Our Schools
In the summer of 2009, during an inspirational progressive education symposium at The Putney School, four independent school leaders asked the big questions: "What if?" and "Why Not?" And the Progressive Education Lab was born.
Through a generous leadership grant from the Edward E. Ford Foundation,
PEL became a reality.
What brought these four schools together is their collective belief in the power of progressive education and its deep connection to what is necessary in education today:
Placing students, not curriculum, at the heart of schools
Focusing on critical thinking to empower creative problem-solving
Realizing the importance of social justice and educating for participation in the democratic process
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The Calhoun School
Calhoun has been doing progressive education since the 1970s. A Beginner through 12th grade school in New York City, Calhoun is a school without walls and is known for the way its teachers engage with the rich resources of the city. At Calhoun, PEL fellows will learn how to use the power of place as a critical component in education.
The Cambridge School of Weston
CSW has been around for 125 years and is known for its module system. Students take classes in 5-week units and learn to go deep into the subject matter. As for all the PEL schools, CSW has a focus on student leadership and student voice. At CSW, PEL fellows will be immersed in the ideas that create a successful integrated studies program. Students will work with mentors who teach a ninth grade program called "Food and Culture."
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The Putney School
Putney was founded by Carmelita Hinton to "make school a more real, less self-centered venture." Putney has been teaching sustainable land use for 75 years, and the curriculum makes use of the campus working dairy farm and 500 aces of fields and woods. The core curriculum at Putney will be project and inquiry based learning.
The Unquowa School
Founded in 1917, The Unquowa School is a learning community that prizes student independence and creativity, academic vigor, personal responsibility, kindness and manners. PEL fellows will work with Unquowa's Pre-K through eighth grade students, focusing on the school's museum collaboration, a partnership with three area science, history and modern art museums.
At Putney, students grow or raise 30% of the school's food and every student has a job on campus.
Calhoun Advanced Biology students work with PEL mentor teacher Francesco Filiaci taking ice samples in Black Rock Forest. Their research will contribute to ongoing investigations of resident scientists.
The flexibility of the Mod System gives students and teachers the opportunity to immerse themselves in language and cultural studies off campus. For one Mod, a group of CSW students traveled to China to perform and continue their study of traditional Beijing Opera with the Shanghai Theatre Academy.
A Putney student cuts steel rod in the sculpture studio. About a third of Putney's students come for the arts program.
PreK-4 students at Unquowa spend a sunny afternoon expressing symmetry.
A progressive high school economics class requires research, collaboration, and debate.
Seemingly informal relationships are at the heart of this history class at CSW where big thoughts and ideas reign. The balance between imparting your discipline and forging meaningful relationships is one challenge for progressive educators.
Unquowa first graders dramatize the concept of shape at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum before interacting with a new art installation.
Putney's founder told her students "I didn't start this school so you could fit into the world. I started it so you could change the world." Here Putney students demonstrate for sustainable energy at a rally in Montpelier.
Engaging globally and learning through the intersection of disciplines are major focuses at CSW. Here students explore the forests of Costa Rica during a 4-week off-campus program integrating science and Spanish.
Hands-on learning is critical to progressive education. As Sophocles wrote, "One must learn by doing the thing; for though you think you know it you have no certainty, until you try."
Fifth graders work in Unquowa's raised herb beds as they begin to research and write 'A Concise Herbal' as part of their interdisciplinary study of Colonial America.
Cahoun's jazz band hosts a musical teach-in on "Demo Day," an end-of-term alternative to exams that challenges students to make their work public.
Partnering with colleagues is a major tenet of learning to teach in a progressive setting. Here two science teachers who co-developed a 4-week marine biology program return to the site of their longitudinal study. Typically accompanied by 14 CSW students, Marilyn and Adele continue to learn more each year.
Calhoun botany students measure acorn growth, and then collaborate with others in statistics class who will graph their data.
Cooking with students is part of the Farm to Fork resident chef program at Unquowa. Here students make pasta which will be served at lunch.
A molecular genetics student at Putney is making oil eating bacteria that glow in the dark as part of a 10 day project.
A math and a visual arts teacher co-teach a course called "The Study of Flight" at CSW. Students and teachers watch the work of the students up in the air.
Art can be lasting or ephemeral, as seventh grade students learn during the creation of temporary installations made in and of materials from Unquowa's woods.
During the school's daily unstructured community time Calhoun students elect their activities, which range from a competitive chess ladder and stock market investment club to artists for action, writing for the student paper, or catching up with friends.
In the class Cameras Inside Out, a Calhoun sophomore deconstructs a camera as she works on one of her own design.
Arts is at the center of the ninth-grade curriculum at Calhoun where all students take a Foundation of Art sequence.
Here's a class at work: what would you see if you were observing? PEL fellows will refine their observation skills as they spend time in a range of classes, or studios, keenly watching what makes good teaching in a progressive setting.
Unquowa's woods and brooks are extensions of the science classroom and are alive with things to observe and protect. Rolling aside a fallen log in early spring reveals all kinds of creeping critters for the young ones to inspect while older kids work to remove invasive species near the brook.
