Of the 3 handbooks that I analyzed recently, which are from KAS, Harvard-Westlake School at Studio City, CA, and St Paul’s School at Concord, NH, I think that the weakest handbook is the KAS handbook because it had inferior graphics with literary NO graphics inside the handbook itself, and shorter descriptions of each rule. However, shorter description often creates an environment that students will be more engaged to the handbook since they like to read shorter and stronger explanations more. Many people don’t like reading a 5000-word-long explanation on a single topic. In order to let the contents more attractive to students, KAS has tried to shorten its contents however eventually made it weaker than the other 2 handbooks. What makes it even weaker is that there are literary no graphics inside, making it less engaging to students. What I could do if I am the principal is to completely redesign the handbook to make it more appealing to students and even faculties. A thinner handbook with less rules has enabled students a more open way to learn in KAS. With more freedom in the learning process, students can have better creativity while doing projects, without any restrictions.

The other 2 handbooks that I looked through contain much detailed however it is heavier and thicker than the KAS handbook. They have some graphics in it but aren’t enough compared to the annual reports. The KAS Annual Report, also given each year but when a school year ends, has much more pictures and graphics that are more appealing to the readers. That is why I liked the 2 handbooks better than the KAS handbook, especially the St Paul’s School handbook. It has more vivid colors than the Harvard-Westlake School handbook, which prints in black and white just like the KAS handbook. Different fonts are used in the SPS handbook, making it a better-designed handbook than the KAS Handbook, which only uses Times New Roman as its font. 

      

Some relationships of the 3 handbooks include the inclusion of an academic honesty policy and outcomes of academic dishonesty, SAT testings, community service requirements, a diverse community as well as computer usages in daily life; while differences include an exclusion of IB diploma programs and testings in Harvard-Westlake and St Paul’s School, residential school status in both Harvard-Westlake and St Paul’s School, and religious beliefs exclusively to the St Paul’s School. Harvard-Westlake School also provides an app for a seamless integration of student ID card to your mobile phone! That is so cool and this had never happened inside Taiwan! (According to news sources, now we can integrate iPass cards into Line Pay. Why can’t we do so inside KAS?)

There is one last thing. Handbooks always show the moral of the school and we can “feel” it while reading it. It could also let students and parents decide whether to enroll in that school or not. However, I don’t like the fact that a new handbook is published every year, which wastes a lot of paper and recipients are just going to read them once before throwing them away or store them, as I did before. Some people will just throw them away without even taking a look at it! I would prefer switching the print handbooks to ebooks so it can last forever on the Internet without generating any wastes.

Links to handbooks used

KAS: http://www.kas.tw/?wpfb_dl=533

Harvard-Westlake: http://www.hw.com/pdf/us_handbook_2017-2018.pdf

St Paul’s School: https://millville.sps.edu/allaccess/documents/deanofstudents/spshandbook.pdf?201709070232