What is Progressive Education at City and Country School?
Our founder Caroline Pratt was a pioneer. She and many others created the first progressive schools in the early 20th Century as a reaction to the traditional methods of the time. Simply put, progressive schools are designed to engage students on a deep level as opposed to learning by rote. Among progressive schools there are variations in what is emphasized and how they define themselves. To help you understand progressive education at C&C, here are some of our guiding principles.
Simple By Design: Classroom Environment. We strive for a clean, spare aesthetic. Classrooms are intentionally simple, with nothing superfluous, overly stimulating, or distracting made by the teachers simply to make the room look busy. We think of the classroom as an organized blank canvas where everything has a purpose.
Simple By Design: Basic Materials. Blocks, paint, water, clay, books, paper. Our early childhood classrooms are stocked with carefully chosen, open-ended materials designed to encourage creativity and depth of learning. Open-ended materials like these require the children to come up with the ideas for how to use them--to think abstractly and creatively while increasing their attention span and problem-solving abilities. The materials are also gender neutral and thus free from the stereotypes that commercial toys often present.
Structure that Enables Discovery. Although many of our materials are open-ended and offer children freedom of discovery, our progressive program is tightly structured with a clearly defined purpose. Teachers know what concepts they are responsible for teaching, and children experiment, solve problems, and make discoveries in the process of solidifying and “owning� their skills.
Learning From Experience. Students at C&C are taught important academic and social skills and have the opportunity to practice and internalize them in powerful and practical contexts. This student is working in the School Post Office, using an array of math and organizational skills, as well as honing her sense of responsibility and ability to selfregulate and modulate social interactions with customers.
Partnership Between Children and Adults. We strive to create a partnership between teachers and students, rather than solely a top-down approach. We consider our teachers “intelligent facilitators� whose goal is to help children know how to ask questions and experience the joy and satisfaction in finding their own answers, creating a healthy habit of learning.
Social Learning Within the Community. One reason we send our children to school is to learn how to successfully work with others. At C&C we ask young children to do what we as adults attempt to do every day: to express their ideas, listen actively, collaborate, and negotiate, while continuing to develop as strong independent thinkers. Our goal is to create a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community dedicated to open communication and building solid social relationships.
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