Unfortunately, most schools in this country, particularly those that serve the most disadvantagedchildren, are not structured to support children holistically. Schools that embody the conditionsto nurture creative development need to be places where children and teachers have space toexplore, discover, take risks and engage in learning in broad and holistic ways.

One example of how to do this comes from theWaldorf classrooms we studied. “In a fifth-grade classroom, we observed the teacher began the day with song, verse, and a shortset of stretches. After a bit of sustained silent reading, he took his students to the blacktop, wherehe incorporated multiplication with movement activities and then did a jogging loop around theblack top with them. This was all done between intellectually demanding tasks, in order to helpfocus the students and lower their anxiety.

have been from home, and for many of them, the first time they have been outside Oakland. Onthis trip, students must push themselves and depend on each other to complete unique challengesin unfamiliar surroundings; this experience gives them a new perspective of themselves and theirpeers. For example, students are asked to complete “a 9- or 10-mile hike and up two waterfalls,which is pretty ridiculous” in the words of one student. In one of the rituals of that trip, studentsare asked to write on paper their “rocks, the burdens they carry with them,” and crumple each ofthe sheets into the physical shape of a rock. All rocks are placed in a row, and students stand onone side. The accompanying teacher asks them to step over the rocks if they feel like they canmove on to the 11th grade despite those burdens. A teacher describes the emotionally powerfulreaction: There were a number of students in response to all those questions who didn’t feel theycould step over them, that stayed. And so we asked their classmates to help pull them over therow of rocks, to explain how they were going to help them graduate. It was really emotional. Ittook a long time, because there were a lot of kids that were on the side of “I don’t think I cangraduate,” but there were also a tremendous number of kids who said, “Yes you can.” Even kidswho don’t talk during the day, they said, “I know we’re not super close friends but I’ve seen youdo this specific thing in math class or I’ve seen you do this,” and so they pulled them over. In thepast we’ve had teachers advocate for kids. This year we just facilitated, and the kids dideverything: “No, you’re coming with me; I will pull you across the line to graduation,” and thatwas really beautiful. This emotional event focuses entirely on the students’ beliefs aboutthemselves and each other. It not only builds a stronger sense of mutual support and communitybut also serves as a reference point back at school: when a student struggles, the recollection,with reminders from teachers and peers, builds the student’s confidence in himself and feelingthat others are supporting him

We rarely heard a teacher praise a student; he or she is more likely to make a comment thatreflects a factual observation and recognizes the student’s effort, such as “you took a lot of timewith that drawing.” This is the kind of comment that is now recognized as supporting a growthmindset and contributing to student success. Even

There are equity implications to this approach as well. As those schools that serve the poorestchildren and majority children of color are more likely to take a drill and kill, basic skillsapproach to teaching and the least likely to feel they have the political leverage to engagestudents’ developmentally because of the pressure they are under to have their students performwell on standardized tests. Their students require greater preparation to perform well on these

What could schooling look like if adults let go of the notion that we are in a race toprepare children to compete with each other for the best jobs?

“First grade was learning all the letters. So we’d take maybe like every week or everycouple of days we’d pick a new letter. We’d learn the sounds. We’d draw a picture withthe letter and then a picture of something like an animal that started with the letter....Andthen in second grade we moved on to learning things like all the vowels and beginning toread. We had reading groups so those kids who were more advanced were in one readinggroup and those kids who needed more help were in another. I learned to read at the endof third grade, where I could actually read really solidly by myself, and then after that Ijust absolutely loved reading because I was given the time to actually find it for myself. Iwasn’t forced to sit down and read...I never felt like I was stupid because I couldn’t readand all the other kids [could]. It was just I could move at my own pace. After reallylearning to read I was reading Harry Potter and I was going through lots of books.

Although I am not endorsing Waldorf schools as the answer to themisalignment between a developmental approach and a more common efficiency andcompetition model, their approach does offer some examples of another way of thinking aboutschooling.

What would schools look like if they were designed around children’s developmentalneeds and stages?While this may not initially sound like a radical idea, our schools are currently so totally out ofsync with children’s developmental needs that when we interrogate the types of changes inschooling that may result, it can seem quite radical in its application. We can begin to see someof the many ways schools are misaligned with children’s needs when we inquire about the starttimes of school, the amount of time children are asked to sit passively, the types of tasks childrenare asked to do in school, the ways we assess student learning, the teaching of academic subjectsas isolated subjects, the amount of time children are required to spend on homework and theextreme pressure some high achieving students are under to get into competitive colleges.Conversely, we see a lack of focus on the amount of time children are supported to connect witheach other, engage in creative tasks, use their imaginations freely, move their bodies, engage incross age experiences and connect to their communities

What is our current purpose of schooling and what are its outcomes? We are increasingly focusing on a market-based schooling system that is more and moreprivatized and seeks to produce compliant and dutiful workers to feed our consumer-orientedeconomy. We are preparing our children to feed our economy not our humanity.