A Good Little School

Afterword

Serendipity . . . an accidental fortunate discovery. That’s what this was for me. Moving from Houston to Denver and finding this school that would have a major impact on my life and my thoughts. From the first day I met the staff at the Open School, I was amazed by the thoughtfulness of the educators, the articulate nature of students, and the strong beliefs of parents that they wanted more for their children than simply the three Rs. This book has tried to paint a portrait of what this school has meant to teachers, parents, and students over the years, what they hold near and dear and are trying desperately not to lose, and why they believe wholistic learning and teaching for humanity is important. This work was a two-year process of conversation, documentation, and the collection of thoughts. Everyone—teachers, students, graduates , parents, administrators—took part in this process and contributed stories, anecdotes, and reflections so that others would know how they feel about their school, what is critical, and how they feel they can to make a difference in the world. This section will provide a brief overview of the methods and processes used to collect information about the school, so that others may, if they wish, embark on a similar exploration of who they are and where they want to go. Jefferson County Open School is a professional development school in collaboration with the University of Colorado at Denver’s Afterword 117 Initial Professional Teacher Education (IPTE) program. The partnership works toward four central functions, as outlined by the National Network for Education Renewal: (1) teacher preparation; (2) professional development; (3) exemplary curriculum; and (4) inquiry. Every partner school has a site professor who spends at least one day a week in the school. Each school also has a site coordinator, a full-time master teacher on special assignment usually from that school. Together, they are responsible in a variety of ways for the four partner functions. In the fall of 1999, the university hosted a year-long professional development series focused on professional development and inquiry. Each partner school participated by sending a core leadership team of five or six staff members plus the university site professor. At the time, only the elementary levels were involved in the partnership (a year later the secondary school also joined). The leadership team from the Open School consisted of Bonnie Walters, principal; Julie Bishop, ELC teacher; Rob Erwin, IA teacher; Pam Owens, special education teacher; Flo Olson, site coordinator and teacher on special assignment; and myself, site professor. Conversations were centered on developing inquiry projects in each of the partner schools. At the first meeting, Bonnie brought Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot and Jessica Hoffman Davis’s book, The Art and Science of Portraiture (1997). As we explored pieces of the book, we thought, “The Open School would make a great portrait.” There was an artistry about the school, and if we could “paint the picture,” we could inform the practice of all Open School teachers and possibly help other schools and other teachers see the artistry in the work they were doing as well. Lawrence-Lightfoot and Davis underscore John Dewey’s (1934/1958) work and the need to capture the cognitive, social, and affective dimensions of educational encounters. The Open School already had a wholistic model for the school via the “pie,” so that was a natural place to begin. The authors also advocated for schools to find frameworks and strategies for representing the aesthetics of teaching and learning. This was the challenge we saw as critical to the school’s future development. The leadership team saw great change on the horizon: some veteran teachers were getting ready to retire, the population of the school was changing, and there were questions about how to acculturate new people, including university teacher candidates, and to make sure that everyone in the school was thinking intentionally about the school’s mission and goals and what teaching and learning (the aesthetics) were really about. 118 Afterword It was important to the leadership team that there was buy-in from other teachers and that we included the preschool, middle, and high schools. I can’t say we knew what direction this would take us, but we embarked on the journey. Therefore, the first meeting at the school included teachers, administrators, office staff, and parent leaders. As I was a researcher and...