SPARC Book Club - "The Well-Educated Child"

The SPARC Book Club brings members together around timely ideas that stretch our thinking, strengthen our leadership, and help us connect the day-to-day work of summer and auxiliary programs to the larger educational mission of our schools.  It is also a casual way to connect with our auxiliary and summer programs colleagues!

For 2026–27, we will offer three SPARC Book Club selections connected by a simple progression:

Purpose • Experience • Leadership

FALL: PURPOSE

The Well-Educated Child — Deborah Kenny

What does it really mean to educate a young person well and what role do summer and auxiliary programs play in that education?

Deborah Kenny challenges traditional measures of educational success and proposes a broader vision centered on quality thinking, agency, and ethical purpose. Her ideas provide a compelling lens through which auxiliary leaders can examine the experiences we create outside the traditional classroom.

Summer, after-school, enrichment, travel, arts, athletics, leadership programs, and student employment offer young people opportunities to make choices, solve problems, develop independence, collaborate, take appropriate risks, discover interests, and contribute to a community.

SPARC Discussion Query:

What if auxiliary programs are not just adjacent to the educational mission, but some of the most powerful places where that mission comes alive?

Participants will consider how we can more intentionally design for outcomes such as agency, curiosity, confidence, belonging, and purpose and how we can better articulate that value to families and school leadership.

Check out our Book Club page to see what else we'll be diving into and to see our list of past reads.