The Gurian Center for Educational Excellence at Crespi Carmelite High School

“The science behind the strategies and techniques that Dr. Michael Gurian has studied over the past 30+ of years has been interwoven into the Crespi experience.  A Crespi Man is a lifelong learner, and the Gurian Institute Center for Educational Excellence allows all faculty, staff, and administration to engage in the practice of creating and sharing knowledge about the value of developmental neuroscience in how we educate and learn. Our collaboration with Dr. Gurian and ongoing professional development enables us to stay at the cutting edge of single-gender, all-boy education.”

    –-Dr. Kenneth Foersch, President, Crespi Carmelite High School

In 2022, the newest Gurian Institute (GI) Regional Center for Educational Excellence was born at Crespi Carmelite High School (Crespi) in Encino, California.  Serving the whole Los Angeles area, as well as students from overseas, Crespi embodies generations of educational excellence.  It became the Gurian Institute’s first Model School in 2005.  It is now a Gurian Institute Center for Excellence!

To read the Gurian Institute’s 2023 analysis of Crespi’s holistic approach to boys, click here: https://gurianinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/crespiwhitepaperdraft.3.24.23.pdf

About the ongoing Gurian Institute and Crespi partnership from which the new Center emerged, Rob Kodama says, “We have embraced the Gurian Institute and it has enhanced our school in numerous ways.  As the Director of Admissions, Marketing, and Public Relations, I can report that The Gurian Institute team has helped us rise above our competing schools. We have come to the forefront of educating boys in the Los Angeles area.”

This collaboration, over the last seventeen years, led to the development of The Center at Crespi Carmelite, whose mission statement is:  “To build men of character and faith unified in brotherhood and formed through a contemporary, Catholic, college preparatory education in the Carmelite tradition of prayer, community, and service.”

The school’s vision statement echoes this approach:   “To be a dynamic learning community where tradition and innovation prepare Crespi Men for success in all facets of life.”

Crespi provides a much needed rite-of-passage, over a four year period, in which boys move forward to becoming empathic, discerning, and successful men.

“If you believe boys and girls are wired differently,” Crespi’s admissions statement reads, “then Crespi is for you.”  Crespi takes this very seriously, and this is where the Gurian Institute has been helpful.  Layering its own Catholic vision of male development with our science-based approach,  Crespi provides academic rigor, athletic accomplishment, social-emotional growth, and personal development for each boy in its care.

The GI Center for Excellence at Crespi

A Gurian Institute Center for Excellence is a partnership between a school/ organization and GI to bring boy and girl friendly education (including the whole gender spectrum) into a region.  In this case, the new Center at Crespi serves the Los Angeles area with access to programming and resources that can help schools, organizations, parents, and community members to serve the needs of the children in their care.

With the Center up and running at Crespi, schools and others in the community have regional access to services and products that can help them.   Crespi Certified and Master Trainers can visit the schools to provide programs.  Michael Gurian and the rest of the larger Gurian Institute are also available to the community through the Center.  If you would like to look at using the Center’s, Crespi’s, or GI’s services, please contact rkodama@crespi.org or info@gurianinstitute.com.

Here’s More About the Crespi Way

Here’s more about Crespi from the school’s literature.

At Crespi Carmelite High School, pursuing an ethical and moral life is a key component in the process of becoming a Crespi Man. As faculty, staff, parents, students, and board members, we all call ourselves Celts.  As such, we each bear a responsibility for not only modeling persistence, grit, and high standards, but also for building Crespi’s reputation as an academic institution.

Holding ourselves to a high standard of ethical behavior while also looking out for each other is the Crespi Way. This means we nurture an environment of mutual respect. Celts are leaders who do not harass, harm, or take advantage of members of the community at large. Celts are role models, even when no one is watching. Celts also understand that circumventing the learning process leads to negative long-term consequences and are therefore persistent in their efforts to reach their goals. Celts understand that when their backs are up against the wall, and are presented with a challenging opportunity, that it is that moment that true growth happens. Essentially, striving for our best is the Crespi Way.

There is a special bond that binds all members of the Crespi Family. We are all called to strive for fairness and honesty in our dealings with others, to hold ourselves to high moral standards, to treat everyone with respect, and strive for excellence in everything we do as Celts. By doing this, we create a school we can all be proud of and serve as a model for others.

The Crespi Man Is…

As a moral and spiritual person, the Crespi Man understands the Catholic Christian tradition as applied to personal formation and world events; is committed to living an ethical life as reflected through the holy Gospels; zealously pursues a relationship with God using prayer, reflection and study as modeled through the 800 year Carmelite tradition; recognizes and respects the personal gifts, diversity and dignity of all people.

As a lifelong learner, the Crespi Man uses logical, analytical, and creative thinking skills; uses appropriate, accurate, effective and creative language to express himself; uses current strategies and technologies to solve problems and extend his knowledge; applies his learning across the curriculum and real-life situations; engages intellectual curiosity.

As a productive and mature person, the Crespi Man strives to enhance and maintain physical, mental and emotional well-being; appreciates the arts and explores his individual creativity; accepts challenges in order to grow and takes responsibility for his actions; develops social skills to form life-long relationships; understands and participates in the democratic process; improves the community through his commitment to service and social justice.

CJ Kruska, Crespi Teacher’s Statement on Crespi Learning and Life

CJ Kruska is Crespi’s newest Gurian Certified Trainer (joining Dr. Alan Swaney, Mr. Rob Kodama, and Mr. Daniel Parlato).  Because this Trainer Application Statement provides an in depth portrait of the quality of staff and education at Crespi (as well as strategies that work and don’t work with boys), we are publishing it here.

From Mr. CJ Kruska:

Even before joining the Crespi Carmelite High School community last summer, I was aware of the Gurian Institute and Dr. Gurian’s research and instructional strategies for boys and girls. As an elementary school principal, I had my staff attend a professional development event with Mr. Robert Kodama as the Gurian Certified Trainer. It sparked many conversations among our school’s staff.

I have spent over 20 years as an educator in a classroom and on the field. As a head football coach, I was responsible for teaching, training, and motivating players. My goal was to join them on their journey to become the best football player they can be, and to become an even better young man. It was very challenging at times because I was trained to coach in a certain way that was not the most effective when considering the learning styles of the boys. If I had the Gurian training at the beginning of my coaching career, I might not have felt the burnout and left coaching. Some of the struggles included raising my voice (in anger at times) and challenging them; which only resulted in confrontation without learning. Another struggle was expecting the players would understand schemes and scouting reports that were heavily explained through words (in “chalk-talk” classrooms), rather than walkthroughs on the field. Film study was probably the worst as most players would be completely zoned out after about 20 minutes, and then they would get in trouble for not paying attention. It was exhausting coaching my players without the knowledge of the Gurian Institute.

About 10 years ago I redirected my main focus from coaching into the classroom, and then to school administration. Teaching was frustrating for me due the same reasons mentioned above, but I had more control in a classroom environment. It was when I began teaching Psychology that I began to focus more on the meta-cognition of my students. I was teaching my students how they personally learn themselves, and that is when I began to see that the way many teachers, including me, were teaching was inefficient and more challenging than it should be. I did not have the Gurian Institute’s training yet, but I was beginning to look for better ways to be a better teacher and leader.

Covid was difficult on all of us and my own son really struggled. He was not a pleasant person to be with and my wife and I were desperately looking for some ways to help him cope. After listening to Mr. Kodama’s presentation and after reading Dr. Gurian’s book Boys And Girls Learn Differently, I began to see some clarity and hope. Since parents are the primary educators of our children, I began communicating with my son differently (more listening, less talking, and more doing together). His anxiety dropped almost immediately and my wife and I were seeing our son begin to smile and laugh again. I have taken what I learned from my interactions with my own son to the classroom at Crespi, and the boys seem to be benefiting from a more Gurian approach to learning.

It has been challenging at times as I made the return to the classroom and to a single sex school like Crespi. However, with the multiple Gurian Institute’s trainings (with Mr. Kodama a few years ago and the Summer Institute last summer) and the experience with my son, the transition would not have been as smooth as it was.

Here are just some strategies I have already begun instituting based on Dr. Gurian’s research in our classroom; no lectures longer than 10-12 minutes (with a timer the boys can see), clear agendas displayed for the entire class period, students “stand and deliver” when answering questions or reading to the class, mini-games (cup stacking, spoon flip, cereal box puzzles, etc.) halfway through the period with the winner getting to sit in the comfy sofa chair for the rest of class, lesson notes available in advance, classroom desk set-up with two sides for quick competitions, stress ball toss for vocabulary reviews, very little computer screen time, etc. I believe these have been successful strategies as many of the boys still hang out in my classroom through lunch because the environment is a comfortable and boy-friendly space.

Not all of the strategies worked, like when I asked the students to race down the hallway for extra credit points on a quiz (What was I thinking?!), but I am willing to try and fail if it will help the boys. As a Gurian Trainer, I would be able to share my success and learning experiences with others that are looking to improve their ability to communicate with the boys in their life as a parent, teacher, coach, etc. Please consider me as a candidate to become a Gurian Certified Trainer, so I can help improve the success of the boys as they become young men, fathers and leaders in their communities.

Contact the Gurian Institute at info@gurianinstitute.com for information on how a professional development plan can be designed to meet the needs of your organization and the families you serve.