September 1, 2005

BACK TO SCHOOL

By Diane Chiddister

Like all teachers, Antioch School Older Group teacher Chris Powell started the school year knowing what skills her students need to learn this year. But unlike most teachers — except for the others at the Antioch School — Powell doesn’t yet know the exact paths her students will follow to obtain those skills. What she knows for sure is that her students will choose the paths that interest them, and that she stands ready to guide them on their journeys of learning.

Antioch School children returned to class on Wednesday, Aug. 31. Started in 1921, the school is in its 85th year and is one of, if not the, oldest alternative schools in the country.

Powell said a core tenet of the Antioch School philosophy is that children learn best when they follow their individual passions and interests.

“If the learning is truly theirs, they are invested in it, and as a result they retain it, and it becomes part of who they are,” said Powell, who is in her 17th year at the school. “When children select what they want to learn and what they are interested in, it becomes part of their very fabric.”

As always, the Older Group, which includes 20 children in grades four through six, will focus on a theme when classes begin, and this year’s theme is ancient Egypt. Powell chose the theme to coincide with a Dayton Art Institute exhibit of ancient Egyptian artifacts, which opens this week, she said. The students will visit the exhibit this month. Powell said her experience tells her that they will find things there to excite them.

“I’ve never found a child who isn’t interested in ancient Egypt,” she said. “The gods and goddesses, the mummies, the hieroglyphics — these are things that capture the imagination.”

But what parts of the theme they pursue will vary according to their individual interests, said Powell. Students may choose to pursue the study of Egyptian art, clothing design, mythology, architecture or any one, or more than one, of a wide variety of topics, Powell said. She has spent much of the summer finding resources for the possible projects that might emerge when her students return to class, she said.

“The teacher knows what needs to be accomplished,” she said. “The children bring in their own interests, skills and thoughts, and the teacher’s task is to find ways to bring the things the child needs to the table, to find the best uses for the child’s interests and desires.”

Such an individualized and experiential approach to teaching is inevitably challenging, she said.

“It’s not an easy way to teach,” she said. “But it’s always new and it’s very gratifying.”

This year the school is taking a first step toward creating a group for middle school students, called the Senior Group, Powell said. While teachers and parents have sought for years to create such a group, the school never had enough middle school students to pay for creating a separate learning space. But this year, Powell has begun the program by incorporating one Senior Group student in her room, and in the future she will accommodate up to four Senior Group students in her class, she said. The older children will spend part of the time in the classroom and part working on projects with tutors from the community, Powell said.

When they returned to school, Older Group students found new donated matching sofas, which replaced older ones. The room’s furnishings, individual desks lining its walls and, in its center, over-stuffed sofas where students can huddle together, also set the Antioch School apart from more traditional schools, Powell said.

The sofas symbolize two important aspects of her approach to teaching, Powell said: that children learn best when they are relaxed and that they learn much from each other.

“Children don’t learn in isolation from each other or their environment,” she said. “They do quite a bit of individual work, but they also work together and collaborate. Children working together isn’t cheating. They’re thinking together, inspiring each other to greater ideas.”

Opportunities for collaboration also abound in the Younger Group room, next door to the Older Group. The Younger Group, which includes 23 to 25 students in first, second and third grades, is taught by Kit Crawford, who is in her 25th year at the school.

Children do not sit at desks in the Younger Group room. Rather, they work at tables together or read a book on their own or, when their work is done, perhaps imagine themselves as pioneers in the frontier kitchen. Above the kitchen, a loft provides a quiet space for reading or being alone. Throughout the day, children move throughout the space according to their needs.

“In this school it’s unique,” Crawford said. “We have the philosophy that children learn best who have opportunities to move and to talk and to have quiet moments to think about what they’re learning. They have many opportunities to make choices and develop personal responsibility.”

Down the hall in the school’s Art/Science Room, teacher Brian Brogan, in his fifth year at the school, worked this week getting ready. He teaches art and science to all grades at the school, from nursery school students through the Older Group. As with the other Antioch School teachers, he has plans for the subjects he’ll cover — weather, astronomy, electricity for older students, a focus on colors for kindergartners, gardening and carpentry for all — but he is ready to adapt the content to meet the interests the students bring to his room.

“I’ll see how my desires match up with the kids,” he said.

There will be a slightly smaller number of students this year at the school, according to Antioch School Manager Dianne Collinson. While the school can accommodate up to 75 students, this year the enrollment is in the 60s, she said. The Antioch School was affected by a new preschool program at the Community Children’s Center, and lost four children who had been signed up for nursery school, according to Collinson. However, she said, the school continues to attract students from Yellow Springs and out of town, and this year has children from Xenia, Springfield and the Dayton area.