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The radical approach to education at the New School is deeply stimulating and challenges our children to grow in more mature ways than most schools can imagine, but I’m sometimes asked if the New School experience doesn’t seem like a bubble detached from reality. How fluidly will our children make the transition to secondary school? Will they be prepared enough? Will they wilt within the structure of it? Will they be imbued with a strong enough sense of self to manage the challenges presented by such a serious change in environment?
The elementary school I attended was somewhat experimental, but my high school was shockingly radical, by 1970s American standards. Believing that testing and league tables have no real value, the school took a more student-led, holistic approach to learning with few exams, no grades and very small classes. We were set work and mile markers and evaluated on our progress. We were expected – and trusted – to work to the best of our abilities and take responsibility for ourselves and our decisions.
After high school, I went hardcore mainstream. On a whim, I’d applied to American University in DC, which had an excellent languages program and a prestigious School of International Service. Rather than being intimidated or overwhelmed by the intellectual demands and academic achievement levels that were suddenly expected of me, I felt driven, capable and grounded. I knew who I was and I revelled in finding out how far I could push myself. My grades were excellent and I remained at the top of my class.
I’ve turned out the way that I am (hold the laughter until later) thanks to the schools that I attended. Like the New School, they trusted the intellectual hunger of their students and knew that their unorthodox approach would provide us with, if not all of the requisite tools, certainly the ability and desire to learn and apply them. To succeed, not just survive, in an increasingly complex and demanding future, our children must be given a school experience that trusts, pushes, holds and questions them – and teaches them, above all, how to learn.
Jared Louche (Parent at Lewes New School)
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