Sumner McCallie, Faculty Advisory Board Interview

Sumner McCallie is the Dean of Faculty and Curriculum at the McCallie School (TN) and a Faculty Advisory Board member at R.E.A.L.® Discussion. We interviewed Sumner about his path to McCallie and why he believes discussion skills are a cornerstone of McCallie academics and culture.  What follows is a conversation between Sumner and R.E.A.L.® Partnerships and Program Manager Catherine Dragone. This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity. 

Catherine: What is your name and hometown?

Sumner McCallie: I am Sumner McCallie, Dean of Faculty and Curriculum at the McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee,

Catherine: Hi Sumner, we’re so excited to get to talk to you today! I wanted to start by asking about your path to your current position. Tell us about your journey to become the Dean of Faculty and Curriculum at McCallie.

Sumner: I graduated from college and was heading to Vanderbilt Medical School, but I deferred for a year. I’d grown up overseas, mainly in Africa and the Middle East because my dad had been in the Foreign Service, and I felt that I definitely wanted to teach overseas. So I taught for a year in Switzerland, and although I knew it wasn’t a school I was going to stay at, I was really excited about education. I came back to the states and did two years in an Outdoor Adventure camp and loved working with the kids. I decided against medical school, got my Master’s Degree in Education at Vanderbilt, and then came directly to McCallie to teach. I have been here at McCallie for my entire career.

Catherine: Did you start as a classroom teacher?  

Sumner:  I started as an academic counselor actually. We have an extensive Learning Center at McCallie, and if students are struggling with anything they can seek guidance or extra help there.I was in that role for three years. Then I stepped into leading the boarding side, then academic dean, and now Dean of Faculty and Curriculum! 

Catherine: Which education trends are you most excited about right now? 

Sumner: There are many academic trends I could talk about, but one thing that I’ve seen and excites me is the emphasis on social emotional wellness. At McCallie the seniors give chapel talks, and there is a big difference between the talks ten years ago and the talks now in terms of the level of vulnerability and their focus on being mentally healthy. The fact that these students can talk about how they are feeling and share that with the school is just really encouraging and exciting. 

Catherine: How do you see discussion as an important piece of the culture and curriculum at McCallie? 

Sumner: I think it’s different at different ages! In sixth grade, we have students entering McCallie from 32 different schools. For some of these students, it may feel like stepping into an intimidating environment, and we want students to feel comfortable and confident to be themselves. Our sixth grade English curriculum really focuses on that, and uses discussion as a social emotional development tool. The focus is on interacting with others, and that peer-to peer-connection that happens during discussion. 

In the ninth grade, the focus of discussion starts to evolve to be more than just figuring out who the other people in the room are, but also using class readings and materials to understand oneself. The best way to do that is to have conversations that involve more vulnerability.

By 12th grade, which is what I teach, I need them to be doing something with the information we cover in class to move an idea forward. So instead of the emphasis on listening, I need them to be able to build a communal responsible discussion. It’s not just building community in the class, it’s not just discovering who they are, now it’s about  looking outward and trying to make a difference. Students use the discussion as a way of testing out things. They are trying to enter into discussion in different contexts. This is why I love R.E.A.L., it has so many different options for the teachers to say, “because I know my students and what kind of discussion structure they need depending on where they are in their educational path,I’m going to take that structure and emphasize slightly different pieces of it.”

Catherine: What are your specific hopes for students when it comes to discussion? 

Sumner: There is no doubt that we need students to feel that they matter. That’s a foundation. They need to recognize that they have a voice, and that their voice is important, and they need to feel that they can share that voice in any space that they’re in. They also need to recognize that other students have voices, and therefore they need to be thoughtful about hearing and listening to their classmates. I think that that’s the foundational piece: for students to recognize that discussions are not just an academic tool and another way to teach something but also an avenue for them to build up their own confidence and to recognize other people.

I think that that’s the foundational piece: for students to recognize that discussions are not just an academic tool and another way to teach something but also an avenue for them to build up their own confidence and to recognize other people.

Sumner McCallie

Catherine: How would you describe your academic leadership style and your work with adults? 

Sumner: I would say the approach is similar in a sense, in that first, what I’m trying to do for the teachers is exactly what I want them to do for the students, instill in them a confidence that their voice is important, that they are relevant, and what they’re bringing to the space is important. The second is that they’re bringing a specific set of questions that their discipline raises, that students need to be thinking about. I need teachers to be thoughtful about what those questions are and truly ask themselves, what does their discipline care about? What does their discipline ask about? How does that shape the way in which the questions of the course are structured, and therefore how those questions relate to students?  My job is to do two things. First,  to encourage faculty to think about those levels, and second, to get things out of their way that prevent them from taking time to think about those levels. If I were to summarize my approach, it is to make people feel empowered, feel like they have autonomy, and feel like they are proceeding with purpose. 

Catherine: When you think about your work as a trainer with R.E.A.L. what is your approach to working with teachers in that capacity? 

Sumner: With each teacher, I really try to understand why and how R.E.A.L. could be useful to them. There is a common vocabulary to R.E.A.L. and a common conversation that is happening during the training, but the most important part is really listening to teachers explain why those particular skills could be useful for their classroom. So a lot of the training is both listening closely to where teachers are coming from, what they seem to care about, both personally and then for their students, and then working with them to adapt R.E.A.L. to their classrooms and their needs.  

…it is actually a process and a set of skills that students can learn that allows for a deeper understanding of content, but extends so far beyond the classroom and their academics. 

Sumner McCallie

Catherine: To someone who knows nothing about R.E.A.L., what would you tell them about the program and why you joined the advisory board? 

Sumner:  I think frequently teachers come to R.E.A.L. training, and think it is another method of getting academic material across. Although it does help students with content understanding, it is actually a process and a set of skills that students can learn that allows for a deeper understanding of content, but extends so far beyond the classroom and their academics. 

Catherine: Thank you so much for your insights and wisdom, Sumner!