The Power of a Pause: Lessons from My Study Leave
Photo by Melody Guyton Butts
For three weeks surrounding Durham Academy’s spring break, I had the good fortune of taking a study leave — stepping away from day-to-day school responsibilities and going broader, deeper and slower with my thinking, learning and being. You can read about the Board of Trustees’ rationale for this “mini-sabbatical” at url.da.org/StudyLeave.
Months after returning to campus on April 2, I am still feeling profound gratitude — to the trustees for their creative investment and to my administrative teammates for the ways in which they stepped up in my absence and grew stronger in their leadership.
I started my study leave in Oregon with my aging parents and extended family. I reconnected for two days with a dear friend I’ve known since we were sixth-graders in Albuquerque, New Mexico. On many days, I walked, swam, biked and/or surfed. I wrote a good amount and had patient, overdue conversations with friends, DA alumni and fellow heads of school. I slept full nights.
More than anything else, I read (books and articles) and listened while walking (to books and podcasts). After returning to campus, I shared highlights via X (@MrUlkuSteiner). Below this letter, you’ll find 10 pieces that changed or opened my mind.
It is unrealistic to expect life-changing epiphanies in just three weeks, but I did sense important changes in my mindset — shifts that mirror the ways we are evolving our daily/weekly schedules, curricula and programs at DA.
Having worked steadily (and too often frantically) in schools since 1992, I was most struck by the ways in which spacious time and undistracted attention helped me understand concepts more fully and do deeper work. This matches the gist of our schedule changes in recent years: Our youngest students have fewer transitions and longer periods for literacy and math. Our Middle and Upper Schoolers have fewer and longer classes per day, with fewer but more meaningful homework assignments at night.
Unhurried time can feed and fuel curiosity — an obvious but delightful truth I recognized as my inbox slowed down, my evenings opened up, and my dreams could wander away from crises (real, potential or imagined) at school.
It has been decades since I had even a week to set my own agenda — a realization that reminded me of the gifts we give our students through recess (especially in our upgraded Preschool/Lower School/Extended Day playground); through Genius Time and What Matters to Me Day; through the Middle School’s expanded electives and Student Government opportunities; and at the Upper School through independent studies, the new Pathway Scholars program, and our ADV Research and ADV Thesis courses. You can read more about our enriched academic program in a suite of articles beginning with Associate Head of School Kristen Klein’s excellent piece on page 12.
Most profoundly, a few weeks of distance from our campus sharpened my focus on what matters most in schools. It reminded me how much fun it is to learn for the sake of learning. It confirmed the capacity and goodness of my colleagues on the faculty, staff and Administrative Team — not just for holding down the fort, but for generating ever-better ways to teach, learn and build community. It reinforced that the habit of relentless, connective, broad-minded learning will best serve our students in their unscripted futures.
Michael Ulku-Steiner
Head of School
Connect on X @MrUlkuSteiner
Investing in Meaningful Thinking
by Michael Ulku-Steiner
My framing for the three-week study leave in March was poet Mary Oliver’s simple instructions for life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
I had two free, open, flexible weeks during that period for reading, listening, walking, surfing and more. More than anything else, I read books and articles and listened to audiobooks and podcasts while walking. Here are some highlights that might prove useful to others. I shared them a day at a time for 30 days on my X profile. I hope you find at least a few items of interest there — and welcome your suggestions.
You can see my full study leave learning list, including links to the recommendations listed here, at url.da.org/studyleave24.
3 podcasts that expanded my understanding of leadership:
- Founders
with David Senra
I particularly loved the episodes about Paul Graham, Oprah Winfrey, Winston Churchill, Jay-Z, Will and Ariel Durant, Peter Thiel, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Jesus.
- 'A Low Moment in Higher Education'
Freakonomics Radio episode
An interview with Michael Roth, president of Wesleyan University.
- 'Ecological Hope and Spiritual Evolution'
On Being with Krista Tippett episode
A conversation with Christiana Figueres, international leader on climate action.
3 pieces that helped me think about political polarization and constructive dialogue:
- 'The Curiosity Matrix: 9 Habits'
by Anne-Laure Le Cunff
Article by the founder of Ness Labs and a King’s College London researcher investigating the neuroscience of education.
- 'What It Means to Choose Freedom'
by Bari Weiss
Transcript and video of ‘State of World Jewry' lecture at the 92nd Street Y, published in The Free Press.
- 'Loving Your Enemies'
by Martin Luther King Jr.
Transcript of sermon delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, on Nov. 17, 1957.
3 books I read during my study leave and would be happy to talk about with you:
- Committed
by Elizabeth Gilbert
- Lives of the Stoics
by Ryan Holiday
- The Sellout
by Paul Beatty
1 bonus piece that will likely make you cry with joy:
- The Last Repair Shop
directed by Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers
2024 Academy Award winner, Best Documentary Short Film.