Looking Back and Looking Forward
Welcome to this issue of Traversing, as always if you find this newsletter to be interesting, if it helps to inform your thinking about progressive education or if you think it might help others, please subscribe, share it with your friends and neighbors and share your comments and questions.
Looking Back and Looking Forward
The summer is always an interesting time for an educator, and especially for me as I contemplate the school year that has just ended and as I consider the things that need to happen to prepare for the next one, which is just around the bend.
This year in particular I find myself looking back not only at the year that has just passed, but also over the life of this school and community, for the four years since our doors opened and even earlier when City of Bridges was just an idea, only a dream in fact.
I am beginning the journey of trying to craft a narrative for our story so far, which will help us to envision what will hope will come to be in the next stages of the life of this community.
As it was wisely noted in a meeting I had earlier today, there is an enormous amount of content that City of Bridges has created and the adventure is finding the thread that weaves together the ideas, stories and musings that have helped to shape this very special place.
While beginning that adventure today, I found what is likely the first expression of what City of Bridges was to become. It was a belief statement written on October 9, 2011:
This is an initial statement of belief for a new school in the Pittsburgh area. We have been teachers and administrators in schools in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Vermont for many years and we have reached a point that we feel it is necessary to begin a new school that reflects our understanding of children, their learning and their place in a school community. Therefore, we have created this document as a framework to build a school. These beliefs are more than just words on a page, they are the foundations for the planning and the practice of the school.
Children
We believe children have inherent worth and value in a community. In addition, they have valid opinions and thoughts and therefore need to be listened to and engaged in the decision-making process for a school and a community.
We believe children need time to play and explore, with other children and with people of different ages. They need to be able to experience discovery and they need to be able to make mistakes and learn from them.
We believe that children are innately curious and that learning about the world is a fundamental function of their life. Therefore, they need to be able to explore and learn through actual experience and by following their own interests.
We believe that children are social beings and that part of their work in childhood is exploring social dynamics. We also believe that kindness and respect are the greatest social values. Therefore, children must be provided with time to explore social interactions, to make mistakes and learn, but at the same time be enmeshed in an environment that models and practices respect and kindness.
Learning
We believe that learning is most effective when children are able to follow their interests and engage in the process of discovery in an environment that is flexible to their individual needs.
We believe that there are some fundamental skills that students need to acquire, Literacy, Mathematical competence, Scientific knowledge, Historical awareness and Artistic expression, but that each child may learn these fundamental skills at a different pace and in a different order.
We believe that all knowledge is interconnected and that subject separation is artificial. Therefore, the learning in a school should integrate the curriculum, as this is the most authentic and effective way to learn.
We believe that the teacher is present to guide and facilitate the learning of the students in the community. In order to provide students with the skills and knowledge they need on their journey the teach will also instruct.
Community
We believe that a school is a fundamental institution in a community and that the school must be involved in the community and the community must be involved in the school. Therefore, the students should spend time in the real life of the community and members of the community should spend time in the real life of the school.
We believe that the foundation of a successful school community is respect. Therefore, the school community will be run in a manner that allows every voice to be heard and integrated into the decisions and culture of the community.
We believe that a school community should reflect the larger community. People should spend time with people of different ages, backgrounds, races and experiences in order to have a community of respect and kindness. This is extended to a school as well, where students should spend time with people different than they are, experiencing life.
We believe that a school’s relationship to a community is reciprocal. Therefore, the school must give back to the community, the physical community, the parental community and the educational community. In addition, we hope that the communities in which the school exists offer support to the school.
That is where I will leave it for now, a dozen years later and for the most part, we continue to be in alignment with that initial set of beliefs.
With Gratitude,
Randy