Reply to Is Georgetown Day's Reputation Merited?

Forum Index » Private & Independent Schools

Reply to "Is Georgetown Day's Reputation Merited?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think the terms "progressive" and "structured" can be very confusing to parents, who often assume "progressive" equals "anything goes" and structured equals "rigid."

In fact, a school can be both very progressive and highly structured.

"Progressive" in pedagogical terms usually implies a commitment (at least in theory) to experiential learning, differentiated instruction, a willingness (again, in theory) to be pedagogically experimental, a willingness to consider multiple kinds of assessments (portfolios, project oral reports, etc. rather than mainly tests and papers), and a strong emphasis on colaborative learning and community. Schools can be "educationally progressive" but still have uniforms, teachers called by last names, and so on.

"Structure," meanwhile, relates more to predictability and clarity of rules, methods and expectations. In a school that is highly structured, students understand what is expected of them in terms of behavior, what it takes to get a good grade, etc., what will happen when, roles of various people, and so on. A school can celebrate Gay and Lesbian Awareness Day and have kids call teachers by their first names but still be extremely structured.

In my opinion, *all* of the top DC area privates, including the, um, ten schools in the "big 3," are at least *somewhat* progressive. And all are fairly structured. It's more a question of where on the continuum they fall.

Schools like Field are actually quite structured: classes are small, kids don't have tons of choices about what classes to take, and expectations are very clear. WIthin this structure, there is a relatively progressive approach to learning and assessments.

Schools like Sidwell or NCS lean towards greater structure and less progressivism in the upper schools.

Schools like the New School are highly progressive and much less structured.

And/but, a school that works for one kid may be horrible for another.

[/quote]

A very nice and well articulated post. Thank you![/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics