The St. Michael School of Clayton Celebrates 50 Years by Guest Blogger, Charles Schwall

The St. Michael School of Clayton in St. Louis, Missouri, is currently celebrating its 50th year, and those of us connected to the school are reflecting on many years of rewarding work together. I first met Ashley and Louise Cadwell in the autumn of 1992. Ashley had been hired as the headmaster of the school. He and Louise had just returned from living in Reggio Emilia, Italy, where Louise had completed a yearlong internship working in the Reggio schools. Ashley and Louise both had long, deep histories working in progressive education, school development, and research. 

At that time, I was working at the school in an art-enrichment capacity, and also directing the extended-school programs. The early 1990’s were a dynamic time in St. Louis for early childhood education. In 1991, A Newsweek magazine article, “The 10 Best Schools in the World (December 1991),” had caused a surge of interest in the Reggio Approach, The Hundred Languages of Children exhibition had been at Webster University in St Louis. Many educators in St. Louis were fascinated with the distinctive and innovative set of philosophical and pedagogical approaches that are unique to Reggio Emilia.  

During the 1992-93 school year, Ashley introduced me to the essential ideas of the schools in Reggio. He gave me a copy of The Hundred Languages of Children book, and “To Make a Portrait of a Lion” VHS tape. We also engaged in numerous conversations about many principles and practices that he and Louise had learned while in Reggio.  

Charles Schwall, author of this post, and pedagogista & studio teacher (1993-2013), The St. Michael School

Because my background was in the visual arts, the Reggio atelier immediately impressed me.  The “atelier” is a physical space within the school dedicated to children’s exploration and use of many materials, tools, symbolic languages, and forms of representation. I was fascinated by the concept of the “hundred languages of children,” used by the Italian educators as a metaphor for the countless ways young students are capable exploring and expressing ideas. Closely linked to the concept of the atelier, is the role of the “atelierista,” a teacher with a background in the visual arts, who works with small groups of children in the atelier. When I was hired as atelierista (studio teacher) in 1993, I discovered that I not only found my career, but my calling.  

Ashley had a strong vision for the program, and immediately began to restructure the school curriculum and programs to become Reggio-inspired, as well as to integrate other best practices in progressive education. We worked intensely with educators from Reggio Emilia, and several faculty members were able to travel to Reggio Emilia for study tours. It was clear that we had to find our own solutions and interpretations. We were determined to define the values of the Reggio Approach within our own setting.  For example, we had observed in the Reggio schools that the atelierista forms a close collaborative relationship with the classroom teachers, and supports curriculum development, research, and documentation throughout the entire school. We made similar choices at St. Michael School. In the elementary school the concept of the atelier was de-centralized into studio arts, science, music and performing arts, Spanish, social studies, and physical education. In this way, these various disciplines all share the responsibilities of the atelier. 

Michael Holohan, studio teacher at The St. Michael School

Thematic research projects and documentation also became a hallmark of the school’s unique identity.  Our yearlong research projects transform children into researchers and teachers into facilitators as they pursue in-depth learning together. The topic for the research integrates curriculum throughout the year for the entire school, with each class involved in age-appropriate learning experiences.  Recent research topics include: How Can You Make a Difference?; Water; Home; and Maps & Models.

The school continues to grow and develop its Reggio-inspired focus under the leadership of Beth Mosher, who became the head of school in 2008. Currently enjoying its 50-year milestone, and building on 27 years of Reggio-inspired practice, The St. Michael School of Clayton remains a dynamic think-tank for some of the best ideas in education.

Documentation panel and synthesis of research by third through sixth graders, The St. Michael School

Join Us in Vermont July 16-18: REGISTRATION DEADLINE: APRIL 1, 2020

Destination: Cadwell Family Farm, Pittsford, Vermont

A Workshop & Residency for Educators Exploring Creativity, Making, and Research

July 16-18, 2020

REGISTRATION DEADLINE: APRIL 1, 2020

This blog post is an announcement. Cadwell Collaborative is thrilled to offer a Workshop and Residency this summer in collaboration with our dear friends and colleagues, Chuck Schwall and Michael Holohan with whom we worked for many successful years in St. Louis at The St. Michael School and as members of the St. Louis Reggio Collaborative. We have cooked up a three day experience for educators that will be joyful and brimming with creativity and inspiration. We can’t wait. We hope that you will join us.

By the way, the location of this workshop and residency is on a gorgeous piece of land in Vermont, on the farm where Ashley grew up with his five brothers. The handsome, timber framed barn includes spacious meeting areas and places to share meals overlooking fields and the Green Mountains. The farm includes playing fields, bird habitats, and a hiking trail linked to the village’s 20 mile network. You will find nearby backroad biking, quarry swimming, river canoeing, as well as farmers markets, micro breweries, and restaurants.

Today, we sent out an announcement via our newsletter that reached some of you, however not all of you, so we are sending it out here also. All the information follows. Please let us know if you are interested. We would love to have you! To register, click here.

Join us at the Cadwell Family Farm where we will all become ever more playful and serious makers, creators, and researchers. Come to find community, learn new skills, be inspired, set new intentions, and return home energized and restored.

We will weave together three days of learning through presentations, experiences in the field, materials workshops, sharing and dialogue, delicious community meals, play, and laughter. You will leave with a bound journal, hand made by you, composed of your creative thinking, work in a variety of materials, and your personal reflections.

You will return home ready to teach and learn alongside your students and colleagues with renewed excitement, energy, and vision.

Facilitators: Louise and Ashley of Cadwell Collaborative, and Charles Schwall and Michael Holohan, studio teachers and pedagogical leaders at The St. Michael School in St. Louis, MO. This team of four has worked together since the mid 90’s.

“Thank you for hosting such high quality professional development. It was like a vitamin shot for me personally and professionally. When I reflect on gratitude-I am so grateful for your commitment to educators.”

— Winter Institute Participant, St. Louis, MO

US$750 Fee for program: includes all sessions and materials,

Thursday-Saturday snacks & lunches, Thursday and Saturday dinners.

US$300 Deposit to hold a place

Housing at the Farm is limited

One dorm rooms with 3 single beds @ $30ea/n

One dorm rooms with 4 single beds @ $30ea/n

One twin bedroom @ $35ea/n

One double bedroom @ $50/n*

Four queen bedrooms @ $55/n*

One king bedroom @ $65/n*

*single occupancy, to double up add 30%

All bedrooms share baths,

Continental breakfast included

Nearby hotels

Brandon Inn (6 miles north)

$135-$170/n

All rooms, bath ensuite

Brandon Motor Lodge (5miles north)

$80-$105/n

All rooms, bath ensuite

LIMITED TO 30 PARTICIPANTS

To reserve space, send deposit payable to:

Cadwell Collaborative, LLC

Send to: PO Box 962, Middlebury, VT 05753

For PayPal or wire bank transfers call Ashley for details. Balance must be paid by May 1, 2020 Refunds & Cancelation: Payment is refundable in full minus a $100 processing fee until April 1, 2020. For cancelations after April 1, 2020 there will be no refund unless the space is filled by June 15, 2020. A change in registration between individuals within an organization can be done with no additional fees.

Main Contact:

Ashley Cadwell cell: 314-614-9889

Ashley Cadwell e-mail: ashley@cadwellcollaborative.com
To Register Click Here!

The Goodness of Rain

The Dog Park inside McCarren Park, Brooklyn, New York

I just reread The Goodness of Rain: Developing an Ecological Identity in Young Children by Ann Pelo. I love this book. It reads like a love letter to the natural world and to a young child, Dylan, whom Ann spends a year with in and around Seattle during Dylan’s second year of life. I was inspired to pull the book back off the shelf because of our grandson, Jack, who is eleven months old.

More that anything else, this book is about slowing down so that we can focus our attention fully on the world around us, as a young child will do, given the time and context. Ann and Dylan head outside every day, no matter the weather, that is often rainy in Seattle. Sometimes, they walk the familiar neighborhood, visiting trees and bushes, ponds and berry patches, as old friends that change day to day and through the seasons. Sometimes, they take trips to other parks, the ocean, apple orchards, and forests. In all of their explorations, Ann’s intent is to take time, to point out, to listen and to respond to Dylan as she seeks to see, hear, and touch the world as Dylan does. Ann begins her book with this poem by Ernest Thompson Seton from Woodland Trails, (1940).

I will show you the trail

and this is what it will lead you to:

a thousand friendships that it will offer

honey in little thorny cups,

the secrets of the underbrush,

the health of sunlight,

suppleness of body,

the unafraidness of the night,

the delight of deep water,

the goodness of rain,

the story of the trail,

the knowledge of the wetlands…

Ann’s chapter titles reveal her themes and her discoveries during her year with Dylan: Finding Place, Walk the Land, Practice Silence, Learn the Names, Embrace Sensuality, Explore New Perspectives, Create Stories, Make Rituals.

Northern Red Oaks, McCarren Park

I took The Goodness of Rain to read in Brooklyn a few weeks ago when we were lucky enough to spend a week with Jack and his parents. Jack lives across the street from a wonderful park in Greenpoint, McCarren Park. Ashley and I were able to spend long stretches of time with Jack in McCarren Park, sometimes three hours, exploring and walking the paths and open spaces with towering Northern Red Oaks, crab apples, heavy with bunches of tiny apples, and ornamental Ginkgos. And robins, grackles, starlings, and house sparrows in abundance as in any city park. I am sure that there are also other birds as we noticed a pair of bird watchers with binoculars and serious intent. And squirrels. Never have I observed squirrel behavior so intently as with Jack. Hiding, munching acorns with their fast moving jaws, running and climbing up the tall oak trunks and leaping from the branch of one to the branches of the next tree. Jack points, watches, and exclaims, “Ca! Ca!” as he does for most moving, living creatures.

At the playground, we put Jack down on the rubber mats that form the ground of the space. Jack is most interested in the cracks in between the mats. What tiny green plants are growing there? What is lodged there? Small leaves from the surrounding crab apples, and soil. All to be investigated, touched, taken out of the cracks, and put back in again. This is Jack’s time, Jack’s agenda, Jack’s focus. We sit on the mat with him at his level and watch and exclaim and wonder with him about it all.

One day, after a longer walk to the East River State Park, we find the wide, stately Hudson River flowing fast and a big wind. Jack sits in the sand and finds small stones and sticks. That is what he wants to focus on…finding them, holding them, touching them together, making marks with them in the sand.

East River State Park

And, we go to the dog park! a fenced in area where dog and dog owners run free and have fun, playing throw and catch and chase games, romping and playing. Jack loves the dogs! He laughs, kicks his feet, is delighted by their energy and their interest in him. They are at his level. They love him.

When I got home to Vermont, I made a book for Jack with many of the photos of our time together exploring McCarren Park…a board book with a letter to Jack in the introduction. I got the idea for the letter from Ann Pelo who concluded her book with a letter to Dylan about their year together. If you can read The Goodness of Rain, please do. Learning to love the natural world provides a foundation and a solace for all of our lives. This is true for babies, and it is true for us, at any age, as we discover and rediscover our place in the natural order of things.

McCarren Park

Dear Jack,

In October, we took some beautiful walks with you in your park, McCarren Park, right across the street from where you live. We walked on sparkling, blue sky days. We saw robins taking baths in the puddles, lots of dogs, squirrels with bushy tails eating acorns, running, and climbing tall oak trees. You pointed to the robins and the squirrels and said, "Ca! Ca!"

You love the cracks in the mats at the playground and the little green plants growing there, and the small yellow leaves that you can pick out with your fingers. You were delighted with the small and big sticks that you found, too. You loved our long walk to the East River State Park, where we found the big Hudson River flowing on a windy day, and sand, and stones, and sticks.

We are so lucky to be able to be with you in your parks and see the world through your eyes, and listen to it, and touch it, watching you discover new things every moment. This is your park in the autumn. We wonder what it will be like in winter and in the spring? Could we visit again and discover it with you?

We love you! Lulu and Yaya

Jack and his friend, the Golden Retriever.

Reflections from the Train: Author Ann Lewin-Benham

I am on a speeding, rocking train, headed north from New York City to upstate New York, and then Vermont.  I have been visiting my sister, and our son, daughter-in- law, and baby grandson.  It is a sparkling fall day, October first.  I can’t take my eyes off the expansive, beautiful, and mighty Hudson River that the train track follows until Albany.  The sound of the train, the views, the birds, the passing landscape, all make me feel as if I could be living 100 years ago.  It is a moving time capsule, the train, fostering reflection and contemplation, at least for me. 

My sister is 82 years old and lives in a senior living community in Pennsylvania, a little over an hour from New York.  My grandson will be 10 months old tomorrow. and lives with his parents in Brooklyn.  Such a contrast in age and in life in my family that I have experienced over the last few days!  I treasure both ends of the spectrum. 

I have a heightened interest in and awareness of babies right now because of Jack, our third grandchild, and because we have been working with Principia Early Childhood Program for several years, where the youngest children enrolled are infants and toddlers.  Our summer read with the teachers of this age group at Principia was Infants and Toddlers at Work:Using Reggio Inspired Materials to Support Brain Development by Ann Lewin-Benham.

Our grandson, Jack, and me, May, 2019

Ann is a long time colleague and friend.  I have admired her work in early childhood since before we lived in Reggio Emilia.  I attended a conference in Washington D.C. in 1990 where the exhibit then entitled, The Hundred Languages of Children, (now The Wonder of Learning) was installed at the Capitol Children’s Museum where Ann was the founder and director.  This was the first time I had encountered the work from Reggio Emilia other than through slide and video media.  I remember walking through the exhibit on my own, astounded, awed, and excited that I might have the chance to be a fellow for a year in this far away place. 

Ann founded The Model Early Learning Center (MELC), housed at the Capitol Children’s Museum.  This was the school where Amelia Gambetti, former teacher from Reggio Emilia, worked for a year, 1993-1994.  I was lucky to return to this school several times and to meet and work with some the teachers there in other contexts, including Sonya Shoptaugh and Jennifer Azzariti. Ann’s first two books, Possible Schools and Powerful Children are based on the work in this remarkable school which was the only school outside Reggio Emilia to be accredited by the Italian educators. 

The College School, classroom of 3-4 year-olds, September, 2019

As an author myself, focused on early childhood and the inspiration from Reggio Emilia, I have followed Ann, and been impressed and grateful for her books from the start.  One of my favorite of many quotes from my well worn copy of Infants and Toddlers at Work is this one:

Mark making is an imperative as strong as movement and language. Therefore it warrants an equal abundance of materials that are varied, provocative and challenging… Mark making exemplifies the trove of ideas that can be sparked and skills that can be acquired when a fertile context nurtures an innate human imperative. (p. 114)

The College School, mark making with paint, class of 4-5 year-olds, September, 2019

Ann is a prolific author. In addition to Possible Schools, Powerful Children, and Infants and Toddlers at Work, Ann has written Eight Essential Techniques for Teaching with Intention, Twelve Best Practices for Early Childhood Education, What Learning Looks Like: Mediated Learning in Theory and in Practice, K-6 with Reuven Feuerstein. and in press, Eco Education for Young Children Revolutionary Ways to Teach and Learn Environmental Sciences.

Ann is a student of brain science and learning and her knowledge is woven throughout her books.  She draws on the stories and experiences from MELC, her years as a Montessori teacher and director, her experience as a mother and grandmother.  Her books are engaging, practical, and compelling.  If you are looking for an introduction or a refresher, or a new perspective to best practices in early education, pick up any of her books.  We think that you will be pleased that you did.  Let us know or let Ann know.  Authors always love hearing from their readers.   

Our son, and grandson, Jack, summer, 2019

Ode to Brother Steve

Cadwell Family Reunion in Maine, 2016

We have had a wonderful summer and a hard summer. We have savored beautiful moments with our sons, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren over the July holiday and in Maine. Sun kissed, sparkling, green mountains in Vermont and sails on the shining sea and mountain hikes in Acadia. And precious time together.

All the while, Ashley’s brother, Steve, had brain cancer and declined steadily since we were with the extended family in July. Steve was at home in hospice care surrounded by loved ones until August 29th when he died peacefully. Ashley is one of 6 brothers and they are a close and lively clan. Observing them together and being a part of their family is a privilege. They all gathered round to help and love their brother in every way possible.

Steve was a therapist, married to Joe, father to Isaac, beloved writer, poet, composer, musician, director, performer, community member, activist. He was a force of life undaunted. He has taught us all to be more fully alive, who we are, and comfortable in our very own skin. On Steve’s website he writes, “I empower all my clients (gay and otherwise) to discover their own power to be different, to claim their pride in their difference in order to make a difference in the order of things.”

Cadwell Brothers (wearing sweaters and shirts made by their mother), with their Parents, circa 2005

Last May, all of Steve’s brothers, Joe, Isaac, and other family were present when he received a life time achievement award from the Northeastern Society for Group Psychotherapy. Steve was one of the pioneers of group therapy with AIDS patients and care givers. He co-edited a book on psychotherapy about gay men in the age of AIDS.

A few weeks ago, August 23-26, the 5th annual Middlebury New Film Makers Festival was held. Last year at this time, Steve’s film, “Wild and Precious,” was featured at this festival followed by a panel discussion including Steve and associate producers, Tommy Hyde and Bjorn Anders Peterson. “Wild and Precious” was filmed at the farm where Steve and his 5 brothers grew up and it is about growing up gay in the 60’s and 70’s. It is beautiful and real and heart breaking. In its first iteration, the film was a one man show. You can see it here as Steve performs it at his alma mater.

Steve wrote 2 poem memoirs. The first is the basis for his show and film, “Wild and Precious.” The second, poeMEMoir, Volume 2, Hope Springs Internal, Steve wrote after he was diagnosed with cancer in April, 2018.

Steve and Joe with our grandchildren, July, 2019

I will always remember Steve sitting at the grand piano that a neighbor gave him, in the barn in Vermont where he grew up, last July, playing his own music for the gathered family, reading his poetry and celebrating all of life and all of us. At a recent memorial service someone said…our lives are like fireworks, we are launched, we explode and send our colors and fire across the sky, and our sparks continue to rain down on everyone after we are gone. At Steve’s memorial service last Sunday, Rabbi Darby said, “Steve was not just a flame. He lived as a splendid, fiery, colorful display of fireworks. Those of us who have seen and witnessed the beauty, color, and energy of such fireworks are forever changed.” Steven Allen Cadwell will always be a force of creativity, courage, play, joy, and love. May we all embrace the force of life as Steve Cadwell has. May we all be fireworks in the course of our one wild and precious life. May his memory be for us a blessing.

from Radical Acceptance: Faith; Amazing Grace

by Steven Allen Cadwell

“WE’VE HAD SUCH FUN!”

ENTRHALLED with The Other.

Holding the other’s gaze; holding connection which trauma only temporarily

interrupts. Reconnect. Sustain Contact. Respond. Receive.

Return again and again.

Over and over practicing recovery in Love.

The center holds. The core Self.

Amazing Grace. Bless Sings out about

the constant internalized object made subject.

for the mindful mind’s eye:

“I.I.I.” to “Thou. Thou. Thou.”

The Eyes have it and How! Wow!

Raise them up heavenwards singing.

Praise be! Blessed be!

Hallowed be I and Thou Named.

Our little Kingdoms come and go.

LOVE Will Be for Now and Forevermore.

Last Rites of Passage And Testaments.

For the Love of Life.

stV be Leave, see you again real soon.

poeMEMoir, Volume 2, Hope Springs Internal. performance, June, 2019