Jane's Pocket Change: Guest Post from Academic Dean
Why Context Matters in Education
The truest measure of any academic program is in the living its students do. Do students have the discipline to check their assumptions? Are they able to examine issues from a variety of perspectives? Are they able to clearly articulate their ideas while remaining open to criticism? Do they engage as responsible citizens? Do they practice inclusion when they encounter diversity?
The truest measure of any academic program is in the living its students do. Do students have the discipline to check their assumptions? Are they able to examine issues from a variety of perspectives? Are they able to clearly articulate their ideas while remaining open to criticism? Do they engage as responsible citizens? Do they practice inclusion when they encounter diversity?
While it is true that as teachers we spend our days working with students to strengthen their sentences, simplify their equations, and clarify the steps in their experiments, those of us who teach out of a progressive education tradition do so in a context that extends academic skills to the improvement of the human condition. At The Cambridge School of Weston, we teach so our students might learn to make the world a more just place. We teach so our students will learn to make inclusion an imperative. We teach so our students will live as responsible citizens engaged in our democratic process. These aspirations cause us to constantly challenge students to step back from their assumptions and beliefs to make sure they understand the larger contexts. In short, we expect our students to back their knowledge up with understanding, and for that understanding to be put into practice as part of their living.
The context of a student’s education shapes the purpose of their work. Learning for the sake of learning with no opportunity to engage teaches students to be bystanders. They learn to wait for their turn. The problem is that when all you do is learn to wait then all you know how to do is wait. Such an education produces an apathetic populace capable of little more than complaining from the sideline and criticizing the actions of others.
Young people want to be engaged in work that matters. They want to be taken seriously. They want to be seen as the difference that is needed now and for the future. They want their lives to be acknowledged and valued as relevant. When teachers tell students they see them working hard and that they believe that work is making a difference, then students see themselves as essential and experience their learning as their life’s work.
As a progressive school, we question the notion of education as preparation. Rather, we embrace the idea that school is reality and that doing is necessary for learning that matters. Each day we hear our students’ class discussions spill into their living. We see their living spill into their classes.
Context lifts our students’ learning up. It offers them the intellectual freedom to ask questions, challenge assumptions, and find ways to move forward in a collective effort to be the necessary difference in a challenging and often unjust world.
Photos by Grey Goss '18
Photos by Grey Goss '18
The Cambridge School of Weston is a progressive high school for day and boarding students in grades 9–12 and PG. CSW's mission is to provide a progressive education that emphasizes deep learning, meaningful relationships, and a dynamic program that inspires students to discover who they are and what their contribution is to their school, their community and the world.