Welcome to the inaugural issue of Traversing!
I had a lot of questions about how to start this newsletter: What tone seems right? Should it be more narrative or more academic? Should I focus on theory or practice or a mix of the two? and so on. I’ll try some different ways and topics to share and look forward to your feedback along the way!
This first issue is a good place to begin with something simple and straightforward: my own experience of progressive education. I am not going to dive deeply 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, called 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 experiences in Progressive schools and the understanding of how people related to each other and to learning in those communities that he gained from these experiences. He developed these components through his observations, conversations and presence in these school communities. In the coming weeks, I plan to delve into each of these components. This week I'd like to share some of my lived experience with Progressive schools.
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, and lots of enthusiasm and joy. My father, who never enjoyed school, loves to tell a story about taking me out for breakfast to celebrate the last day of school. We sat down at the table and he congratulated me on the end of another school year. I thought for a moment and then replied, “What is there to celebrate?” My initial experience of school was positive. School was a place where I wanted to be and spend time. It thrills me to hear this feeling echoed by my high school students today.
When I was in elementary school, I didn’t know that my experience was built around a set of principles or ideas about learning and child development. I just knew that my teachers and the school saw me as a whole person. I knew I was able to explore interests that I was curious about and the work 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 grades didn’t matter and I had no idea what a student ranking was. What mattered was my excitement about learning and the things I made that demonstrated my learning. The school experience I had, supported my own love of learning, helped me build the knowledge, skills and understanding that I needed in order to chart the path that I wanted in my life.
My lived experience in a Progressive school gave me a learning environment where I felt valued and where I felt like the work that I was doing had purpose. 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 coursework towards my Masters of Education degree at Antioch University New England (which, incidentally, is a graduate program without grades or ranking, feedback is given narratively). I began to learn about the history, practice and theory behind the teachers and classrooms that I had experienced in elementary school. I was able to connect my own experiences of learning in a way that felt right and the ideas and ideals that shaped my elementary school experiences. 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 they learn, you will often hear about this same cycle. They have an experience and then they learn about that experience, which informs the next experience, which they then learn about. This cycle continues, building knowledge, skills and understanding. Cyclical learning runs counter to the test-based accountability that exemplifies learning structures in many schools, both public and private. The test may be the PSSA, or the SAT, or an AP exam, 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. 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 develop that suggestion and show it's real life applications in my experiences. In the meantime, I hope you have a wonderful week.
People, Places and Things
In this section of the newsletter I will share people, places and things that have inspired and taught me valuable lessons about rethinking learning.
I would like to start with Youth Initiative High School in Viroqua, Wisconsin. 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 YIHS. Subsequently, my wife and I made the 11-hour drive to visit Viroqua and I spent a couple of days there. Seeing this student centered and justice focused school in action as a 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, by 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 the Our Story page of their website. Today, YIHS has a robust curriculum which covers all of the core academic areas and includes exceptional art and theater programs.
Youth Initiative High School is a Waldorf School and is deeply involved in the community of Viroqua. In addition, the staff and students are incredibly kind and generous. This past year a number of City of Bridges students turned to YIHS staff with questions about their pandemic winter plans. Their ideas and support led to the creation of the micropod model that we ended up using.
In all honesty, if YIHS was here in Pittsburgh, I might not have opened City of Bridges High School, I would have just asked them to let me teach there. If you are curious about small, caring, student focused schools, Youth Initiative High School should be at the top of your list.
Reader Questions
Each week, I'd like to respond to your questions. Since this is the first issue, I don’t yet have a question to discuss. Please send some my way and I will choose one each week!