What does it mean to be a "progressive" school?
The term 'progressive' is used in many contexts, with differing meanings and implications. In education, the word is most often associated with a movement that began in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century with the work of educators such as John Dewey, Helen Parkhurst, Francis Parker, Charles Eliot and Ella Flagg Young (to name but a few).
From its earliest days, up to the present time, progressive educational philosophy has been driven by several core concepts about what 'good education' is:
1. It must be relevant to the child, by linking learning that happens in the classroom, to the child's life and wider world outside the classroom.
2. It must involve the child developing understandings via engagement in projects that are grounded in experiences (hence the term 'experiential learning').
3. Learning is largely social, motivated by relationships and meaningful social contexts and problems. Classroom activities should therefore promote interaction, discussion and collaboration between children.
4. Education should have a democratic function, that is, it should encourage children to become active contributors to their society - teaching them to question the existing features of their world and, when necessary, actively help to bring about improvements.
5. Children learn best when given increasing responsibility for their learning and actions, and when the school environment is designed around their specific individual and collective needs. Learning occurs most efficiently and enjoyably when individuality of thought and action are fostered in a nurturing community.
Current research in the cognitive and developmental sciences continues to validate these early insights into learning and what motivates children to become successful learners and members of society. From its inception, educators within the progressive education movement have sought to inform their practice with current scientific understandings and social ethics as they apply to child development. In 1916*, discussing the importance of nurturing individuality to promote the common good, John Dewey wrote: "The voice of nature speaks for the diversity of individual talent and for the need of free development of individuality in all its variety. Education in accord with nature furnishes the goal and the method of instruction and discipline...The development within the young of the attitudes and dispositions necessary to the continuous and progressive life of a society cannot take place by direct conveyance of beliefs, emotions, and knowledge. It takes place through the intermediary of the environment...It is truly educative in its effect in the degree to which an individual shares or participates in some conjoint activity. By doing his share in the associated activity, the individual appropriates the purpose which actuates it, becomes familiar with its methods and subject matters, acquires needed skill, and is saturated with its emotional spirit."
At Queen Anne Community School, our teachers seek to continue this rich history of reflective practice, and to balance each child's individual growth with their sense of responsibility to contribute positively and collaboratively within their community. We aim to have each child view themselves as capable of changing the world through their conscious, compassionate actions. It is this underlying value of how we approach each child's social, emotional and cognitive development that we believe makes our school truly 'progressive'. We believe that great schools should not only foster the development of the necessary skills and knowledge, but empower children to want to make the world a better place - to improve it through their relationships, learning, action and reflection.
* (For those interested, you can access a full-text copy of Dewey's 'Democracy and Education' at: http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/publications/dewey.html).
** To learn more about other progressive schools, please visit our Progessive School Links page.
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