David Byrne, Progressive Education, and Assumptions on How Children Learn Best
Westland is approaching an accreditation process this coming school year through the California Association of Independent Schools. It’s a big deal, and it involves a mammoth amount of work. Come February, we will welcome a team of 5 educators from all over California who will visit Westland for 4 days. Their job is to observe our work with children and each other and to hold up a metaphorical mirror for us to reflect upon and analyze how we most effectively and impactfully live out our mission and progressive philosophy. Basically, how we strive to be the best version of ourselves and an excellent independent school. The team submits to us and our accrediting body a report detailing Westland’s commendable strengths and major recommendations, and an overall assessment regarding the timing of our accreditation cycle.
Proceeding their arrival to campus, the visiting team will have read a 100+ page self study that my colleagues and I have been working on since early spring. The Self Study, divided into chapters and sections, asks us to answer over 100 questions, ranging in areas such as teaching and learning, financial sustainability, decision-making and change, philanthropy, climate and community, and mission. It’s a lot. And, it’s a satisfying, significant, and fruitful process.
A few weeks ago I came across a David Byrne quote that stopped me in my tracks. I admit, I read it on Instagram. It goes like this: “I sense the world might be more dreamlike, metaphorical, and poetic than we currently believe…I wouldn’t be surprised if poetry…in the sense of a world filled with metaphor, rhyme, and recurring patterns, shapes and designs…is how the world works. The world isn’t logical, it’s a song.”
I love poetry, metaphor, and patterns. (I don’t need to “either/or” logic and poetry though.) Poetry isn’t something I think about when it comes to this markedly logical accreditation process. However, as I was editing the chapter on “The Student Learning Experience,” David Byrne’s quote popped to mind instantly. I wondered, could this answer be Westland’s poem? Its song? A creed of sorts?
The Self Study answer, composed originally by one of 4 teacher committees and edited by a team of administrators was in response to this question: “What are the fundamental assumptions or beliefs about how students best learn that guide the school’s work? How are those beliefs enacted in the classroom, and how effective are they in promoting student learning?” Here is Westland’s answer to the question:
We believe that children learn effectively and learn best in an environment that provides the following:
A safe place for students to share ideas, where ideas and identities are respected and valued. Starting in Group One, the teachers begin to create a classroom culture that models and facilitates clear and respectful communication. Groups begin their day with a group meeting where they connect with each other, share thoughts, feelings, or ideas and learn to understand and respect each other, developing social emotional well being.
A curriculum that is social studies based to help children learn about themselves and people in their world, creating an ethos of respect, a value of difference, exploring similarities and how the two work together to build community. Democracy is the center of the school’s philosophy and should be modeled throughout all constituencies. Citizenry is practiced through classroom jobs, campus jobs, and service learning and within the studies of each group. The study of City Systems, for example, explores the needs, responsibilities, rights, and importance of citizenship.
First hand experiences, when possible. Learning by doing allows students to be active and engaged learners. Teachers organize field trips for students to have first-hand experiences related to their study. Guest speakers or experts may be brought in to share their expertise. In addition to off-campus experiences, woodworking, trial and error problem solving in science, caring for and learning about musical instruments, exploring technology, running the student-led store, and fulfilling daily class jobs are all examples of how students learn through the first-hand experiences of everyday life on campus.
The opportunity to discover and make meaning of the world through play. We believe that “Work is play and play is work.” Block building is one activity that students engage in after going on a field trip or delving into a particular study. Students will recreate and reenact their experience through building the structure/s with blocks and then make accessories including items and signs that enhance their play, thus deepening their understanding and learning. Students of all ages will role play as part of a study to work through their understanding of a subject.
Opportunities to learn through a variety of modalities, engaging students of all learning styles. When students learn something they may write it, draw it, build it, discuss it, play it, sing it, and dance it.
The space to explore identity and anti-bias practices. Children at Westland learn to see their multiple identities within the context of others’. They communicate comfortably with people similar and different from them. Children recognize what is unfair and seek to understand people as individuals. (Not stereotypes.) Empathy and courage are markers of children’s thinking and actions. Children are upstanders when they see exclusion. Children are given opportunities and feel empowered to make a plan to carry out collective action in response to injustice.
Developmentally appropriate activities. Teachers create curriculum that is open-ended and scaffolded for different skill levels.
Materials that invite exploration, support inquiry and interest, and inspire creativity. The Westland librarians assist teachers in gathering social studies books for their classrooms during each unit of study. Students create projects that build on their knowledge and understanding of their theme of study. Other materials that support studies include blocks, cooking utensils, measuring tools, observation tools, technology, nature, repurposed materials, musical instruments, and art supplies.
An integrated curriculum. As much as possible, Math, Reading, and Writing are taught through the social studies curriculum. Specialist teachers collaborate with classroom teachers to integrate co-curriculum which helps students build connections and understanding and enhances learning of the subject matter.
The opportunity for collaborative work. Teachers provide myriad opportunities for children to work in committees and collaborate on projects to help students learn to work together, build consensus, share ideas, disagree, learn to compromise, and learn from each other.
Time for class discussions. Group discussions are at the core of each unit of study as well as any topic or issue that may come up that is important for the Group class to discuss. Teachers facilitate discussions as students learn to problem solve and build upon the ideas of others.
The opportunity for peer teaching. When children work in partnerships, committees (small groups) and across groups, peer teaching is highlighted. It is a part of everyday practice in the classroom. Also, as a group culminates their study, they invite parents and guardians, outside experts, and other Groups to come into their classroom to share their knowledge and teach what they have learned. Their curiosity and pursuit of the study continues from the culmination.
This answer is powerful. (Reading it, I am again reminded that there are over 100 questions and this is just one!) What a gift that Westland children are guided by educators who are striving for a learning environment and a learning experience marked by these assumptions. I lament that all children in our city and country do not have access to such a context, to such assumptions from adults about how children learn best. I am tremendously proud to be a progressive educator, and I am so proud to be colleagues with thinkers and practitioners like these.
Westland has served as one of my life’s teachers. I believe that we are doing right by children. I believe that we are doing right by society! I believe that Westland itself might be a poem, a song, a living metaphor for what is possible. An actual mirror reflecting democratic principles and the potency of progressive education.