KENT PLACE SCHOOL
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Mind and Body Connection at Kent Place: Building Stronger Learners By Julie Gentile, Director of Studies
“If education is always to be conceived along the same antiquated lines of a mere transmission of knowledge, there is little to be hoped from it in the bettering of man’s future. For what is the use of transmitting knowledge if the individual’s total development lags behind?” —Maria Montessori
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t Kent Place, we keep in mind Montessori’s priority on “the individual’s total development” as we focus on what have been termed “21stcentury skills” in the core academic subjects. Within that context and beyond, we want our young women to be healthy masters of what they learn so that they become nimble navigators of the dynamic world in which we live. “The Wellness Impact: Enhancing Academic Success Through Healthy School Environments,” a report issued by the GENYOUth Foundation early in 2013, confirmed what many parents and educators already knew: Healthy students are better learners. The study, which highlighted the “learning connection” between the body and the mind, uncovered some powerful facts. For example, “Brain imaging shows that children experience improved cognitive function and higher academic achievement after just 20 minutes of physical activity,” writes Dr. Charles Hillman, of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
According to the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, the goal for learners is that they be critical thinkers, problem solvers, communicators, technologically and financially literate, innovative and creative, globally competent, flexible and adaptable.
Our faculty are inspired to guide students to reach their individual potential, and we develop the curriculum to create unparalleled opportunities for acquiring knowledge. From our Preschool through the Upper School, students learn self-care skills. These skills become habits that enable them to thrive as they mature. The focus of this Voyager is to explain how the atmosphere and curriculum at Kent Place intentionally foster the mind–body connection. The Physical Education and the Health and Wellness Departments work together, with many other departments across the school, to offer students developmentally
appropriate instruction in the following areas:
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identity development and self-esteem relationship building nutrition time management the importance of sleep healthy decision making
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personal safety
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human development and sexuality
media literacy and critical thinking about positive and negative stereotypes anti-bullying and safe resources self-advocacy
healthy body image
The list is long, but this curriculum is crafted with the intent to support students emotionally and socially at developmentally optimal and appropriate ages. It’s the successful engagement with the content of this curriculum that enables our students to excel with confidence and balance in all of their academic and cocurricular pursuits.
Primary School students Rhyan Brown, Clara Piervincenzi and Riya Soni take part in the Feelin’ Good Mileage Club.
Kent Place students also benefit from their very environment. Our campus offers inherent advantages that sometimes go unnoticed. Our LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) -certified buildings and their environmentally thoughtful details combine with our organized outdoor areas, such as the garden, the archaeology dig site, the playgrounds and the athletic fields, along with the open green spaces on campus and in Summit, to give students ample opportunity to benefit from the natural spaces that surround them.
We are 14 percent of the way through the 21st century. The skills the Kent Place faculty want to instill will prepare our girls for their future, even if we don’t know exactly what that future will look like or what technology not yet imagined will be the must-have device of, say, 2050. What’s important about our learning community is that we value the health of our students above all else. We’re fortunate that pedagogical strategies in effect today are sustainable for a student to take advantage of from early-childhood education through her senior year, from university-level studies to her career. Let’s discuss some of those strategies.
Flipping the Classroom One strategy that’s been getting a lot of attention recently is flipping the classroom. For years teachers have been creating student-centered learning activities: The twist — the “flip” — is to provide easy access to technology, particularly video. The idea behind the flipped classroom is that students absorb content and facts at home, often via video lecture or clip, then use classroom time to enhance their understanding of a concept (continued on page 2)