A Cool Day in School
by Ronnie Citron-Fink

A stomach virus flew through my classroom and wiped out half of my students on a perfect spring day. Spring fever had hit me hard and the remaining six students had a strong aversion to being cooped up in the classroom, so I decided to take the boys (for some odd reason, it was mostly girls who had got the bug) on an impromptu field trip. The Hudson Valley is a mecca for historic sites and when one child mentioned the upcoming presidential election I was quickly in the mood for presidential history. (Visions of a spring picnic played a part in the idea too.) With the help of a willing and patient parent, we drove the kids to the FDR Library in Hyde Park. I had called in advance, and even on very short notice (one hour), the education department at the FDR site came up with an interactive treasure-hunt booklet, pencils and photographs of the presidential couple and their dog Fala, for the kids. Armed with our booklet, we set off to explore the museum.

We were not your typical school group. The boys did not line up in single file or hold a buddy's hand as they investigated the exhibits. Rarely did I have to do the mandatory head count that teachers do whenever they leave the classroom. These children acted like a unit of learners: they were driven to accumulate as much knowledge as they could in the time allotted. The boys asked many questions of myself and the parent chaperone, as well as the museum room attendants and receptive visitors to the museum. All in all, these six guys seemed as comfortable in this majestic library as they were on the soccer field behind the school.

As we wound down our tour the group plopped on the floor in front of FDR's 1936 Ford Phaeton in the downstairs room of the museum and we began to finish the interactive guidebook together. We were looking for answers to the word search on the back of the booklet, when a group of about 15 college students came into the small room. While the professor toured his students around, the college kids fixated on my young students. One asked what school we were from. The Randolph School in Wappingers Falls, I answered. They were education majors at Marist College, another college student said; what kind of school was the Randolph School? I explained that it was a small progressive private school. What's that? she asked, and after fielding questions from other college students (Was this a Waldorf School? A Montessori School? Were there religious affiliations?) I glanced over to the professor and he, looking a bit embarrassed, asked me to explain progressive education to his group of student teachers.

Child-centered education, hands on experiential learning projects, small student-teacher ratios, multi-age groupings, taking responsibility and making choices for your own learning, respect and cooperation with students, teachers and parent: these are some of the touchstones of progressive education, I explained. Some view progressive education as the opposite of the standardization of education. The college students lingered, until my students regained their energy and were on to the next activity.

This encounter from a few years ago came to mind this spring when, while I was on a sabbatical from Randolph, AboutTown asked me to survey the educational choices available in our area of the Mid-Hudson Valley. There are so many of these choices—the Hudson Valley is home to great schools, both public and private, not to mention religious schools and the growing home-schooling movement— that I quickly realized it would take a whole series of articles to deal with the topic.

Before I even begin to talk about specific schools, however, I felt I owed it to readers to let them know something about my educational philosophy, which probably comes closest to what would be called a "progressive" model. Other educational philosophies are not worse or better, I just discovered that this worked best for me and answered the question, Why teach?

Let me explain how I became a teacher in a private independent school. Being a product of the public schools, including both my undergraduate and graduate degrees from the SUNY system, I always assumed that I would become a public school teacher. After a few stints teaching public school however, I became disillusioned and started to look for teaching alternatives. Strong feelings guided me towards the educational philosophy used in private progressive schools.

That said, when my family moved to Rhinebeck 22 years ago, I wanted my children to feel they were a part of this incredible community. So I sent them mostly to public school. (My son attended Randolph during some of his middle school years when I felt his educational needs would be better served there, as well as kindergarten, since Rhinebeck had only half-day kindergarten at the time and I was a working mom.) Now both my kids are settled into fine private colleges. I was somewhat satisfied with their education. Importantly, they became members of their community, something I'm not always sure private school children ever fully accomplish. The opportunities the public schools provided for my kids through sports and arts programs also helped to give them a social sense of community.

I have experienced firsthand that children have a natural ability to learn. At the same time, they need constant guidance and encouragement to discover and explore their world. I believe that a discovery method of teaching derived directly from the interest of the students is the most exciting, fun and ultimately the most effective way to teach young children. To help develop each child to reach their potential is amazingly gratifying for any teacher. To achieve this many factors have to be met beyond just fulfilling academic requirements. The social and emotional lives of children must be in balance and nurtured at school. Beyond that, children need to be respected and they need to trust. When a child trusts a teacher, the relationship is a true gift.

Now, this is not a public or private school approach. It's my own individual teaching philosophy and it may or may not work in different educational environments. It worked for me in the private schools that I worked in and I was totally committed to this approach as a young teacher in public schools. In public schools however, I found it more challenging given the time constraints, testing mandates and larger class size. I know there are teachers in public school who adhere as close as they can to this model, even given some of the limitations.

Indeed, a crucial example of the importance of seeing children as individuals first came to me while I was a student teacher at Duzine Elementary School in New Paltz. It was a typical public elementary school in every way except for one—the principal every day greeted each and every student. He knew every child's name, their birthdays and often stopped them as they scurried off the bus to ask about their weekend or how they were feeling about a homework assignment. I watched how the children's facial expressions would change from a frantic wanting to get into the building so as not to be marked late look, to a relaxed smile. Such a small act made such a big impact.

As our country embarks on another presidential election, schools throughout the Mid-Hudson Valley are filling their classrooms with lessons about presidents, voting, political campaigns and government. I reflect back to that day at the FDR Library and I remember some timely curriculum teacher prep work that came before that trip. I know right now all over the Valley teachers are enriching their Social Study units with discussions about the importance of voting, while creating maps of their communities to better understand the geography of local, state and federal governments. In Language Arts classes, children are writing stories about what they would do if they were to become president one day, while they are studying spelling and vocabulary words like campaign and electoral. Government spending might be a math topic being graphed out in a lesson. And all the while, public, private and homeschooled children are learning to become good citizens.

So, as the parent chaperone and I sat on the massive lawn of the one-time home of one of our most esteemed presidents a few years ago, and watched those boys walking very tall, pretending they were presidents (using a sandwich for a microphone), I could only surmise what the boys were thinking. On the way down Route 9 heading back to school, one of the boys said, "This was a cool day."

The teacher in me couldn't help but ask, "What's so cool about learning about presidents?" He answered, "Oh, that's cool too."

Next issue: "Public Schools in the AboutTown Area."