Progressive Education

Lynyrd Skynyrd lyrics  “Cause I’m as free as a bird now and this bird you cannot change…” comes to mind when I think of what progressive education means to me.  While many in our society may consider the thought of children being free to make educational choices not such a good plan, it is basically what has been my educational choice for my sons for pretty much all of their schooling.

My sons began their education in a Montessori preschool.  Here they were not given lessons on the color of the week or the number of the week, but instead offer a variety of beautiful material to explore and learn many colors, numbers and all kinds of other intangibles that often aren't even presented to children in school.  After attending several years at a private Montessori school, my sons were home schooled and for one year experience the public education via virtual online school.

Through all these years of education, I discovered so much of their learning took place in the world outside the classroom.  They learned about animals by visiting zoos, wildlife safaris, pet stores and watching programs on television or documentaries.  They learned about scientific concepts like inertia and gravity through riding roller coasters at theme parks and studying up on how they’re made and exactly what is all involved in acceleration, velocity and physical force.

If you want me to point out that my sons haven’t had the full curriculum of so many course choices and requirements in almost every public education school in this country, yes, this is true.   And do they even know how to study for tests?  Yes and no…so I guess it depends on if it’s a subject they’re interested in where  studying really isn't necessary or if it’s something they don’t really care too much about where they must study to be able to understand what’s going on in class. 

So while at their progressive school, they don’t have the full fledged curriculum offer as the public education schools and there are no tests to take or grades to receive, they’re definitely learning.   And it is the “what” that is being learned which is so important in progressive education.  In high school, they do have to meet the requirements of credit hours for certain courses in order to graduate, such as English, Science, Math and Foreign Language subjects.  They don’t receive a grade at the end of the semester, instead completing an essay about it.  In this course evaluation, they write about what topics were covered and what was learned, as well as what they liked the most and least and what they want to learn more about regarding that subject.

But what my sons are really learning is how to relate to people of all ages by being role models for the younger students and working together with peers to learn and solve problems.  When you walk into a high school literature class, you won’t see students sitting in rows of desks with a teacher in front of the classroom.  Instead, you may at first not even realize who the teacher is as it may be a student leading discussion in the class.  There may be several different discussions in small groups about different concepts in literature.    Or you may discover no students at all as they went out to explore some place that relates to a work of literature they’re currently discussing.   Learning outside the school walls is a very important part of progressive education.  You may see a group of students out hiking on a school day and ask, “Shouldn't they be in school?”  When in fact what you’re seeing is a group of students exploring nature firsthand, perhaps stumbling across a plant species they discussed in Plant Science class.   And there may be one student who is discovering that they can actually make it up that large cliff side without too much assistance. 

Most people know how public education works – probably having firsthand knowledge of it.  And that being the case, it may be difficult to open one’s mind to another alternative form of education that could possibly do as well of a job educating without grades and tests.  It may at first appear a little far-fetched to even think this possible.   But upon deeper exploration, one will discover that progressive education teaches to individual students by understanding how each one learns best and using all avenues of learning to best educate.   Part of our school’s education philosophy includes this statement, "Only when a child is given genuine freedom to choose can he or she genuinely choose to learn."  So for me progressive education is the ability to soar like a free bird on the ultimate journey of knowledge - fly free and explore the world.