<p>NYPost, which was the source of the HuffPo article, is basically a tabloid with sensationalist techniques to pitch articles. My guess is the students don’t have Workbooks, with tear-out pages, very typical in other schools, for various subject matter homework and drill work. There are certainly ways to teach reading today without textbooks – use of Guided Reading Level sets of smaller hand-held books at different ability levels is now standard in elementary grades, for example.</p>
<p>If we want to discuss this school, without knowing much from an insider’s perspective, at least give it the courtesy of a more serious article that attempts to express its goals:
<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/nyregion/at-the-blue-school-kindergarten-curriculum-includes-neurology.html[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/nyregion/at-the-blue-school-kindergarten-curriculum-includes-neurology.html</a></p>
<p>I have 3 kids in the performing arts (two professionally, one as a hobby), but all had solid academic foundations in the early grades. That’s because I admire highly educated artists whose performance has foundation in literature, history, science and all the rest. ETA: So, while I appreciate why students spent weeks planning their route to the aquarium as learning process, my own kids (and myself) would become impatient. Get to the aquarium already! More time to see more fish, thank you. </p>
<p>As an early grade-school teacher myself, I don’t think I’d gravitate to this school – even if I could afford it, which I can.t’ I was not impressed reading so much pedagogic theory as the sole reason for the creation of the school. I do agree with more awareness of the child’s emotional world, but at least from the NYTimes article, it sounded like a preoccupation there. For me, just a bit too cloying. </p>
<p>If this school wants to represent itself, it has been around long enough to present what its current students are able to do. The proof is in the pudding (the children), not the cooks (the administrators/curriculum designers/teachers, etc).</p>
<p>There is indication in the NYTimes article that some parents (I still don’t know how many) worried more about the bump into the world of schooling after this school, where the culture shock of tests and grades might be a rough transition.</p>
<p>If a child isn’t thriving as a reader in a $31K school, I would think the yank-out time should be around January, not June. Why did it take so long for these parents to notice the deficiency? </p>
<p>Also the NYTimes article indicated that in its first several years, they moved around a lot. Now with a stable building, there was more time for parent meetings, governance discussions and all the things that shine a light on a school.</p>