SHOP TALK: 150 YEARS OF LIFEREADY? YEP!

BY KEVIN J. COSTA, PH.D., DIRECTOR OF LIFEREADY

Ten years ago, I was working with colleagues on the ideas that would result in LifeReady, McDonogh’s vision for teaching and learning. As I’ve written many times in the past, LifeReady describes approaches to teaching and learning intended to develop self-reliant, critical thinkers prepared to do good in a diverse and rapidly changing world. The plan draws on copious research from the learning sciences, futurist research indicating what the world may likely require of our graduates, and trusted pedagogical frameworks and practices.

But good teaching didn’t just start in 2014. Excellent schools like McDonogh can look back into its history and find myriad examples of learning that inspired students, helped them to think deeply and critically, and turned their curiosity into passion.

When I first set foot on McDonogh’s campus in 2006, I learned about the most wonderful event I’d ever heard of in a school: the Cardboard Boat Race. “What is that?” I asked. The response was almost casual: “Oh, Upper School kids spend a month working after school on boats made of a limited supply of cardboard, glue, tape, and paint. And then they race them on our pond.”

I couldn’t believe my ears, and when boat race season started, I could hardly believe my eyes. It was late April, the big tent outside of Keelty was pitched, and Upper School students huddled around their materials. As spring evenings warmed, radios blared, kids laughed, and boats—many boats—took shape. And then, on the last day of classes, we did what McDonogh does best: we threw ourselves a parade with a route to the pond. Mr. Smoot was in his canoe, and the start and finish line flags added an air of festivity to this singular event.

What struck me immediately was the unwritten formula that would in many, many ways become explicit in LifeReady—still a decade away. Here students were given a real challenge with a real public audience in real circumstances! They had to crowdsource their collective knowledge to create something entirely of their own imagination and knowledge. How much weight can a boat take on? What is the best design to ensure as little drag as possible? What paddle construction will be most efficient? What materials will ensure seaworthiness? What will make this boat “pop” visually when (if?) it sails to victory?

As these questions suggest, students have to understand and be able to apply rigorous disciplinary knowledge to complete a well-engineered craft. And if they don’t know something, then what better than a real (if friendly) competition to motivate the acquisition of new knowledge, right? What’s more, with a firm deadline and finite materials at hand, students have to learn the equally important skills of collaboration, communication, delegation, and humility.

Rigorous content knowledge (physics, engineering, mathematics, visual arts) + critical interpersonal skills (teamwork, communication, perspective-taking) = a great boat and a superb example of what LifeReady learning can look like.

The Cardboard Boat Race is one event among many that enacts the values and concepts of LifeReady. To be sure, McDonogh’s oratory programs achieve similar intersections between disciplinary and skills knowledge. For years, lower schoolers have put on plays and middle schoolers have engaged in a stream study project. Athletes train and compete in public all year. Suffice it to say that just about any time students have been immersed in generative, collaborative work, they are becoming LifeReady.

And, so, in 2014, when LifeReady first launched, it was an event as much to celebrate the long tradition of meaningful, forward-looking work as it was a signal of what was to come. LifeReady simply provided a framework and a way of describing learning that ensured these life-changing experiences would be intentional and repeatable.

As we continue to observe McDonogh School’s sesquicentennial, we can say, with confidence, that every graduate of this school over the last 150 years has been a LifeReady graduate!