“But what about the public schools? Don’t you support them?” At ISW, we hear this question frequently.
Of course we support the public schools…and independent schools…and religious schools too. As someone who was educated first grade through PhD in public school and whose mother taught in Fairfax County public schools for 40 years, I have tremendous appreciation and respect for public schools.
At ISW, we believe that every child (and, indeed, each family) is unique. No one would automatically assume that every child in a classroom would wear a size 6 shoe just because every child in the room was born in the same year. Most likely there are many size 6 shoes in the room. But there are probably also some 4s, some 5s, a 7 and an 8, and maybe even a 10.
If even a fairly simple thing like shoe size is so varied among children, why would anyone assume a one-size-fits-all approach to education would work for every student? Some students thrive in large classes. Some students thrive in small classes. Some students need more—perhaps more challenge, perhaps one-on-one teacher time, perhaps more time outdoors, perhaps fewer but deeper relationships with other children. Some students function on grade-level, find the Standards of Learning-driven curriculum appropriately challenging, and enjoy a large school setting. But many, many students will do better in other settings.
Public schools are mandated to offer an education to every child of eligible age in their region. They have limited funding and large numbers of students to manage. The vast majority of teachers and administrators in public schools do their very best, within the system, to provide high quality education to students. In the end, however, the public school system is, in the main, a one-size-fits all system tied to SOLs.
At ISW, we believe that one of the best ways to serve all children is to serve the children we have in front of us well. Just as our name implies, we are independent of the government. We aren’t tied to SOLs, and our teachers work collectively to create and implement our curriculum. We make our own calls about best practices; we continually consult brain research; we talk with other schools about what’s working for them; we look for innovative ways to help our students master the skills they will need in the future. Bottom line: we have the flexibility and the commitment to adopt new strategies on-the-spot and to abandon those that aren’t working. Most of our students are working at or well above grade level in many subjects because we have what it takes to make school work for the size 8 or 9 or 10.
We believe that all schools are stronger when families have many excellent alternatives. And we believe that one of the best ways to support public schools is to create models that work well.
Even more importantly, ISW is there for the students who just aren’t a size 6.