
about everything.” She adds that together, they learned all about cancer
Teachable moments, bondy style and about the drugs she had to take. “The drugs were terrible, and we
A textbook definition of a “teachable moment” is, an unplanned oppor- talked about how all drugs had the potential to be very destructive,” she
tunity that arises with an ideal chance to offer insight. Mrs. Bondy would says. “My cancer was a teachable moment for everyone.” And certainly,
agree, but she takes this one step further. “For me, it’s when I see a kid her cancer was a lesson in empathy and compassion that none of her
at the moment he realizes that he is the learner and I am just a conduit. students will ever forget. She did say that books are not enough to make
When they have taken that responsibility for themselves – now that is the world a good place, didn’t she?
what I would call a teachable moment.”
She adds that this is the result of the culture of “us” instead of “me” Final step: Going forward…looking back
that she has carefully established in her classroom. “I ask the kids, what Part of going forward is looking back. “I know that my involvement
is their role in this school? It’s the same here as out in the world. There with my students has caused them a lot of irritation, because I call their
has to be at least one good person, and that maybe they are that person. parents and I check up on them,” says Mrs. Bondy. “Right now, maybe
I say to them, what did you do to be responsible for yourself here?” She they think I am getting on their nerves. But after that has passed, and
feels that when kids are shown a different way of seeing their role in they come back after graduation, they tell me they would not have made
their own education, they will be empowered as adults to see how con- it without being shown how to go about in the world. They must walk
nected they are to what happens in their own community. “I’m always as a group and help each other.”
trying to see how they figure into the equation. Why care about the Most of the students in her science class see themselves as active
world? Because they are part of it.” participants in their communities after graduation. “People are too blind
The students seem to agree. “I like that we do so much group work. and they’re not speaking up about what is going on in the world,”
It makes us more social and it makes us meet everyone, which I didn’t says junior Donovan Campbell. “The whole idea of our country is to
do in my old school,” says junior Canaan Curran. “We learn to discuss question it and fix it if we think it should be. So that’s what we should
everything. That’s not how it was at my old school.” Senior Ryan Oliva- be doing. We should be questioning and fixing.” Perhaps at least some
res agrees. “At the beginning of class, we write our goals and think about of our future business leaders and governors are getting the message.
what we want to accomplish,” he explains. “Mrs. Bondy gets frustrated According to Mrs. Bondy, the lesson is pretty simple: It’s not a “me”
with us sometimes, though.” The students all chime in on this one. world. It’s a “we” world.
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