I received an email from a visitor who helped create the tribute film honoring Michelle’s retirement after 42 years at Westland. After dozens of hours on campus filming, interviewing teachers, staff, and Michelle herself, he emailed me: “Ya’ll are doing it right and it’s inspiring.” I saved the email in my “Heart” folder. His words stayed with me.
I kept thinking about his observation of: “doing it right” and “inspiring.” The notion that came to mind was culminations – Westland’s practice of making the learning cycle visible.
Our progressive education mothers and fathers believed that learning should be lived. It should be constructed. It should be shared. It should matter – and be reflected upon. Culminations are a visible expression of those beliefs. They are how learning becomes vital at Westland.
Perhaps you’ve experienced the inspiration and getting-it-rightness of a culmination. You’ve walked into a classroom transformed into a museum, or a tortilla factory, a pollinator-inspired bakery, or the city of Los Angeles made of unit blocks. Perhaps you’ve had the chance to see multimedia murals cover the walls, research, and documentation of children’s data collection and map making. Perhaps you’ve witnessed the arts as a language used to communicate children’s connection to and understanding of a Study – a painting, an original composition, a woodworking piece, a dance, a print shop project. Perhaps you’ve left with artifacts of children’s learning. You’ve been given a handmade program, a menu, or a collection of the Group’s original published poetry. Maybe you’ve been invited to taste a sampling of a sweet, made an adobe brick, panned for gold, and had the pleasure of asking questions of the children in order to hear them reflect on their process and discoveries about the content. Culminations are how children make meaning, show what they know, and get to see learning as lifelong.
Recently, a committee of teachers and I documented the pedagogy of culminations at Westland. Articulating the layers of this practice reminded me just how intentional it is. Culminations emerge organically at the end of a Study and are rooted in social studies. They grow from months of research, field trips, dialogue, writing, experimentation, and collaboration. And these experiences grow from children’s questions. Culminations aren’t imposed on students; they are generated with them. Teachers facilitate, prompting children to ask why, what if, and how come.
When a group culminates, it is signaling: We understand this well enough to teach it. And as research affirms, teaching is one of the highest forms of learning. I am always struck by graduates in their 30s, 40s, 50s (even 80’s!) who can vividly recount their culminations. They remember the monologue from the Civil Rights play their group wrote, the field trip that shaped their college major, the exact spot on campus where they served as a docent to their group’s museum. That kind of recall is a clue: the learning was not memorized. It was internalized.
During culminations, children synthesize information in real time. They translate ideas for different audiences. They think on their feet. Older students refine explanations depending on the age of their visitors. And yes, sometimes they realize they don’t yet know an answer. That moment, uncomfortable as it may be, launches the next cycle of inquiry. And I’ll note, I believe the world needs more adults willing to say, “I don’t know. Let me find out.”
Culminations are reciprocal. Those in attendance, students, staff, parents, guardians, grandparents, and experts who are invited back to campus, are not passive audience members, they are participants in dialogue. The visitors’ questions deepen students’ understanding. And the younger students glimpse what lies ahead. During a culmination the room feels dynamic. The children’s agency is palpable. Teachers float in the background, supporting as needed but allowing students to lead.
At Westland we want children to develop independence, self-efficacy, and a sense of empowerment. Culminations build these capacities. Recently I asked a student at the end of a long culmination day, “How do you feel?” They responded, “EXHAUSTED! ” (With a huge grin.) I then asked, knowing there was a Day Two, “Are you ready for tomorrow?” They exuberantly responded, "DEFINITELY!" I clocked the ways I saw in action this child’s sense of independence, self-efficacy, and empowerment.
Culminations also serve as powerful assessment tools for teachers. Children demonstrate understanding through multiple modalities – writing, building, performance, visual art, scientific thinking, extemporaneous public speaking and more. Not every child expresses their understanding in the same way, and culminations honor that truth. Teachers listen for depth, notice strengths, and identify stretches too. Goal setting can stem from culminations.
Built through collaboration and consensus, culminations require real-life skills like planning, committee work, and attention to deadlines. While there is spaciousness during the Study, as a culmination approaches, I notice a certain kind of buzz: flow, purpose, excitement. And afterward, reflection is essential. Teachers return to the original questions of the Study: What did we know? What did we want to know? What did we learn? And add one: What do we want to do with this understanding?
Culminations are not simply about demonstrating knowledge. They are about developing responsibility – to one another, to the Westland community, and to the world. Children write thank-you notes to experts, create service projects, design informational campaigns, connect their learning to Los Angeles. Knowledge becomes action.
When you stand in a Westland classroom during a culmination, you are witnessing something we are, indeed, getting right. Children move beyond memorizing information toward inhabiting it. Culminations are active, not passive. Cooperative, not competitive. Original, not cookie cutter. Child-centered, not adult-generated. And yes, inspiring too.
