“The problem with conformity in education is that people aren’t standardized to begin with.” Ken Robinson
As parents, we all try to provide the very best for our children—from health care to spiritual/moral training, from food to education. Fast food chicken nuggets? We all know they are mass-produced as cheaply as possible in a few central locations. They are intended for everyone and for no one in particular. High quality ingredients aren’t used; non-food additives are used to extend shelf-life. It’s pretty clearly not about making good, healthy food. It’s about creating a standardized product that will make money, regardless of the long term consequences for the consumer. While the occasional nugget probably won’t kill anyone, most parents would agree that their children’s diets should lean heavily toward fresh, locally sourced, organic-if-possible ingredients.
When it comes to education, however, not everyone realizes that most American schools have ceded control of both standards and testing to giant, for-profit corporations. The curriculum they generate is intended for everyone and for no one in particular. Like the production of the nugget, the process of developing curriculum and tests is about reducing costs and increasing profits. Multiple-choice tests are not used because they test anything well but because they make automated grading easy and cheap. And they dominate the school year—despite the best efforts of talented and committed teachers everywhere. No wonder so many students can’t wait to be done with their education.
The good news is that, as is true with food, you do have an alternative—right here in Winchester.
A really strong independent school education is more like a meal locally sourced from organic foods. At ISW, we are working to develop a very particular set of skills at each grade level, but the way we help students develop those skills is different every year, depending on the students we have in front of us. We have a group of children who love horses? Let’s read Misty of Chincoteague and go visit Assateague Island. We are studying Italy with our Kindergartners? Let’s go to a local Italian dance studio and perhaps an Italian restaurant, where we are allowed behind-the-scenes. Our high school students are reading about world current events and they ask if they can do a newscast? Why not? Our Algebra I students are working on slope. What if they build birdhouses to see how/why slope matters in the real world? Our teachers are wonderful “education chefs”!
At ISW, our content is co-created with students, teachers, and parents as partners, and the experiential component is locally sourced. On a daily basis, we talk with students about what approaches excite them, what tidbit did they hear in the news last night that relates to what we are studying, what places would they like to visit, what topic fascinates them and might be worth spending a few more days studying. In our monthly parent/teacher teaching team meetings, we talk about what’s coming up in the curriculum, and parents routinely contribute resources (friends, new locations, projects) that tie to the curriculum in the form of field trips and speakers. At ISW, the education process is truly organic, and as you might expect, our students find the process of education both exciting and supremely satisfying.
ISW was founded so that families in our region would have choices. And we work very hard to make the choice of an independent school affordable to a wide range of families. If you are interested in learning more about our organic approach to education, call us at 540-877-5552 or email us at info@iswva.org.
For the record, I attended public schools from first grade through graduate school, and my mother taught in public schools for more than 40 years. Public education as a concept has my 100% support. Corporate takeovers do not.
Claire McDonald, PhD
Head of School