Steven Parr, founding director of New International School, recently returned from the Progressive Education Network’s (PEN) biennial conference in Los Angeles.
Key elements of progressive education have to do with child-centeredness, experiencing joy in learning, creativity, the development of thinking and social skills, and a commitment to social justice. This differs from the factory style of education that began in Germany at the beginning of the 19th century, spread worldwide in the colonial period, and that is still prevalent in most parts of the world for what many consider to be the convenience of special interests and the state, irrespective of what today’s society may require.
Mr. Parr considers difference — or diversity — is what needs to be a positive in the classroom these days, but acknowledges the difficulties involved in supporting diversity in traditional age-grade education, which favours standardization. He believes that it is possible to have extremely high standards for every child without standardization, but understands that few schools are able to accomplish that.
PEN’s conference was along the theme of “Play hard! The serious work of keeping JOY in learning,” and featured four keynote speakers as well as 90 peer workshops.
