Progressive Pedagogies

            My first drive to Yellow Springs, Ohio to begin my Ph. D. is still vivid in my mind.  My twin sons, along with my daughter were old enough for me to strike out on my own, a process that I began early in the morning of the Sunday that began the program.  Living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania I was not more than four and half hours from Yellow Springs, so I awoke early on that morning and began driving west. Driving west out of the hills and valleys of western Pennsylvania, back into flat expanses and fields of corn of central Ohio.  This landscape brought back memories of my undergraduate studies at Oberlin College in Ohio.  I returned to the lands of reformist fervor that spawned Oberlin College in 1833 and Antioch in 1850.   My connection to the second great awakening and the spirit of utopianism has been central to my experience throughout my childhood, my college years as well as my adult life.  

            I spent my youth in Northampton, Massachusetts as the son of a college professor and a pediatrician.  Northampton has been identified by www.epodunk.comas the most liberal medium sized city in the United States.^[1]Incidentally the 10^thmost liberal large city on the list is Seattle, Washington, where I was born and the most liberal city in Ohio, where I attended college is Oberlin. The liberalism of these towns and cities is noteworthy, but does not tell the story that I am finding myself to be a part of as I am swept along in my reflection on my journey to this place at this time.   In my reflection, the liberalism of these places is less important than the tendency towards utopianism.  Northampton was home to the Northampton Association of Education and Industry, which, according to Northampton’s museum and education center, was “…a society in which the rights of all are equal without distinction of sex, color or condition, sect or religion.”  The utopian impulse, both in ideal and in practice, is present in Oberlin and Antioch’s history as well.  Both institutions were established during the second great awakening in an attempt to create institutions that could create a version of the present and of the future that exceeded the possibility of the present. 

The tendency towards utopianism is deeply enmeshed in my own experience as a student, scholar and practitioner. I entered Oberlin College as a freshman with a score of 5 in Advanced Placement Biology, an award for outstanding science performance in high school, and a clear path towards a degree in the sciences. The schedule I selected for the fall of my freshman year of college reflected this path with my acceptance into a high-level neuroscience class. In the spring of my freshman year, still intending to major in biology, I had a space to fill in my schedule. I began flipping through the course book, and found a class entitled “Christian Utopias and Communitarian Movements.”  Finding the description to be interesting, I enrolled and as soon as the class began I found myself immersed in utopian communities, such as those at Oneida, Harmony, Amana, as well as those communities such as the Amish, the Hutterites and the other Anabaptist groups who lived in multiple locations but possessed a common ethos.  

I had a sudden change of direction and decided not to study science, but instead to dig deeply into the history and theology of those 1800s utopian movements. When I am truly honest with myself about the fuel that keeps my fire burning, that fuel is deeply utopian in nature.   The places and the ideas that excite and inspire me are places like the Summerhill School^[2], a democratic school in England, or the Highlander Folk School^[3] , or Schumacher College^[4]in England, and the historical but essential Black Mountain College^[5].   These are all examples of places that believe that the world can be a better place, a fairer place that honors the totality of being. 

Although, I did not fully realize it then, it was this utopian ethos that I embraced as I drove into Yellow Spring, Ohio on that humid day in August.  That first week in Ohio as I began to know my fellow students and professors, reminded me that I was in the right place.  Even the structure of the program models the utopian communities that have enticed me. Coming together in a created community, apart from our usual lived environment, with the goal of bettering the world, and ourselves each residency is a form of utopian practice.

The question that drives me now is how to create and sustain new communities of hope, wholeness and joy.

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^[1]http://www.epodunk.com/top10/liberal/

^[2]http://www.summerhillschool.co.uk/

^[3]http://highlandercenter.org/

^[4]http://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/

^[5]http://www.blackmountaincollege.org/^[

I am the first to admit and acknowledge that I have a lot of formal education and that there are benefits to that education. At the same time, I also know that formal education laid a foundation that I was able to build upon only because of lived experience.

I learned to teach by teaching, I learned to run a school by being a school principal and I am currently learning how to run and operate an educational non-profit, but running and operating an educational non-profit. When I talk about City of Bridges High School , the statement that always gets the most head nods is when I say, “We all learn best by doing, especially when we are doing real work that has a positive impact on real people.” As adults we understand that the practice of life is multi-disciplinary, convoluted, cyclical and inherently messy. The unfortunate reality of our educational spaces for is that they all too often approach learning as siloed, standardized , linear and necessarily quantifiable. The life train and the school train are on two different sets of tracks.

I recently had the opportunity to read Tom Vander Ark’s article on Olin College of Engineering, How to be Employable Forever, the whole article is worth a read but there is one particular passage that I wanted to share in full:

“Education for the innovation economy is not just about knowledge and skill, argues Miller (Richard Miller, President of Olin College of Engineering and Design), it’s about mindset–collaborative, interdisciplinary, ethical, empathetic, entrepreneurial and global.

Developing these mindsets means an education that asks a new set of questions:

• Identity: who do you believe you are?
• Agency: what are you confident you can actually do?
• Purpose: how will your life make a positive difference?

What replaces narrow, specialized courses? Miller advocates for more global, complex, multidisciplinary challenges.”

This mindset and approach is proving to have great benefits for college age engineers and designers, and there is no reason that it cannot be applied to younger students, especially at the high school level. We also have to ask ourselves how do we extend these mindsets and values beyond the disciplines of engineering and design. If you are an artist, who do you believe you are? What are you confident you can actually do? and how will your life make a positive difference? The same question can be asked regardless of the path you choose.

So the question we need to ask ourselves is how might owe design lived experiences to foster this potential for people of all ages?

 

 

We are living in challenging times. Most of the news does not seem to be good news, from systematic oppression and racism to species extinction to climate change to income inequality, each step forward appears to be answered by a step or two back.

 

When I first became an educator, I did so for two reasons. First, I loved teaching, I loved the experience of creating environments where people can learn new things and have new insights about themselves, the world and each other. Second, and more important to this conversation I believed it was a way that I could help to change the world. I still believe that education, learning communities and sometimes schools can bring people together to transform their lives and to transform the world.

 

I was listening to 1A on NPR yesterday as I drove between meetings and the topic of the conversation was “The Smartphone Generation”. The guests were Jean Twenge, a Psychology Professor and author of the book: “IGen” and Adam Pletter a child psychologist. Adam was providing advice to parents and reminded the listeners that:

 

“We are raising young adults, not future children”

 

That statement, of course painfully obvious, is often antithetical to the experience of schooling for children and teenagers. If it is our hope that today’s children will transform the world, and we need to raise them to be young adults, not future children then we need to support educational experiences that foster the adulthood and the world that we desire.

 

The question becomes what type of world do we envision this transformation to create?

 

         I know that there are many answers to this question and I cannot hope to explore nor understand them all, but I wanted to share part of my journey and one avenue that I have found to be successful.

 

         I became familiar with Waldorf Education growing up in Western Massachusetts, home of the Hartsbrook Waldorf School. I did not attend, but at the time the school only went through 8^th grade, they now have a successful high school as well. As a result students from the Hartsbrook School attended other high schools and I had the opportunity to meet many of them and became close friends with a couple in particular. I appreciated their creativity, the depth of their experience and their curiosity for new knowledge. I went away to college and eventually found myself in the M.Ed. program at Antioch New England in Keene New Hampshire. Antioch also has a Waldorf Teacher Training program and I learning more about the pedagogy and had the opportunity to visit the local Waldorf School.

 

         After teaching in New Hampshire, my wife and I moved to Pittsburgh to be close to family when our daughter was born and when she reached school age, we decided to send her to the Waldorf School of Pittsburgh. I appreciated the protection of childhood, the developmental awareness, the inclusion of the arts, the honor and respect for the whole child and the welcoming and supportive community.

 

         It was only after we had been there a couple of years that I came to understand a component of the history of Waldorf Education that helped me to understand how it might help to transform our children and our world. Gary Lamb, an author, teacher and administrator, gave a talk about the social mission of Waldorf Education. He shared a story about the first Waldorf School, which was founded at the conclusion of World War I. Emil Molt, who was the director of the Waldorf Astoria Cigarette Factory in Stuttgart Germany, spoke with philosopher and social reformer Rudolph Steiner after a lecture about his desire to start a school for the children of the factory.

 

         Since hearing this lecture I have learned more about the depth of the conversation, but the initial question has always stayed with me, following this first modern war in which mechanization and science were used to inflict untold suffering:

 

         How do we create a school where children will go and become young adults who will treat each other and the world with kindness, respect and reverence and will lead a world of freedom?

 

         That genesis of the first Waldorf School spoke to me deeply as a parent, as an educator and as a human being.

 

         There is more to Waldorf Education than that story, but that story was my entrance into commitment to the school and its mission. Waldorf Education is turning 100 and there is a video linked below and I would invite you to watch it. Do I believe that Waldorf Education is the only solution to our new challenges? No, there are many solutions, but this school movement has grown and outlasted many others with a spirit of love and freedom, so it is at least worth a look.

 

Be Well and Joyful-Randy

 

Here is a link to the 1A broadcast: http://the1a.org/shows/2017-08-31/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation

 

Here is a link to Gary Lamb’s Book, The Social Mission of Waldorf Education: https://www.waldorfpublications.org/products/copy-of-the-social-mission-of-waldorf-education-1

 

Here is a link to 100 Years of Waldorf Education: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfec6eF4I_4&list=PLJiPFlsC4R4F-vCiLEKYTGEyO8t8TQMbW

The first core strategies of Progressive Pedagogy is:

Attention to community members emotions, contexts and lived-experiences as well as their ideas and agency

When schools and organizations are able to engage with the genuine contextualized being of their community, they are able to engage with a deeper dedication to progress, achievement and growth.

When we allow our students and/or our colleagues the permission to be vulnerable and open in their  learning and work, we enable them to connect their passion and their desire to the success of the organization.

This connection to emotions, lived-experience, ideas and agency support community members in being fully engaged in the work of learning and growing.

This sounds great, but what does it actually look like?

Well, part of the reality of holistic educational support, is that there are no simple solutions. This is true of the acute needs of a specific student and the global long term needs of the community. If there were a magic proclamation or system that produced universal results, it would already be used everywhere.

The nature of attention is inherently personal. Different people need different approaches and different opportunities in order to engage themselves in work or in a community. Therefore Attentive Organizations, schools and classrooms:

1. Expect and celebrate different ideas, approaches and outcomes
2. Have cultures of open communication and respectful dialogue
3. Encourage community members to pursue their interests and passions
4. Devote time to relationships at all levels
5. Acknowledge contributions of all community members

These might sound like ephemeral qualities and that it is impossible to ascertain their presence in an organization or a classroom, but in fact all of these qualities can be identified through a variety of methods.

Here are a couple of examples:

Quality number 1: Where do ideas come from in your school or organization, are students generating ideas and asking questions or do they all come from the teacher? Are new initiatives generated from across the organization or do they come from a smaller leadership group? Idea and Initiative genealogies can help you to determine the histories of ideas in your organization.

Quality number 2: What types of language are used in your classroom or organization. Are the terms used inclusive and empowering or do they focus on control and compliance? Are there systems for feedback in your organization? Language and systems audits can help you to explore the degree of open dialogue in your classroom or organization.

Quality number 3: How is work determined? Are students learning about teacher determined topics using teacher determined pedagogy or are their spaces for them to explore their interests in ways that best help them to learn? Do staff in your organization have opportunities to attempt novel solutions or innovative ideas? Classroom observations and task assignment maps can support your understanding of work in your school and organization.

Quality number 4: Is there time in the classroom or office to build relationships? Are you encouraged to talk about non-work and non-classroom topics or should school and work time be focused only on relevant  conversations and topics? Honest and anonymous time audits can help you figure out how people spend them time.

Quality number 5: Are the contributions of all members of the school or organization celebrated or does a smaller group receive credit for all growth and progress? Student and Staff surveys can help you to better understand the level of value that people feel in your school or organization.

All of these qualities of Attentive Organizations can be examined and supported, but in order for that to happen an organization or a school needs to first determine if they are going to be genuinely attentive and honest about the feedback they receive from examining these qualities.

 

Be Well-Randy