Looking Back with Jody Holden

Looking Back With Jody Holden The Beginning of High Meadows School

Interviewed & Written by Lee Hunter, Ph.D. Edited by Carlyn Romeyn, Ph. D. & Kathryn Romeyn Marks 40

Kids playing in the meadow

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Table of Contents Forward & Dedication by Kathryn Romeyn Marks Introduction

1

The Chattahoochee School & Camp

3

The Move to High Meadows

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High Meadows School Founders

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Jody Holden

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“Nursery-School Teacher”

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The Influence of the British Infant School Model

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Multi-Age Classrooms

15

Authentic Assessment

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Core Values of High Meadows Classrooms

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Collaboration among Colleagues

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The Co-Teaching Model

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1973-1993 Twenty Years of Growth

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1980s

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Move to Non-Profit Status

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1990s

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Retirement and Board of Trustees

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Looking Back

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Forward & Dedication There is no single “best” memory of my education at High Meadows School, which lasted from 1989 until 1998. Instead, my brain and heart contain an infinite patchwork quilt of joyful moments that, even decades later, flash through my consciousness surprisingly frequently, triggered by any number of things.

Since I’ve become a mother, it’s even more often I think of flying under tree-dappled sunlight on the tire swing, of uninhibited hours of meadow time, of riding Bingo and witnessing the ritualistic shearing of Wooly B, of collaborating on the construction of a life-sized whale from recycled materials. I remember rehearsing plays in the Barn Theater (which my sister, Elizabeth—also a student—and I watched my father and other parents build), reading in the caboose library, woodworking in the barn, stargazing from the high meadow, creating living museum “exhibits," practicing archery, cooking breakfast on coffee cans after campouts, tagging birds, earning stickers instead of grades, caring for class pets, collecting chicken eggs…. what has stayed with me is the WONDER. Over my many years at High Meadows I laughed, I built, I connected, I cried, I questioned, I learned, I made, I discovered, I became… all in the safe, supportive but above all free environment stretching over meadow and forest and classroom, all entwined as one.

It’s the High Meadows way. Though we share a community and classrooms, lessons and projects, each and every student gains a completely one-of-a-kind experience. With infinite interpretations and boundless choices, the uniqueness of our educations is something to treasure. This is not an institution that churns out one type of person or student. It’s a school where the intricacies of each child are explored deeply and encouraged to blossom.

As we all do, High Meadows School started off small and grew. Over half a century, thanks to visionary roots and diverse leadership, the school has flourished, improved, evolved and experienced growing pains, the whole journey imbued with an incredible amount of heart and soul.

Throughout my pre-teen and teen years, I was excruciatingly shy. But I think even as I remained quiet much of the time, I was a sponge soaking it all up, preparing for a time in later life when I would release it all. I opened up later in my chosen career as a travel journalist, for which half my job is speaking to strangers and exploring the unknown.

High Meadows is as critical to who I am today as are my family and the manner in which I was raised. The school is core to my very being—to my respect for nature, the world and its gorgeous diversity, to my work ethic and to my personal belief system.

Without having been a seedling nurtured by my teachers and community at High Meadows, I would likely never have ventured out to live in other states and, eventually, halfway around the world in Indonesia. I likely would not have become a traveler, for there’s a good chance my curiosity would not have been stoked and my love of other cultures would not have been so engrained. I probably would not have had the voice to host podcasts about conscious travel and sustainable changemakers. I may not have had the capacity—nor the confidence—to dream of building a home in a foreign country as a single woman and later move into that abode full-time with my husband to raise our children in the outdoors in a place that honors and respects Mother Nature like I learned from our own beloved Mother Nature, aka Bunny Sheffield.

I wholeheartedly believe that the seeds of my entire journey were planted on my first day of school at High Meadows. It’s where I not only was nourished with knowledge, but treasured and empowered to become exactly and only me.

Amazingly, I still feel more a part of the High Meadows family than I do at the university I attended. That’s partially owed to the fact that my parents, Steve and Carlyn Romeyn, both former members of the Board, stayed involved long after I graduated. They commissioned this particular school history piece as a tribute to Jody Holden and as a gift from the Romeyn family to the greater High Meadows community.

With deep gratitude and deeply imprinted memories, as one of thousands of fortunate individuals whose lives were positively impacted by High Meadows, I send Jody, the school and everyone who has contributed, a gargantuan thank you from the depths of my heart. Thank you for your vision and for creating what has been a life-affirming house of imaginative learning for 50 years and for the next 50—at least!—to come.

—Kathryn Romeyn Marks, class of ’98

Origina lT

ire Swin g

Introduction High Meadows. Forty plus acres of meadows and woods; ponies, bunnies, chickens, sheep, and goats; gardens; Grandfather Tree; the iconic tipi and tire swing. And always children. Children running, laughing, reading, writing, cooking, building, playing. Engaged children learning by doing: calculating volume and area while planning a class garden; writing and illustrating their own picture book; building trebuchets in a unit on the Renaissance; testing stream water in their Education for Sustainability class; bird banding; and learning about sportsmanship and working as a team as they play kick ball in PE. With its natural campus, animals, experiential curriculum, and child-centered philosophy, High Meadows stands alone among metro Atlanta schools. Walking across campus today, we may wonder who first conceived of such a school. What blueprint did they follow? What educational philosophies and strategies guided them?

Four people, all of whom shared a background in education and summer camps, founded High Meadows School and Camp in 1973: Michael Drake, an educator and administrator in independent academies and a summer camp counselor; Bill Crawford, who left the corporate world in 1961 to serve as Business Manager for Camp Chattahoochee in Roswell, Georgia; Jay Dickerson, an educator in Atlanta-area independent schools and summer camp Head Counselor; and Joanne (Jody) Holden, an early-childhood educator.

Each founder played an integral role in establishing High Meadows School and Camp. However, when we look at the educational practices of the School, the underlying beliefs about children and how they learn, all agree that Jody Holden’s vision of education guided the direction of the school in its earliest days. In a 2002 letter, Michael Drake explains: “Jody was both the school director and the inspiration for the creativity the school displayed” (Appendix I).

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The fo u

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However, as a young woman attending Duke University, Holden was ambivalent about becoming a teacher. “Back then,” she recalls, “there were three career opportunities for women, and I knew I didn’t want to be a nurse or a secretary.” She did know that she didn’t want to “spend her undergrad time in teacher education.” Instead, she earned her degree in History.

After graduating in January 1956, Holden began a Master’s program in Education, completing one semester of coursework before marrying Horace Holden. She recalls that semester as a difficult one, particularly the class in child development. For her, learning content without a practical context or system had little meaning. She remembers learning the ages and stages of early childhood development and laughs, as she recalls thinking, “why do I care when a baby rolls over?”

Almost twenty years later, Holden would complete her graduate coursework in early childhood education and earn a Master of Education degree at Georgia State University (1974). At this time, after teaching preschoolers for over ten years and parenting four children of her own, she viewed her childhood development course as “wonderful.” Those experiences had provided her with a framework to make sense of the class material. For Jody, learning without context and experience is fruitless, as “information either has no meaning or is just something to memorize.”

In addition to her intelligence and education, others often remark on the intangible qualities Holden possesses, particularly her intuitive understanding of children. In 1998 on the twenty-fifth anniversary of High Meadows School & Camp, Margie Cooper, a High Meadows parent and an early childhood consultant, wrote:

I have been humbled by the ease with which [Jody] understands issues, situations, and contexts which have taken me years of formal instruction to begin to understand. While I have had the good fortune of interacting with dozens of renowned scholars in the field of early childhood education, none, not one, has shared the depth of knowledge, practical insight, nor the graceful humbleness of Jody. (“Reflections on Jody Holden,” Appendix F)

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The Chattahoochee School & Camp The seed of High Meadows School & Camp actually began in 1961, when Jody and Horace Holden purchased 88 acres along the Chattahoochee River, north of Atlanta, in Roswell. Horace Holden, who had taught at The Westminster School in Atlanta, planned to run a summer day camp. For the High Meadows founders, camp and school are deeply connected, as all had extensive experience in summer camps, attending while young and counseling as adults.

The Holdens’ Chattahoochee Camp was modeled on the Fritz Orr Camp, a successful camp in Atlanta originally founded in 1929 by Atlanta attorney and father of four boys, Charles B. Shelton. Shelton hired Fritz Orr, a 24-year-old math instructor and camp counselor, to teach sports to his boys and other neighborhood kids after school on the Shelton’s estate.

Eventually, Orr purchased a camp location off Nancy Creek Road in Atlanta, and in 1938, Fritz Orr Camp opened during the summer, offering activities such as canoeing, swimming, archery, and horseback riding. Young Horace Holden and High Meadows co-founder Bill Crawford attended Fritz Orr Camp and worked as counselors. (The Westminster School acquired the Fritz Orr Camp property in 1953 to become part of their campus.)

Jody, who in 1961 was mother to two boys (two more children would come), planned to run a preschool for three- and four-year-olds during the nine months when summer camp was not in session. For the Holdens, “Chattahoochee School and Camp” developed, in part, for practical reasons. Because the camp operated solely in the summer months, the school could make use of the campus and its facilities for the other nine months of the year, offering the Holdens a career that both loved, as well as an income for their growing family.

Jody Holden points to two significant influences that occurred during the Chattahoochee years. One was the relationship between school and camp. She explains:

Early C h

atta

hooch ee Sch The relationship between camp and school ool & C amp was very important in the nature of what we did. Every kid loves camp. So how can school be more like camp? What is it about camp that kids love?

And how can that be part of school? We wanted as much outdoor fun and exploration that we could build into school.

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In 1998 Jody wrote that she and her co-founders shared a “perception that the outdoors offers special, essential, and often overlooked learning and life-quality to children and teachers.”

Having the vast campus of Chattahoochee impacted how the teachers structured their day and activities. Holden remembers coming outside the classroom onto a field and a “big bank that had been cut out to make a place for the [classroom] building”:

Kids played all over that bank; we called it the mountain. And they just loved it.

They loved it because they were going up and down—it was a balance challenge.

There was a young wild growth of trees and [the children] made paths in and out of all these trees and they could hide. We also took lots of walks.

In addition, there was a small tree house and a sand box. “The intentions were to encourage imagination, friendship groups, and responsible risk taking,” says Jody. “DHR would not have approved them, but children were happy and successful at play” (“The Tire Swing Tree,” Appendix O).

As the 1968 Chattahoochee School and Camp brochure explains, “During the first year the teachers became aware that the surrounding meadows and forests held special opportunities for the children. Units of study on the world of nature that surrounds the school were developed to take the children outside for learning” (Appendix D).

The second influence on Jody Holden’s philosophy and on the school’s philosophical development, was kindergarten teacher Katherine Singletary. Before 1961, co-teachers Katherine Singletary and Tillie Wood taught their private Kindergarten class in Roswell’s City Hall. When the City of Roswell needed that space, Singletary and Wood moved their class to Chattahoochee. For Holden, learning from Singletary was the “most formative experience” she had had to that point. Although Singletary taught a phonics program to her students, her emphasis for her five-year-olds in the 1960s was primarily on social aspects like getting along and playing together comfortably. Jody recalls the “great respect” Singletary had for children and her effect on the children she taught: “Children were relaxed, comfortable, and felt safe in her presence.” Singletary may not have fit the mold of what many consider a kindergarten teacher to be. “She was in her 50s and did not have a warm, fuzzy demeanor,” Jody remembers, “ but the students absolutely loved her.”

Chattahoochee School and Camp operated from 1961-1973. In those years, Jody Holden taught three- and four-year-olds while Singletary and Wood taught kindergarten. In the summers, Horace Holden ran the camp.

Three of his employees would join Jody in founding High Meadows School & Camp: Bill Crawford (Business Manager); Jay Dickerson (Head Counselor); and Michael Drake (Camp Counselor).

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’s cla gletary Mrs. Sin

Multi-age play 8

During its years of operation, Chattahoochee School grew, with enrollment reaching 140 children by 1973; facilities were added, including classroom space and a gymnasium. Pony riding became a part of the school program in 1962, and the outdoor space continued to play a greater role in the school’s programs. The 1968 brochure explains:

Increasingly the woods have become a classroom for study, searching, experimenting and role-playing. . . . It has become a responsibility now to extend this opportunity beyond the pre-school age to enrich and motivate children of all ages. The acres of woods and meadow, and, even more important, the spirit of confident, lighthearted inquiry must be put to full use for fulfillment in the city’s child. (Appendix D) It is in the Chattahoochee School’s educational philosophies and programs that we find the cornerstone of High Meadows School’s values and core beliefs. As early as 1968, Holden, with the influence of Singletary, articulated her beliefs about early childhood education:

To Learn Creatively, A child, functioning within a class group, must have some choice as to the way [they] learn. There must be several approaches to the mastery of skills that accommodate varying interests and that develop particular skills.

To learn creatively, a child must also be allowed to learn experimentally. . . . [they] must be allowed to make mistakes and discover the results of responsible freedom.

To learn creatively, [they] must also be given the desire and the skills to express creatively the ideas that exposure to knowledge has inspired within.

Child-centeredness is the environment in which these conditions bear fruit. It is comprised of an attitude in which plans and programs are formed. It is a relationship of teacher and child in which the child discovers that [they] are acceptable, even good; that [they] have nothing to fear, that [they] are free to grow, to explore, to achieve, to learn joyously. (Chattahoochee School and Camp Brochure, Appendix D)

These tenets, articulated over fifty years ago, remain at the heart of the educational practices of High Meadows School.

The campus location has changed; teachers and students and administrators have come and gone; facilities have been built, remodeled, moved, repurposed, demolished, and rebuilt; and technology unimagined in the 1960s has come into the classroom. But these core beliefs about how children learn have remained in practice. As Jody explains, “Facilities and campuses change over time. There’s a worry that changing things will take away all that was old. But our relationship to children and the way children are taught is what shouldn’t change. That’s what we’re keeping.”

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The Move to High Meadows In 1973 Horace Holden made plans to sell Chattahoochee School and Camp. Bill Crawford, Jay Dickerson, and Michael Drake knew the camp’s clientele and knew they could work together to run a day camp. When they discovered the forty-acre Franklin farm for sale in Roswell, not far from Chattahoochee School and Camp, they created a corporation to purchase it. Jody Holden was invited, she says, into this group to run the school while they focused on the camp. The property was named “High Meadows” in honor of the upper meadow, said to be the highest point in Roswell. The first summer camp was held in the summer of 1973, and school began the following fall, offering classes in Preschool and Kindergarten.

al Origin

Sign

The 1973 High Meadows campus contained the structures of the Franklin farm and incorporated them into an evolving campus. The Franklins had built and lived in a ranch-style home, now known as “Franklin House”; their daughter Natalie Davis had lived in a small 1920s brick and stone house, now called the “Stone Cottage.” They had a long chicken house on the upper meadow for raising chickens commercially, a barn, a tractor shed, and a well. A preschool building went up quickly that summer to provide classroom space, while the farm setting and its animals influenced the curriculum and activities of the new school from Day One. One iconic symbol of High Meadows School and Camp that made the move from the Chattahoochee School to the new campus was the tire swing! In 2000, Holden recalled a swing at Chattahoochee which had hung from a mature redbud tree behind the preschool building for three- and four-year-olds. “It was put there for practical purposes—not symbolism, not tradition, but something to play on outside” (“The Tire Swing Tree”). When they moved to the new campus, everyone wanted to Original Tir bring things that “expressed the spirit of the school. The tire swing was e Swing 19 73 replicated and became a symbol of what we wanted to give our children.” The tire swing was placed on a full-grown box elder right outside the [then new] preschool classroom building.

Jody recalls that “Bill [Crawford] and Jay [Dickerson] built a bench that surrounded the tree that providing a place to sit or a place to take off from. And amazingly, the rope was just the right length—the tire would bump on the backswing, but the child never did!” (Appendix O).

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Over fifty years later, the High Meadows tire swing can be found on the Lower Meadow, hung from a large southern red oak on a high, sturdy branch. In today’s world, a time of video games, structured play, and scheduled activities, the tire swing stands as a symbol of the school and its beliefs about children and education. For Jody Holden,

A tire swing is a symbol of what it is to be a child. Children are not studying, not setting goals, not building curricular concepts as they swing or as they wait for their turn to swing. These things are important, but we feel that they fall short if the child has not felt what it is to swing under the broad shade of a full grown, strong tree—a nurturer, protector that lets the imagination and the partnership go in many directions. In a swing, the imagination is the key, and the child can make the experience what he or she is ready for. (“The Tire Swing Tree,” Appendix O).

In addition to the Chattahoochee tire swing, several staff members continued at the new school in 1973, including Marjorie Magee, Bunny Sheffield, and Mary Faith Allen. Katherine Singletary also came to High Meadows. After she retired from teaching, she became the weekly “Story Lady” until the late 1980s.

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Swing 2023 Current Tire

High Meadows School Founders Each of the four founders had areas of expertise allowing them to work together to create the unique place that is High Meadows School & Camp. Bill Crawford had opted to leave the limitations of the corporate world in 1961 to serve as the Business Manager for Chattahoochee Camp. Michael Drake recalls that Crawford was “the financial brains behind the operation. Every operation needs someone who can make the balance sheet work correctly, and Bill was exceptional at making our wishes work out by careful economic planning. His vision for the day camp also allowed us to fill a void in North Atlanta in terms of what a good day camp should be” (Appendix I). For Jody:

ill & B f o Pic here y l i m fa wford

a Bill Cr

One of Bill’s greatest contributions to the quality of High Meadows was the involvement of his family. Sandra, his wife, served as receptionist and office manager for many years. A professional singer, Sandra was music teacher in the early years of school. Florence Crawford, his mother, performed many functions in the office and with counselors and teachers. By living on campus, [in what is now Crawford Cabin] she was a guardian. Her favorite department was the arts and craft shop in summer camp. She was its director throughout. As a lover of gardening, she provided us with tomatoes and zucchini squash. (Appendix N) Jay Dickerson was a teacher at both the Westminster and Lovett schools in Atlanta, worked as head counselor at Camp Chattahoochee in the summers, and brought to High Meadows his diverse camp experiences. “Jay’s unique contribution, says Michael Drake, “was his wilderness experience that could be marketed under the High Meadows label. Most camps offered an opportunity for younger age groups but then ran out of options for those who were older. Jay’s program allowed us to offer a program that was unique in terms of what was being done in our area” (Drake, Appendix I).

Jay Dickers

on

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In High Meadows’ early years, Dickerson also participated in financial planning and decision making. Jody remembers that he particularly enjoyed the travel programs. Although Jay had originated them independently, he incorporated them into the High Meadows Camp programs. Activities including touring the Western parks, skiing, canoeing in the Canadian Lake country, and camping/hiking trips in the Southern Appalachians. After his retirement from teaching in 1989, Dickerson became more involved in the camp program, eventually becoming the Camp Director after the sale of High Meadows to its Board of Friends in 1993.

Michael Drake was also in the field of education, having been a teacher and headmaster at independent schools in Tennessee and Georgia.

Drake was a camp counselor at Camp Chattahoochee every summer since its inception. At High Meadows Camp, Drake was “program director and personnel supervisor [as well as] designer of camper transportation and bus routes.” Holden remembers that he was the “director who worked with parents when a child needed particular attention” (Holden, “Personal letter,” Appendix N).

Probably all of the founders would agree with Drake’s statement in 2002 that they “were blessed in how [their] talents seemed to meld so carefully.” Although Michael Drake and Jay Dickerson were teachers, their roles at High Meadows revolved around the camp. Both Drake and Dickerson would keep their “winter jobs,” teaching in their respective independent schools, but summers were given to High Meadows. Holden, then, with her experience teaching preschoolers at Chattahoochee School, became the director of the High Meadows School program. In her words:

Michael Drake

The direction and philosophy of the school were left to me. I and those who joined the school staff had a unique opportunity to develop programs and systems that we believed held the most meaning and relevance for children.

The campus offered a beautiful place where children could be introduced to outdoor experiences. I completed a master’s program as new developments in experiential, multi-age and creative education came forward. My partners, though excellent products of conventional, high achievement programs, gave me and the school staff their confidence to offer a different kind of education for young children. (“Personal letter,” Appendix N)

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Jody Holden Certain “buzz-words” arise again and again in discussions with parents and co-workers who worked with Jody Holden.

They describe her as thoughtful; instinctive; respectful of children; insightful; committed; and humble. These intrinsic gifts, combined with her hands-on experience teaching preschoolers and her educational studies, helped Holden forge an educational experience for children unique in the Atlanta area.

Born in Brevard, North Carolina, Holden recalls building forts, riding bikes, reading, and observing. As a girl, Holden would sit on the front porch and watch the sun set and watch the rain come: “Nearly every day it rained, and I remember watching the rain come. You could see it.” She also watched her neighbors across the street, including an older man who raised pigs and had a mule. Although she had an older sister, Holden didn’t have many playmates in her neighborhood. “I think I became something of a follower or something of an observer in figuring out how to play.”

After their marriage in 1956, Horace and Jody Holden moved overseas so Horace could study at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. There, Holden took classes in European and Church History. Returning to the States to live in Richmond, Virginia, Jody Holden taught English at a private, all girls’ high school. Holden smiles as she recounts her first teaching experience: “At that stage of my life and in my teaching, my focus was ‘These kids are going to learn. I’m going to make them learn. They’re going to do well. I’m going to see to it.’”

h Pre-K kids in

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“Nursery-School Teacher” In 1961, when Holden began teaching her first early childhood class at Chattahoochee School and Camp, her approach would change dramatically.

What I learned from teaching three- and four-year-olds is that you don’t just treat them like you treat “big” students. They will let you know what they can and want to learn and our business is to watch out for them, to provide it. I still think everybody who teaches anything should teach preschoolers first.

Teachers probably won’t get away with bringing their structures and their particular achievement goals to the children rather than letting the children let you know what they’re ready to achieve.

Early in her teaching career at Chattahoochee, Holden learned the values of early childhood education that would become central to the philosophy of High Meadows School. She believes these values developed while “watching children play. I had a preschool without [having had] early childhood training. That’s when I perceived what engaged children; I also perceived what you could not ram down their throats. I wasn’t trying to create something wonderful and ‘high-minded.’” While Singletary often focused on group interaction, teaching the kindergarteners how to get along socially and responsibly, Holden was more interested in what “engaged” children. Holden saw these slightly different approaches as complementary, with each teacher learning to appreciate the other’s perspective.

Also, the expectations of early childhood education in the 1960s were quite different from current expectations. In the 1960s, the term “nursery school” as opposed to “preschool” was used for Holden’s Chattahoochee School classes of threeand four-year-olds. Holden remembers the freedom she and other teachers had in their young classrooms: “The mindset of what a child is supposed to be learning was so different. Nobody expected us to do anything but social stuff and play and art and blocks.” Of course, early childhood teachers at Chattahoochee did work with letters and numbers in the classroom, but it had not been a particular area of emphasis.

Jody with Pre-

K class

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The Influence of the British Infant School Model In addition to her on-the-job training at Chattahoochee School, Holden had a pivotal experience at Georgia State University while earning her Master of Education degree. In the early 1970s, she participated in a workshop on the “British Infant School” model, which would provide the methodology and the rationale for the High Meadows philosophy.

Holden recalls that the Georgia State workshop was run by a principal and a teacher from the public schools of Leicestershire, England. With their guidance, the workshop members created a classroom which included blocks, a reading corner, a writing desk, and what the workshop teachers called a “Wendy Corner” for imaginative play (“Wendy” as in Peter Pan). Despite being titled “Infant School,” this British model was for five-year-old children for only one year until they turn six. In this workshop, Holden saw examples of hands-on experiential learning and materials that represented concepts and encouraged exploration. As the child became inspired or interested in more academic areas of education, teachers would facilitate their learning. For example, a teacher might work with a child who came to the writing desk. According to Jody, “It requires a certain sensitivity to what the child wants to do and the degree to which they could do it.” The same approach was used with reading. Before the children’s fifth year was over, they were reaching into academics and writing; however, they also were still exploring, playing in the sandbox, and painting on easels outside.

The first British “infant school” was established by Robert Owen in Scotland in 1816 out of a desire to “shield children from the effects of poverty. This school was designed to provide children with a pleasant school environment” (“Infant Schools in England”). Designated as “infant schools” because they accepted poor children of two to seven years of age, these schools offered a safe learning environment for those whose mothers worked outside the home: “Teachers encouraged children to help each other, dance, sing, and play outside” (“Infant Schools”). In the twentieth century, these infant schools adopted a child-centered approach and learning through exploration.

Holden’s graduate seminar at Georgia State University coincided with a recent movement in the British public elementary system. In 1967 Lady Bridget Plowden headed a parliamentary commission that advocated child-centered, open classrooms. The “Plowden Report” (officially titled Children and Their Primary Schools) began a movement that many in the 1970s would call “open classrooms” or “open education,” which emphasized “learning by doing” in non-traditional classroom settings, often with multi-age groups of students.

Kids doing

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projects

Charles Silberman describes “open education” in The Open Classroom Reader (1973): For the open classroom . . . is not a model or set of techniques, it is an approach to teaching and learning.

The artifacts of the open classroom—interest areas, concrete materials, wall displays—are not ends in themselves but rather means to other ends. . . . In addition open classrooms are organized to encourage:

Student p

roject

• Active learning rather than passive learning; • Learning and expression in a variety of media, rather than just pencil and paper and the spoken word; • Self-directed, student-initiated learning more than teacher-directed learning.

For Holden, who had herself “learned while doing” by teaching a preschool class without a degree in child development or education, the Georgia State Seminar provided her with a framework and a methodology: “The vision became clear. I learned [that] ‘this is how you do it.”

This is how you take a child that you can see learns from “this” and wants to learn “that” and present it to them and not have it structured by rules or expectations or authority. You can fix it to where they love what they’re doing. It suggests that you just leave them alone, and, of course, that is not true. You have to provide certain kinds of experiences, and you have to take those experiences and extract curriculum from them. Then you have to take it another step or introduce another step. They used to say, “But you’re just letting them play.” And, ok, so we are, but it’s what we need to be doing now.

You take an interest and you give them ways to explore it, to relate it to all the other phases of the curriculum.

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Multi-Age Classrooms A direct result of Jody’s British Infant School seminar was the development of multi-age groupings. She recalls, “Way back then, when I first got interested in it, they called multi-age grouping “Family Style,” because siblings in a family, without even knowing it, operate that way. The oldest child in the family is the model and the younger is looking at the older. The fact that they’re in each other’s presences—they are accounting for each other and learning how to get along. They are learning how to know what the other one knows.”

A High Meadows School marketing document, “Benefits of Multi-Age,” sums up Holden’s views:

This class grouping resembles family and neighborhood groupings, which have informally educated children throughout human history, and have provided much of children’s socialization skills. The demands and stresses of 1990’s America make it difficult for parents to provide family or neighborhood experiences, and consequently, many of our children are deprived of the kind of learning made possible by this inter-age contact.

(Appendix B) Holden’s experience has shown that in the two-year grouping that High Meadows uses, the older child, from the point of view of personal development, is often the beneficiary of the system:

The [elders] become models and they perceive that. And they are - I don’t know how this happens- but they become generous and sweet. The elders are helpers, and they model helpfulness. They develop confidence as a reward.

In Jody’s view, teaching a single grade level is, indeed, “easier” for educators. However, not all children fit into a single year-level. Holden also refers to a multi-age configuration as “vertical grouping,” a configuration that allows teachers to focus on the development of a skill over time, rather than assessing the skills a child should have acquired at a specific age.

She offers the example of skipping. Instead of noting that a child should be skipping at age four, teachers look at the developmental steps of skipping and see where the child is on that continuum. For Jody, multi-age requires that teachers plan for “children,” not a “whole class.” Teachers are asked to notice where a child is in their skill development and then “scaffold” or provide opportunities for the next step. Vertical grouping emphasizes the progress a child is making as opposed to how they compare to other children.

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In the early 1980s, about ten years after High Meadows School opened its doors, Holden created an Admissions document to explain more fully the rationale behind multi-age groupings.

Holden writes that multi-age classrooms create “better teaching,” requiring educators to • Assess children and plan for their educational needs individually • Look at the whole span of early childhood learning as an unfolding sequence of accumulating concepts and skills that relate to each other and reinforce each other • Focus on planning curricular experiences that relate concepts to what the child understands and that use skills in meaningful ways

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• We are not confined in our thinking and planning to grade-level objectives . . . that only develop isolated skills. (“Why Develop a Multi-Age Program?” Appendix U) Children in these groupings also benefited: • The younger ones have models for the behaviors they are expected to learn.

• They can see in what the older children are able to do and explore what their own future in learning is.

• A peer group is always available.

• The older children develop responsibility for their behavior, the well-being of their younger classmates, and for their own learning.

• As a result, they develop a concept of themselves as a caring, capable, and responsible person. (“Why Develop a Multi-age Program?” Appendix U)

In the school’s early years, multi-age classrooms were organized into “developmental periods,” corresponding with a child’s “stage of physical and mental growth” (“Our Methods”). Classes were grouped into “preschool” (ages three-young five); “primary” (ages five-seven); and elementary (eight-nine), with clear expectations of each developmental stage (“Our Expectations”).

When High Meadows transferred from private ownership to non-profit status in 1993, class configurations would alter slightly. However, the School has retained some form of multi-age groupings since its first multi-age primary class (K-1-2) began in 1974.

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Authentic Assessment For Holden, vertical classroom groupings, especially along developmental stages, provide the opportunity for more authentic assessments than a letter-grading system. In Holden’s view, a more authentic assessment of a child looks at “vertical development positions rather than ‘when you are 8, you are supposed to do this.’” She explains that while teachers need to know age-related development stages and refer to those markers, authentic assessment requires that teachers look at each individual child and asses where that child is on the development scale: “Is the child going up the scale and are they going up the scale un-lazily?” Furthermore, “we also have a tendency to sit back and assume ‘that kid’s fine’ when that kid’s ready for something more and is entitled to something more.” She further explains:

The vertical bit is simply to have people concentrate on the progress the child is making, not on how they compare. Now comparison will always remain.

But let’s talk about what’s going on with [these kids] and where they need to go and how they fit into the goal. [Authentic assessment] can be an adjustment for teachers and probably for parents, but it puts aside the problem of, “is my child better than…..?” Or “is my child not doing what he’s supposed to do?”

For Holden, grades have no place in authentic assessments. In fact, when asked about grading, Holden laughs: “That’s the work of the devil!” She goes on to explain: “I just think it doesn’t belong. It’s top down, and we shouldn’t judge children in a manner that gives a grade. We should look at what they can do and decide what they need to do next and talk about the proficiency with which they do it.”

However, Holden asserts that teachers “have every right to tell a child, whether they’re graded or not, ‘you have to improve this.’ That’s a pitfall. We can’t say, ‘That kid’s ok; let’s not worry about it.’” Holden returns to vertical assessment, “Teachers do have to assess a child’s position and they do have to scaffold the child’s next step.”

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So what does “authentic assessment” look like at High Meadows? In an undated document (estimated from the late 1990s to early 2000s), High Meadows describes its assessment process:

Assessment is continuous, cooperative, and comprehensive to fulfill its diagnostic purpose. Instead of letter or numerical grades to summarize student progress, multiple sources of documentation are utilized for reporting purposes. Sources may include: data samples of student work including art work, portfolio, audio and/or video tapes of students or student projects, student writing journal, classroom observation notes by teachers, comments or monthly placement reassessment, pupil’s self-assessment, comments on all areas of a child’s development (aesthetic, physical, cognitive, emotional and social). (High Meadows….why are we unique?”

Appendix M)

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Core Values of High Meadows Classrooms In her partnership with her co-founders, Holden’s area of expertise was the educational aspect—the “running of the school.”

Today she laughs because “I [managed the school] in a manner they didn’t anticipate, but they never said a word about it.”

Perhaps what set Holden apart from many other educators in the metro-Atlanta area at that time was her respect for children and her understanding of how they best learn. From her earliest experiences at Chattahoochee School, and under Katherine Singletary’s influence, Holden developed her core values and began articulating them.

From Singletary, Holden learned respect for the child as a unique individual and that a teacher’s role was to provide learning experiences for her students. Perhaps Holden’s deepest held and strongest guiding principle is her belief in children’s desire to learn. Looking over a school publication from 2008, Holden finds a quote attributed to her:

A love of learning is innate in most children—and so, we worked to nurture that. Our goal was to encourage children to be creative, to have autonomy, and to use their own decision-making skills in a safe, enriching environment.” (Appendix S) She picks up her pen, saying, “I was misquoted,” and she strikes through the word “most.” It now reads, “A love of learning is innate in children.” Holden argues, “You can trust a child to learn. They want to learn and they will learn. It can be turned into a scary situation if a child thinks he’s supposed to be doing something that he doesn’t know and isn’t ready for. Then, no, children don’t like that!”

In 1968 Holden used the word “child-centered” as one means to describe the ideal learning environment for children:

Child-centeredness is the environment in which these conditions bear fruit. It is comprised of an attitude in which plans and programs are formed. It is a relationship of teacher and child in which the child discovers that he is acceptable, even good; that he has nothing to fear, that he is free to grow, to explore, to achieve, to learn joyously.” (“The Chattahoochee School,” Appendix D) Hand-in-hand with this trust and respect for children is her belief that children should be active participants in their learning experiences. The Chattahoochee School brochure from 1968 explains, “a child, functioning within a class group, must have some choice as to the way he learns. There must be several approaches to the mastery of skills that accommodate varying interests and that develop particular skills.”

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Almost 20 years later, in a 1996 article looking back on the development of High Meadows School, Holden and her co-authors explain that [C]hildren were given room to construct their own challenges, make their own explorations, and seek pleasure in their own ideas. The responsibility for learning was shared between the teacher and the child. Teachers did not feel it was necessary to over plan the school day, week, or year. (12, Appendix G) Holden also argues for the importance of play for young children. An undated, typewritten document entitled “The Learning Value in Play” explains: We believe, briefly, that learning and play cannot be separated, that for a child to learn he must meet the material in a context that is meaningful and interesting for him. Adults named it play; children find it as absorbing as we find our work. Academics can be added to such a context when they represent real parts of the child’s experience and motivation. (Appendix Q) However, in today’s achievement-based culture, Holden recognizes how limited the word “play” can be: “the trouble with ‘play’ is….[that] the word is accurate but people think play is useless so we try to think of other words to use that might give the word its due weight.” A printed brochure for High Meadows School and Camp (estimated from the mid-1980s) uses the word “discovery”:

High Meadows believes that DISCOVERY is the best way for a young child to learn. Discovery means that your child will have all the opportunity necessary to gain real, tangible experience with the environment. She must play, move, touch, sort, talk about, dramatize, try, fail and try again—among peers. This is the way a young child builds concepts from which her learning develops. (Appendix L)

In 1996, Holden and others would identify five basic “Constructs of the Program” at High Meadows: • Children can be trusted to learn. Learning is not an exercise for which the teacher has complete responsibility, nor authority.

• Children are not only capable but bring a disposition to construct challenges from their environment.

• Time is too important to waste on trivial, tedious pursuits; learning partnerships with children should be respectful of time.

• The joy of learning naturally seen in preschool children should be the goal for the entire school.

• Openness to change, spontaneity and journeying into the unknown should be embraced by teachers and students. (Cooper 13, Appendix G)

Thirty years later, these values still undergird High Meadows School’s educational philosophy. And in each of these constructs we can see Jody Holden’s fingerprint, her methodology and philosophy for teaching and engaging children.

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Collaboration Among Colleagues Holden, herself, however, credits many others for the evolution of High Meadows into a world-class school, still thriving over 50 years later. While many parents and co-workers describe her as a visionary leader, Holden sees herself as more of a “coordinator.” She remembers that she listened to her colleagues rather than assert a top-down type of authority.

Looking back, she recalls instances when she might have offered a stronger response, but her instinct was to support teachers and help them solve problems, working together with them as a community.

Indeed, it seems clear both from historical documents and Holden’s recollections, that High Meadows benefited from all of the founders’ abilities to be open to others’ gifts and ideas which allowed the school to chart a new course in education rather than develop from a previously existing plan. She confesses, “I run into people from time to time [who] thank me for my vision. I’m sorry, but I didn’t have a vision!” Jody believes that High Meadows developed not from a grandiose adoption of educational philosophies, but from the school’s responses to issues as they arose. “You don’t have to have a vision,” she states. “You [just] have to respond appropriately. And that implies values. I can’t tell you how [those] values developed. I think it had to do with watching children play.”

Clearly, all four founders as well as co-workers and families, shared similar values. In 1996 some of these were identified as “humility, meekness, and the value of curiosity.” In educational practices, it was a core “belief that children can be trusted to learn.” In terms of educational environment, it was the belief in the gift of the outdoors and nature. Looking back over 50 years, Holden often sees the development of High Meadows as “serendipitous,” as co-workers came and went, many playing an important role in the school’s evolution. However, Holden and her co-founders attracted other professionals who shared their values. Furthermore, Holden recognized and valued others’ input; when colleagues saw a need, she empowered them to respond and address that need: “There emerged a ‘goodness-of-fit’ among those who worked together. This synergy of professional collaboration contributed greatly to the charting of philosophy” (Cooper 12, Appendix G).

Throughout High Meadows School’s history, specific individuals played a role in developing programs: Bunny Sheffield, for example, started the Outdoor Education Program; Chris Callner responded to children who needed help by starting the Focus Program; Marge McGee saw a need for a library and acted; Pat Wolf established a Social Studies program in the Elementary Years and then went on to establish the Middle Years Program. The list goes on and on. No history of High Meadows would be complete without including the individuals who saw a need and responded.

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As Director at High Meadows, Holden realized that “the most important thing was the teaching, the teachers, and how they felt about their work.” Recalling those years, she says, “we enjoyed each other. We enjoyed the children. Different teachers made distinct contributions. There was a good bit of mutual respect and appreciation.” Holden remembers teachers and students all enjoying their lunch and “meadow time” together:

Teachers would sit together on Jones Gym and more or less watch what the kids were doing. But the conversations that occurred at that time between the teachers were for the most part positive and school-oriented. They learned a lot from each other, and it was good for ‘esprit de corps.’

In 1998 she wrote, “Individuals who come here and love what happens here have something to offer: leadership, special programs, skills, creativity, values, love of children, special experiences.” Holden and her co-founders recognized, valued and made use of their colleagues’ talents, to the benefit of the entire High Meadows community.

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The Co-Teaching Model Having two lead co-teachers in the Lower Years (Pre-Kindergarten-Third Grade) classrooms sets High Meadows apart from most public and independent schools.

Holden explains that this model developed from the teachers’ input. Originally, High Meadows classrooms had a lead teacher and an assistant. Over time, however, it became clear to both that the assistants had a vested interest in the teaching methods at High Meadows. Many assistants worked as hard as the lead, conferring and planning with their lead teacher long after school had ended. The solution? Two co-teachers who earned a salary comparable to, but slightly less than, a lead teacher’s salary.

Teache rs work in

The development of a co-teaching model provides one example of responding appropriately to a need that arises. In a 1997 article, Holden explains:

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Since nearly all of our teachers were qualified to be lead teachers, we could consider this option. We recognized the existence of successful collaboration and its potential for offering the best services to our children. In addition, it was a way to retain our competent, invested teachers. (“A Collaborative Effort for a Better Classroom Experience,” Appendix E) Today, looking back, Holden considers the benefits of two lead teachers: “Co-teaching became very effective multi-age teaching.” For Holden, “If you are one teacher in the classroom, you teach from the front of the room, and whenever you teach from the front of the room, somebody doesn’t learn.” Furthermore, the multi-age, experiential High Meadows classroom benefits greatly from two co-teachers who can collaborate beyond the school day. Holden understands that assistant or associate teachers have a very different mindset. While present during the class day, the assistants often play no role in planning learning experiences or curriculum or in assessing children. At High Meadows, assistants felt invested in their students’ learning and the teaching practices. They wanted to participate in planning and assessment, and they wanted to be paid appropriately for their work.

Having two lead teachers in the classroom also benefits students. Co-teaching allows teachers flexibility to work one-on-one with a student or with small groups; to brainstorm and collaborate on curriculum; and to model a spirit of cooperation and communication.

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1973-1993 Twenty Years of Growth In the 25 years that Jody Holden served High Meadows as Director of Education, the school grew in enrollment, programs and buildings. In the fall of 1973 the first Preschool and Kindergarten classes began with Katherine Singletary and Jody Holden teaching in the newly-built Preschool Building. The following fall, 1974, the first primary class (grades K-2) was offered. In fall 1975, the first elementary class (grades 3-5) was taught by Aileen Hosea, who “serendipitously” had a background in the British Infant School. The school would become fully multi-age in 1976 when Jean Hunter “expanded her [preschool] class to include three, four, and young fives.” In 1978, what is now the “Connections Building” was erected to offer classroom space and an all-purpose space.

Looking back, Holden recalls her main goal was to incorporate the “British Infant School or Leicestershire method” into the classrooms, “getting away from the traditional didactic presentation of the curriculum”: What I worked on most [during those years] was implementing that [method] and enabling teachers to figure it out and implement it. I worked on developing some standardization of methodology among teachers.

Holden also recalls struggling with the educational philosophy shift in early childhood education with a movement toward letters and numbers: “I remember thinking we’re getting somewhere with this philosophy of engagement and outdoor play and coming down the pike are all these letters and numbers. How do we handle that? How do we keep it from compromising us?”

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1980s In the 1980s, High Meadows School, under Holden’s leadership, responded to educational and logistical challenges as they arose. Chris Callner established the Resource Program and Barbara Litt started the Focus Program to support children who had specific challenges academically.

In 1985, parent Susan Greathead established High Meadows Parent Organization-School, Home and Reach Everyone (SHARE). [Now named FAHMS, Family Association of High Meadows School] High Meadows responded to the changing community and family dynamics with its Extended Care Program, offering before school (Rooster) and after school (Stay ‘N Play) childcare in 1985.

Founder Bill Crawford and parent Jeffrey Johnson would build in 1985-86 what was first called “Mema’s House,” to house Crawford’s mother Florence (who would live on campus until 1991) and to provide additional classroom and camp space.

Now known as “Crawford Cabin,” the small, 2-story structure has housed the Camp’s Arts & Crafts area, administrative offices, a computer lab, and classrooms. It now provides classroom space and offices for the Middle Years program.

Bunny Sheffield, who first taught French to Early Years students at High Meadows, began the Outdoor Education Program in the 1985-86 school year. Previous to Sheffield’s program, Holden encouraged teachers to incorporate the natural campus into their curriculum but no official program had been established. Sheffield saw a need and stepped forward to create a curriculum for all ages. She is still remembered fondly as “Mother Nature.”

In 1989, due in large part to Jay Dickerson, the Norfolk-Southern Railway donated a dilapidated caboose to High Meadows. With the support of the entire High Meadows community, the caboose was refurbished in the fall of 1989 and became the site of the first library (under the coordination of Marge Magee). For many years the caboose served as the office for Middle Years Principal, Pat Wolf, and in 2023 was transformed into a High Meadows archive museum in honor of the school’s 50th anniversary.

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Move to Non-Profit Status In 1988, High Meadows School and Camp, still corporately owned by the four founders, was in its fifteenth year of operation and was thriving. However, as the founders approached retirement age, a group of parents under the leadership of Sheryl Smith began the process of purchasing the School and Camp and moving it to non-profit status. In a 1993 newspaper article, Holden explains the founders’ thoughts: We’re at the point when most of us are either retiring or attending to other interests. Plus, it was privately owned and limited in funding, so we as owners went as far as we could go with our capital and with developing programs at the school. So this way, with the new Board, it has the potential to last. (Taylor, “Private School Starts New Chapter,” Appendix T) The move from private ownership to tax-exempt status took five years, during which parents, teachers, alumni and community members raised funds to secure loans for the successful purchase of High Meadows. In 1993 the transfer of ownership from private to tax-exempt status was official. High Meadows established a new governance structure, including an official Head of School and a Board of Directors.

Although Holden remained with High Meadows as Early Years Program Coordinator, Sheryl Smith served as Head of School (also referred to as “Executive Director”) from 1993-1996 to help guide the transition from private ownership.

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1990s)

1990s As part of the transfer from private ownership to non-profit status, High Meadows began a Middle Years program (grades 6-8) under the leadership of Pat Wolf. In 1991, sixth grade was added; seventh followed in 1992, and eighth in 1993.

In 1996 Sheryl Smith retired, and High Meadows began a search for a new Head of School. Holden declined to be on the search committee or to be considered for the position. In 1997 Paule Ebrahimi was chosen “to lead High Meadows School and Camp into the 21st century” (website entry, 2002).

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In 1997 the walls of the Johnson Kemp Barn Theater were raised by parents and students on a cold November morning.

Built in part from “recycled” wood from the Franklin family’s original barn (believed to be about 100 years old), the new barn was designed and constructed by parent Jeffrey Johnson and honors the memory of Randy Kemp, a professional mime who taught dance, movement, and theater at High Meadows Camp (see Appendix J).

In 1998 the Middle Years Building, designed by Johnson and parent Steve Romeyn, was completed and opened to house sixth-, seventh-, and eighth grade classes.

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Retirement and Board of Trustees After Ebrahimi became in Head in 1997, Holden’s role became less defined and less structured. Following a move to Decatur, Georgia, and facing a much longer commute, Holden curtailed her work at High Meadows to two or three days per week, officially retiring in 1999. Holden, however, continues her relationship with the School, serving on its Board of Trustees from 2006 through present day.

For Holden, her role on the Board has kept her connected to a place she loves and an educational philosophy in which she believes wholeheartedly. For the Board of Trustees, Holden serves as a connection to the history of the school and to its methodology. She can speak to “why we do what we do” and the benefits it offers the students. As a Board Member, Holden’s primary concern is the children’s educational experience.

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Looking Back Fifty years later, the school she co-founded continues to thrive and despite all the changes in our world—technology, culture, pedagogy—High Meadows espouses the same values Holden learned from her practical experience with preschoolers, her mentor Katherine Singletary, and the British Infant School model. Throughout the years High Meadows has remained true to those values.

Looking back over two decades, what is Holden most proud of? That it happened! That it’s still happening! That you were one of the founders of a school that’s still thriving?

No! That I was part of its happening! I don’t take much responsibility for it. I was just lucky. I stood in the middle of it and it happened around me. I certainly had a role that influenced its development but it’s a many-person thing. Bill [Crawford], Jay [Dickerson] and Mike [Drake] gave me the freedom to take advantage of an [educational] movement that was not well-recognized at the time. And that a model [British Infant School] turned up that I could use.

I don’t want to make light of it. But I do want to say that High Meadows is an example of how good things can arise out of well-intended people. This is very hard to put. But the things that arise out of what’s going on in the moment, or the need of the moment, can develop into very solid things. [It’s] important [that] that’s understood.

The key is that responsiveness should guide the situation, guide the planning; see what the children are interested in or where they are in their development. If you start there, rather than with ‘this is something I must do and do well, and people must look at me and say I’ve done a good job’…. If you start there, well… that’s never where we were.

For Holden, High Meadows will always be about the children and their experience rather than the founders’ (or any adult’s) accomplishments. In 1996 Holden said, “we have kept the child and his/her position in learning, growing and development uppermost. You couldn’t ask for better” (Ahmed, Appendix A). Holden continues to serve as a reminder of the school’s basic values: respect for children as unique individuals; their innate desire to learn; their need for connection to the natural world; and the joy of discovery and learning, basic values that Holden learned from watching children play.

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Our Mission The High Meadows community celebrates and perpetuates each individual’s quest for knowledge and skill, sense of wonder, and connection to the natural environment. We empower each to be a compassionate, responsible, and active global citizen.

1055 Willeo Road | Roswell, GA 30075 | 770.993.2940 | highmeadows.org All appendix information referenced is available for viewing on our website.