This article describes exactly how my preschool started last year, just full of free, unstructured, unplanned, unexpected learning. I didnt come to school with a plan for organizing everyones time. I had ideas and possible targets, I had... intentions. But I didnt care to know how every moment would be managed, whether we would stay in or go outside, whether we would paint or not... I came prepared to run about, to follow a three year olds lead, to improvise. When I set up the class I had two concerns, to make things accessible to the students in a way that supports their independence and decision making, and to surround all of us with beautiful, natural, interesting things. Amazing things happened every day, Mrs. Murtaza would leave an exotic seed pod from her garden on my desk, Oonaiza would send H to school with a giant Laburnum stem all abloom with a shower of delicate yellow flowers, Rz would walk in holding an ordinary brown stick and tell me it was his gawbige twuck machine, spiders would show up in the bathroom, migratory birds would fly into our windows and spazz out long enough to be caught, identified and set free. Captain Z had the best throwing arm I have ever seen or heard of on a three year old, he could pitch a ball (substitute with ceramic object, magnifying glass, hard amethyst) clear across the hall, playing field, etc. And he needed to learn how to channel that strength to his advantage outdoors and manage it indoors. Everyone was deciding what to teach, and when to teach it. Girls showed up in ghararas and pretended to be princesses who went to balls all the time, prompting us to step in and remind their highnesses of the other duties of rulers; looking at the economy, at agriculture, at education and public health... it took us into a whole giant unit about kingdoms and government, and thereafter to mapmaking and cartography, and thereby to landforms and geography, and subsequently to measurement of landmass and area and multiplication and on and on. I felt and still feel confident that I could personally take responsibility for every kid in my unstructured classroom coming out knowing a lot, knowing more than enough, by just playing with them. Maybe its the big geek in me, maybe its being equally fascinated with math and science as I am with words and music, maybe its being so in love with how things connect that Im always prepared for teachable moments, maybe its the way I was raised... the Montessori way. Fortunately or unfortunately however, Teacher Toms school is more radical than what NJs looks like this year or looked like at the end of last year. One of the reasons is that were not quite ready for it. We need more teachers who believe in this way of teaching; in stepping back and creating a democratic learning community. Teaching this way is MUCH harder; teachers need to have a clear philosophy of education that doesnt get blurry when theyre acting on the spot, they need to prepare the environment, observe everyone very closely, they need to have ambitious goals for their students, they need to do a lot of research and self-study, they need to like bugs and step out of their comfort zone, they need to stretch their capacity for generosity as far as it can go... and most importantly, they need to know their subject matter really really well. They need to know how to get kids to read, how to work literacy into whatever activities are under way, they need to responsibly manage learning outcomes. That last one is where unstructured classrooms fall apart and become impossible. Parents need to see learning managed with confidence and transparency. Being an inclusive school we want to support families that are choosing not to speak English at home, and support working parents who have less time than they wish to play with their kids after school. Additionally, reading in a multi-lingual society is different than in a monolingual print-rich world. Not every kid, even at NJs, is going home to an environment that supports native reading, there arent any libraries or museums, there arent plays and musicals full of stories, there arent always grandparents or caretakers with access to articles or research about how children learn. Its not about a lack of motivation on the part of our faculty or our parents, its just where we are in this journey. We have extremely dedicated, compassionate, creative and intelligent teachers at NJs. But asking anyone to work like Teacher Tom is like asking them to believe that your winged bicycle will fly - they will believe when they see it. Democracy in the classroom is messy and scary before it is beautiful and impressive, believing that it will set us free as learners means putting our faith in the power of the human mind to learn. We are learning about learning at NJs and right now thats an important step. Until then, for the benefit of parents and teachers alike, we have a defined set of learning objectives to meet each week. We try, because we are NJs, to have an individual set of objectives for kids at their own level of learning, and we make our lessons captivating enough that we dont have to push or goad anyone. Opportunities for freely interacting with the content taught are still at the heart of how we teach; provocations, teachable moments, student questions, inquiry - these are all part of the mix. We have a plan. Its a good plan. Yet here I am brimming with envy, feeling slighted that I cannot be Teacher Tom anymore.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Nov 2013 05:00:52 +0000
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