Progressive schools are not all alike, but they can be characterized by their commitment to values such as these….
As head of The Independent School of Winchester (Winchester, VA), one of the most frequent questions I get asked is, “What is an independent school?” When I explain that our school is centered on progressive education, parents invariably want to know what a progressive school is all about. Not all progressive schools are alike, but at The Independent School of Winchester (ISW), we believe in:
Internal motivation: People are born with the natural desire to learn. Babies learn to walk because they want to be mobile, to explore their world, to find out what’s “over there”—not because someone rewards them with a letter grade. Wise teachers cultivate the desire to learn with exciting and enticing experiences; students rise to the challenge because, years after they learned to walk, they still want to know what’s “over there.”
Individualized Pacing: Education should be tailored recognizing that each child learns at her own pace—because she will anyway.
Experiential Learning: To learn anything well, all senses must be engaged. Years of brain research verifies this, but it’s also common sense. No child should be glued to his seat. Recent trips and speakers include:
- Black Friars Theater in Staunton
- The Museum of the Shenandoah Valley
- The Polka Dot Pot
- The Islamic Center in Washington, DC
- The National Gallery of Art
- Claude Moore Farm
- Blue Ridge Wildlife Center
- Scott “Disaster Man” Shoup, from FEMA
- PurposeFULL Paws
At the high school level, students create Milestone Projects as sophomores and Capstone Projects as seniors. Both projects offer the opportunity to dive deeply into a subject of the student’s choice. Current projects include a documentary about the making of a high school musical and an online field guide to medicinal plants in the Winchester, VA area.
The Value of the Natural World: All human beings need time outside every day. Research is finally catching up with what our grandparents knew when they told our parents to “get out of the house and go outside!” Incredibly, visitors are routinely surprised to learn that even our oldest students spend at least 45 minutes a day outside.
The Multi-age Classroom: Most people won’t spend the rest of their lives isolated by the year of their birth yet most schools segregate by birth years. It’s easier to organize a school that way. It just is. Progressive educators believe that students need seasons of leadership as well as seasons of followership; the multi-age classroom is ripe with such opportunities.
The Value of Questions: We encourage our students to ask questions—challenging questions of themselves and of us. (Why do we do it this way? Why is it important to learn this? When will I ever use this again?) And we, as adults, continually ask ourselves whether we are following the best possible practices. (Is there new research we should examine? Is there a better way to teach material? ) If an approach isn’t working, a small, progressive school like ours can make immediate course adjustments.
There are days when this isn’t the easiest, most convenient way to run a school, but we didn’t get into this field because we thought excellence would be easy.