Happy Independence Day

Ashley and I are sitting in our breezy Vermont house with all the windows and the doors to our new screen porch swung wide open.  Soft summer air moves around the apple trees outside and gently tosses the little apples, happy on their newly pruned trees that our son, Alden helped Ashley to shape through the winter months.  As we continue to work on this house and land as well as on our good work with schools, we feel profoundly grateful for this place and this time in our lives. We have just shared some glorious days with grand baby Asher and his parents, Alden and Caroline, marveling at the joy and exuberance of a fourteen-month-old discovering the world, including cows, calves, horses and ponies...real ones in Vermont, not only in books.  A laughing, just walking, experimenting with everything in sight, darling boy.

Our son, Chris just visited for a few days.  Yesterday, we attended a memorial service for the step-father of one of Chris's Middlebury classmates who died last week suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack at age 52.  The service was in Burlington at the University of Vermont in a huge room in the Davis Center.  We sat surrounded by the 600 or more people who attended, and listened to sweet music and eloquent, heartfelt words about David.  Sitting next to a big, tall son who manifests many of the qualities that everyone spoke about in David flooded me with gratitude for these kinds of people in our lives.  Here are a few of those words...

David had keen judgment, a sharp memory, a sense of humor, and boundless energy...His quick mind was matched with a huge heart that glowed with his family, reached out to friends and strangers alike, and spoke aloud every day in a rolling laugh that could be heard for miles. David was a builder, of wooden things and stone walls, of friendships and family, of community... He is survived by all that he built, by the laughter he brought everywhere he went, and by all that he loved.

Attending funerals and watching babies with a whole heart brings all that is precious in life to the forefront.  This morning, I drove Chris to Castleton, Vermont to catch the train back to New York City.  We could have been in a Norman Rockwell scene...picturesque Vermont town with matching train station, dogs, children, women with white blouses and red, white and blue scarves, train and train whistle, conductor in a red tie standing in the open train door...everyone waves goodbye, and the train rumbles down the track.

Happy Independence Day to all of you.  May all of our lives be full of wonder, celebration, joy and gratitude.

Two Remarkable Charter Schools in Baltimore, MD

In her blog post of May 25, Louise recounts A Gathering of Educators in Boston.  In her telling of the gathering, she focuses on the predominant celebration the work of David and Frances Hawkins.  One sidebar she sidestepped was the prevalent discouragement of most of these distinguished educators about the current state of public education...for all the reasons we are all too well aware of.  I was able to chime in about two significant exceptions. Back in May I spent four days at two remarkable charter schools in Baltimore, Maryland, City Neighbors Charter School and City Neighbors Hamilton Charter School.  They are “cousin” schools founded by the same visionary, Bobbi Macdonald, in 2005 and 2009 respectively, in the northeastern section of the city.

Both schools are progressive, inspired by many wonderful influences, including the Reggio Approach, John Dewey, Eleanor Duckworth, and others.  In fact, the associated foundation of the schools, City Neighbors Foundation, hosts a conference for local progressive educators.  In the words of Mrs. Macdonald, City Neighbors Foundation "strives to not only provide an outstanding public education to the students who enter our doors each morning, but we also strive to serve as a model for urban public education that is progressive, child-centered, developmentally appropriate, arts integrated, and community engaged.  We strive to intentionally disseminate best practices and create forums that allow urban educators to redefine public education."

In my judgement, they are succeeding.  They have achieved a high level of relationship with all of their students and parents.  The environment of each school, though very different (CNCS is in a church school building and CNHCS is in an older elementary-high school), is inspiring, warm, comfortable, safe, like a museum, rich in creative materials, organized, and  beautiful.  And, the work their students are doing and creating is authentic and meaningful.

The schools invited me to work with them on their environments, their reflective practice, and project based learning.  For me, it’s always a treat and a privilege to work with high level thinkers.  Among many things they shared are two contemporary sources for inspiration: Stuart Firestein in his book, How Ignorance Drives Science, and Sal Vasselarro in his book, Out of the Classroom and into the World.  What stood out for me, in particular though, was their commitment to learning themselves, and, therefore, not surprisingly, their openness to other ideas and perspective...in this case: mine.  A constructive dialogue developed in each school in a very short time.

In the words of one of the faculty members, "Today was a fun learning experience in expressing and honing the many voices of educators that represent our different ideas and thoughts...all working toward the same thing; which is to cultivate inspiration and learning in children...giving them a voice to express themselves as they grow to understand the world around them."

These two already excellent schools are going to get better and better.  And, as they do, the more, in the hopes of their founder, they will help to redefine public education.

Aesthetics and Design

This past year, Louise worked with Maplewood Richmond Heights School District, (MRH), and former superintendent, Linda Henke in St. Louis to research, organize and write a book, School as Museum: A Constructivist Approach to Learning.  The book is on its way to becoming a published iBook and will soon be available for the public.

One of the chapters that Louise wrote draws on the work of Daniel Pink from his book,  A Whole New Mind: How Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future.  Daniel Pink describes the six primarily left-brain functions that his research shows will help to lead us toward a hopeful, healthy future: Design; Story; Symphony; Empathy; Play; and Meaning.  Daniel Pink calls these functions the Six Senses.  At MRH, we named these same brain functions 21st Century Learning Processes.  This blog post is excerpted from the writing on the Learning Process called Design...

In Steps to an Ecology of Mind, Gregory Bateson calls aesthetics “the pattern that connects.”  In Reggio Emilia, Italy, this philosophy of Bateson is primary to the educators in their municipal early childhood system.  The teachers there understand that engaging experiences and provocative questions, high quality materials in a well-stocked, beautiful environment lead children to discover and create “patterns that connect,” and whole, beautiful responses to the world around them.  It is a radical thing to say that aesthetics is not so much about making something pretty as it is about holding things together in a way that makes sense and that we would not see or understand otherwise.  That is what they mean by aesthetics in Reggio Emilia and that is what they practice.

Connecting patterns to create meaning within a pleasing, understandable whole is one of the central qualities and powers of good design.  This is what children learn through the grades at MRH Elementary School when they design exhibits that synthesize and communicate what they have learned for a real audience.

An educator who has inspired us at MRH is Ron Berger, author of An Ethic of Excellence, Building a Culture of Craftsmanship with Students.  (Ron is now writing the foreword to our book.)  Ron believes that students experience lasting, meaningful and high performance results when they create work for a public audience, work through drafts until work is publishable, master the skills of peer critique and learn from models of exemplary student work from the past to inspire and guide them.  Ron writes, “If you’re going to do something, I believe that you should do it well.  You should sweat over it and make sure that it is strong and accurate and beautiful and you should be proud of it.”

Each year, students at MRH learn more about design principles that will make their exhibits strong and engaging. The key elements that each MRH student learns in order to design and exhibit include how to:

• Choose appropriate and complementary fonts and font sizes

• Create titles, subtitles, captions and quotes

• Align text and other media

• Balance text and other media

• Select harmonious working colors

• Maintain consistency of quality and elements

• Work with proximity, white space and overall spacing of elements

• Collaborate with a design team

Another aspect of design is framed in Design Thinking, "a structured, approach to generating and developing ideas." We have used the resources of Design Thinking for Educators.

In Design Thinking, there are five phases of the design process.

1. Discovery.  I have a challenge. How do I approach it?
2. Interpretation. I learned something. How do I interpret it?
3. Ideation. I see an opportunity. What do I create?
4. Experimentation. I have an idea. How do I build it?
5. Evolution. I learned something.  How do I evolve it?

To hold ideas together in a way that makes sense, to think creatively in disciplined yet open ways, to create beautiful work that inspires others, to communicate what we have learned and what is most important effectively and in artful ways…all of this is what encompasses Design and how we think about it and practice it at MRH Elementary School.

A Gathering of Educators in Boston

A week ago, Ashley and I were invited to join a most distinguished gathering of New England educators at the home of a friend in Boston.  The group assembled to host and to hear from Ellen Hall and Deborah Dumont about a new exhibit that they curated entitled, "Cultivate the Scientist in Every Child."  The exhibit is made up of stories of children and adults exploring and discovering the world together, full of wonder and curiosity.  The exhibit opened at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History in January and will soon open at Berry Biodiversity Conservation Center, at the University of Wyoming.  The hope is that it will grow and that there will be additions to the stories added by schools and museums along the way. The exhibit celebrates the work of David and Frances Hawkins and all that they brought to the world of inquiry and science education.  All of the educators in the living room last Saturday had somehow been touched by the Hawkins and had stories to tell about why and how.  I realized, as I listened, that I was surrounded by many of the influences of my life, both past and present, and that this was all happening in Boston, our new home.  As we went around the circle to tell our stories, I was able to identify with fellow students and professors from the program where I earned an M.Ed in 1976 at Lesley University.  I hung on every word as Eleanor Duckworth described her work with the Hawkins.  Eleanor Duckworth, who I have so long admired that I can't count the years...and I had never met her.  Her book, The Having of Wonderful Ideas, has been and will continue to be a seminal, classic book for educators.  We heard from Lella Gandini, a dear friend and inspiring colleague, tell of being the interpreter at a conference planned by Loris Malaguzzi in Italy where David Hawkins and Paolo Freire were the featured speakers.  We heard from teachers at the Advent School in Boston, a marvelous Reggio inspired school where Ashley and I just visited, and from the educators at both the  Reggio inspired Lincoln Nursery School and the deCordova Museum.  We heard from our host, Joanne Pressman, former director of the Community Nursery School in Lexington, MA, tell about her work to establish a Hawkins Center for Learning at the school.

David and Frances Hawkins lived in Boulder, Colorado and for many years, so did Ellen Hall.  This is where she founded Boulder Journey School.  That they all lived in Boulder is one of the reasons that Ellen is so captivated by the work of the Hawkins; another compelling motivation is that David is among the educators who influenced the development of the schools in Reggio Emilia, Italy.  Ellen wanted to make the Hawkins' contribution to teaching and learning visible and to bring these vital ideas to life through stories in an accessible and lively way.  If you are in Wyoming, you will have a chance to see the exhibit this summer.  If not, you can follow the exhibit schedule or make a plan to host it yourself.  It is free of charge.  To find out more, contact Hawkins Centers for Learning.  Thank you, Ellen and Deborah, and all the educators who are working hard to keep the dream of the wonder of learning alive for children and for all of us.

Commencement

 

I have taught at Butler University for three years with Ena Shelley, Dean of the College of Education.  In 2011, we taught a course based on how the teaching and learning in Reggio Emilia, Italy might inspire and influence all sectors of education.  For two years, we have co-taught a field study course in elementary and early education during an intensive week at Opal School of the Portland Children's Museum.  It has been a thrill for me to teach at the college and graduate level, and especially to co-teach with Ena Shelley who is a close friend and colleague.  It has been a dream of mine for some time to find a home at a university where I could offer what I love and know about to others and still do all the other kinds of professional work that takes me far and wide in the world.

Last weekend, I was privileged to participate in the Butler University commencement ceremony as an adjunct professor.  I ordered my academic regalia for the very first time, my tam and my hood from Union University, so that I could process with the faculty and join them for the celebration of so many masters and undergraduates at Butler.

One of the joys of the day for me was listening to the commencement address by John Green, who is an Indianapolis native, a New York Times best seller list author of young adult fiction and a very good speaker.  He was funny, he was honest, he was eloquent in an accessible way, he was memorable.  I keep thinking back on what he said and remembering the gems.

The very first thing that he asked us to do was to take a full minute to remember and appreciate all the people who had "loved us up" to this celebration, this day, this time in our lives...whether we were students, parents, faculty.  He captured a moment in time for all of us, and asked us to think of the people that had made this possible for us.  A long line up of parents, grandparents, teachers, professors, and others who supported me along the way, made sacrifices for me and believed in me, when I needed it the most, appeared in my mind's eye.  The huge, historic Hinkle gymnasium fell silent and every one of us spent that long moment being grateful and humbled by those who had made success in our lives possible.

John Green made us want to be that kind of person.  If we had any doubt, he helped us realize that to be the kind of person who other people, maybe people we don't even know yet, think of in moments like these...this is what makes a life successful more than anything else...more than fame or money certainly.

The tam and the tassel and the hood that symbolize my accomplishments are a huge honor to wear.  Participating as a faculty member, even a part time one, of such a dedicated and wonderful university as Butler is a privilege.  Remembering, honoring and feeling immense gratitude for the people who made this possible for me... that was the highlight of the day.  Thank you, John Green, for that.