Progressive Schools
Benefitting from Understanding Fundamental Principles: Midland School Ninth Graders Build Pinhole Cameras
It’s easy to send photo students into the field, digital cameras in hand, to begin their photography studies. It’s quick and easy; go take some pictures.
But the quick and easy assignment skips over some fundamental understandings and history.
In this classically hands-on exercise of progressive education, Midland School 9th graders build pinhole cameras and process their [...]
Hyde School: Focus on Fundamentals
NBC Connecticut reporter Brad Drazen published a piece titled “A School to Shape Character as Well as Mind.”
While we’ve covered Hyde School quite a bit, one part of Drazens’ article stands out. It provides a succinct, presentation of Hyde’s fundamental belief and teaching that attitude, work ethic, and character provide the foundation from which [...]
Getting to Know White Mountain School
Josh Lawton, White Mountain School, Director of Admission talks about the special opportunities and experiences available to WMS students.
WMS is the only school offering outdoor certification in Wilderness First Responding and Rock and Ice Climbing under the aegis of the American Mountain Guides Association.
Fundamentally, WMS believes that its consciously small, tightly knit community provides the [...]
Students Share their Perspectives on a Hyde School Education
Four Hyde School-Woodstock students share their perspectives and experiences about Hyde’s contributions to their personal and academic growth.
Ranging from a new ninth grade student to seniors preparing college applications, the students share the ways their Hyde lessons affect their daily lives and decisions and how they will carry these lessons to college and beyond.
Colorado Rocky Mountain School Student Columnist Featured
The Aspen Daily News ran a column (Beetles: The Big Picture) written by Colorado Rocky Mountain School freshman Lea Linse.
Linse nicely sets-up the conundrum faced by mountain residents as the pine beetle wreaks havoc eating its way through evergreen forests.
Residents want to do something in the face of damage never seen before. But, untested, [...]
Supporting the Green Schools Alliance
This week Jeremy McGeorge & I attended a fund raiser for the Green Schools Alliance, a project of Global Environmental Options: GEO.
The truly inspiring event was hosted in New York City at the Green Depot (an innovative supplier of environmentally friendly and sustainable building products.) The gala was framed by shelves of products [...]
Getting to Know Colorado Rocky Mountain School
Next up in Getting to Know, my conversation with Tracy Wilson from Colorado Rocky Mountain School (Carbondale, CO).
We kicked off the segment by learning about the incredible outdoor opportunities available to their students. Did you know that CRMS students can compete in a mountain biking league? From there, the majority of our conversation focused on the [...]
Holiday Mindfulness
I came across Katie Grant’s presentation to the Colorado Rocky Mountain School student body chronicling her involvement with “Face Aids” (Colorado Rocky Mountain School junior inspires student body with Face Aids presentation). Great cause. Katie sounds like a great student.
But, I like most her closing exhortation. As we travel home or spend time [...]
Midland School Receives the Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Award (GEELA)
Congratulations to Midland School for receiving the prestigious Environmental and Economic Leadership Award. The award represents California’s highest environmental honor.
GEELA “recognizes individuals, organizations, and businesses that have demonstrated exceptional leadership and made notable, voluntary contributions in conserving California’s precious resources, protecting and enhancing our environment, building public-private partnerships and strengthening the State’s economy.”
From Midland’s statement [...]
The Putney School’s Net-Zero Energy Building
WCAX profiled Putney School’s new athletic field house- the first net-zero facility in the state of Vermont. As school CFO, Randy Smith told WCAX, “The operational cost of the building from an energy perspective is zero.” Quite impressive.
Click the image below to view WCAX’s new segment. I tried embedding it in the post, but it decided [...]
Thinking About Ted Sizer
Ted Sizer died this past Wednesday.
Though I never met or studied with him, I never cease to marvel at how much the policies, techniques, and thinking that he published and advocated over the years have become part of our daily approaches and school routines- from writing with teacher feedback, to flexible scheduling, to building relationships [...]
Ross Boarding Program Grows From Zero to Fifty in Two Years
In seventeen years, Ross School (East Hampton, NY) has grown into full K-12 progressive independent school. Now boarding students are part of the mix.
Ross now hosts almost 50 boarding students from 10 countries. For now, boarding students live with host families; dormitories are still in the offing.
“For now, students from as far away as Taiwan, [...]
What is a Canadian Boarding School?
I was thrilled when asked by AdmissionsQuest to contribute to the onBoarding School Blog, to provide information on and insight into the Canadian boarding school experience and highlight some of the issues facing the institutions north of the border. As this is my inaugural post, I thought it would be appropriate to simply pose the [...]
Read MorePhotos from My Visit to The Athenian School
Wrapping up my recap of a recent tour of Bay Area boarding schools (see A Visit to San Domenico School), below are a set of photos from my visit to The Athenian School in Danville, CA.
A progressive boarding school, Athenian offers grades 6-12 with a boarding program in their upper school. I encourage you to [...]
Respecting Labor, Better Citizens, and Challenging Assumptions About Intelligence: What Boarding Schools Can Do
“Liberal arts” and “well-rounded” are the default terms of most boarding boarding schools- the bases for their educational structures and curricula. After all, parents are paying to position the kids for college preparation and admittance. But boarding schools prove quite limited and narrow shaped by the biases of academia and college admission. How about adding [...]
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