An Overview (revisiting the beginning)
Traversing is coming up on its one year anniversary and in honor of that event, I am going to be reposting some of the first issues, as we have a lot of new readers who were not with us in the beginning. These first posts outline the foundation of the blog and the educational philosophies that guide my work and the work of City of Bridges High School.
An Overview
Welcome to the inaugural issue of Traversing!
I thought a lot about how to start this newsletter, the tone that seemed right to take, should it be more narrative or more academic, should I focus on theory or practice or a mix of the two, etc. Inevitable I’ll try some different ways of creating this community and I look forward to your feedback along the way!
This first issues seemed like a good place to begin with something simple and straightforward, my own experience of progressive education. I am not going to dive deep into the literature here, but it is helpful to provide a quick reference. A number of years ago, Tom Little, the long-time head of the Park Day School, spent a year visiting dozens of Progressive schools around the country. As a result of this trip he created a list of key components of Progressive education which he published in a book written with Katherine Ellison book Loving Learning: How Progressive Education can Save America’s Schools
Attention to children’s emotions as well as their intellects.
Reliance on student’s interests to guide their learning.
Curtailment or outright bans on testing, grading and ranking.
Involvement of students in real world endeavors.
The study of topics in an integrated way, from a variety of different disciplines
Support for children to develop a sense of social justice and become active participants in American Democracy.
These components came from Tom Little’s lived experience of spending time in “Progressive Schools” and then building from that an understanding of a way of being in those communities. That process provided insight both into my own history with progressive education and with the process itself that we will be discussing in this growing community. In the coming weeks, I plan on delving into each of these components, but this week I’ll start with my lived experience and the balance of practice and theory.
I grew up in Northampton, Massachusetts and my elementary school years were spent at the Smith College Campus School, the lab school for the Smith College education department. My elementary school experience was full of exploration, experimentation, creation, lots of enthusiasm and a lot of joy. My father, who never enjoyed school, loves to tell a story about taking me out to breakfast to celebrate the last day of school. We sat down at the table and he congratulated me on another school year ending, I thought a moment and then replied, “What is there to celebrate?” My initial experience of school was positive and it was a place that I wanted to be, a place I wanted to spend time. This is a sentiment that I have heard echoed in the students at the high school that I run when breaks or the summer arrives many of them ask if school could just keep going.
When I was in elementary school, I didn’t know that my experience was built around a set of principles or ideas about learning or child development. I just knew that my teachers and the school saw me as a whole person. I knew that I was able to explore interests that I was curious about and that the work that I did felt connected to the world, both the one that I knew and the one that I was learning about in school. I knew that when we learned about history and science, they were interwoven with art and poetry. I knew that graded didn’t matter and I had no idea what a school rank was, the thing that mattered was my excitement about learning and the things that I made that demonstrated that learning. The school experience that I had, supported my own love of learning and helped me to build the knowledge, skills and understanding that I needed in order to chart the path that I wanted to in my life.
My lived experience in a progressive school helped me to know what it felt like to be in a learning environment where I felt valued and where I felt like the work that I was doing had purpose. At that point in time I didn’t have the theory to be able to talk about or transfer that experience into something tangible for others. That changed when I began my M.Ed. at Antioch University New England (incidentally a graduate program without grades or ranking, all of our feedback was narrative) when I began to learn about all of the history, practice and theory that I had experienced in elementary school. I was able to make connections between my own experience of learning in a way that felt right and the ideas and ideals that shaped my elementary school experience. It was the combination of these two elements, experiences and ideas, that brought a rich and deep understanding to my own practice as an educator.
When you ask adults about the ways that they learn people will talk about the same cycle that informs their learning. They have an experience and then they learn about that experience, which informs the next experience, which they then learn about which continues on and on, building knowledge, skills and understanding. This cycle of learning runs counter to the test-based accountability that exemplifies learning structures in many schools, both public and private. The test may shift from the PSSA to the SAT or the AP, but the focus on single point measurement of learning stays the same. Test based accountability asks students to take in a bunch of ideas and then repeat them at a given time on a given day. The cyclical learning is not present when there is a definitive end to the learning.
I suppose what I am suggesting or advocating is that a cycle of learning with experience, reflection and ideas produces meaningful learning that helps people build the knowledge, skills and understanding they need to build their paths in life. In addition, it supports self-agency, civic engagement and joy in learning. In the coming weeks, I’ll use Tom Little’s components to do my best to give that suggestion some legs.
In the meantime, I hope you have a wonderful week.
People, Places and Things
This is a section of the newsletter where I will share people, places and things that have inspired me and taught me valuable lessons about rethinking learning along my journey.
The first place that I would like to start with is Youth Initiative High School in Viroqua, Wisconsin. I am not sure how I first heard about YIHS but in 2015, I co-led a workshop at the AWSNA (Association of Waldorf Schools of North America) Regional conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and met Shawn Lavoie and a number of students from the school. Subsequently my wife and I made the 11-hour drive to visit Viroqua and I spent a couple of days there. During my time there, I was able to see a student centered and justice focused school in action and that practical reality was essential in my own decision to found City of Bridges High School here in Pittsburgh.
Youth Initiative High School was founded in 1996, but a group of high school students who recognized the need for a different type of high school in their community. The school opened with 11 students in a single room, you can read a short history of the school on part way down on the Our Story page on their website. YIHS has a robust curriculum which covers all of the core academic areas and has exceptional arts and theater programs. Youth Initiative High School is Waldorf School and is deeply involved in the community of Viroqua. In addition, the staff and students are incredibly kind and generous. As an example, this past year a number of City of Bridges students talked with YIHS staff about their pandemic winter plans, which led to our adoption of the micropod model that we ended up using.
In all honesty, if YIHS was here in Pittsburgh, I would not have opened City of Bridges High School, I would have just begged them to let me teach at there.
If you are curious about small, caring, student focused schools, Youth Initiative High School should be at the top of your list.