Page 76 - Volume 4 - Issue 1 - DBU Journal of K-12 Educational Research

74 For these schools, to be in relationship with the ideas of the past as well as the present, to be in relationship with the natural world, and to see oneself and one’s culture in the timeline of history, is a means of respecting wholeness. In contrast to a utilitarian focus on usable information in contemporary contexts and future projections, schools within the current study encourage relationship with a broad counsel of ideas, both historically and ethnically. In an era when schools often speak of students being able to construct their own learning, these classical schools insist on constructed learning being cantilevered. The greater depth of understanding one has of the past, the more one is equipped to wisely innovate in the present. While proverbial sayings such as “We stand on the shoulders of giants” and “It takes a village” may enjoy popular usage, these classical schools treat the matter of venerating and transmitting collected wisdom seriously. In relation to content, students are first postured as humble recipients. From this knowledge, they are then equipped to be wise participants and virtuous contributors in an unfolding narrative. Relationship with Others Secondly, the schools emphasize relationships fostered between students and others, particularly between students and teachers. At the present schools, the function of the teacher in the classroom is as the professional content expert. In the students’ lives, the role of the teacher is as a mentor and model. That students personally trust and regard the teacher as worthy of emulation was stressed, and there were structures in place at the schools to confirm the mentoring relationship, whether through formal, designated mentorship as at Hope, or through teacher- led clubs and persistent presence at Boys Latin, teacher- ownership in classroom décor, projects, and activities at ACA, or through consistent, reverential, and restorative verbiage between teacher and student at The Oaks. What was outstanding was how the administration at all schools proved unmanufactured esteem and even deference to teachers. This genuine support for teachers’ professionalism and power translated into teachers interacting with students out of authentic, personal care rather than institutional obligation. As a teacher at Boys Latin put it, the school does not establish its teacher-oversight policies to manage the lowest common denominator but rather to empower its best. Additionally, the access that parents are given to school events and day- to-day operations as well as to shaping the school’s ideals reveals the school’s high regard for the integrity of families and the school’s partnering role, more than prime role, in the child’s education. In these ways, the schools within the current study revealed that not only was the importance of human relationships applied to students and teachers; rather, the importance of all interpersonal relationships— administration to staff, student to student, school to homes, and school with the community—are treated as integral to the school’s ministry. Relationship with Self The value of wholeness was extended not just outwardly; it is also pointed inwardly, so that what persons experience within the walls of the school is an integrity of personhood. The individual’s relationship with self was attended at each of the four schools, especially through the schools’ actively combatting or inherently opposing false beliefs about the self. At Hope, there is a persistent, almost flagrant celebration of the beauty in each person, through an array of colors and talents on display. At Arlington Classics, from the youngest of kindergarteners, there is a nurturing care for individual needs through interventions and accommodations while also refusing to over-soften the academic challenge. Similarly, at The Oaks, each student is repeatedly told and treated as though he/she is of inestimable worth, capable of the duty and delight of learning. This language is not empty rhetoric; rather, it undergirds The Oaks’ philosophy of personhood and discipline. The motto is assumed true: I am. I can. I ought. I will . Although this motto is not posted on the walls at Boys Latin, it might as well be. The boys at Boys Latin are perpetually reminded that they are not at the mercy of their circumstances; rather, they are the masters of them. Being the architect of one’s own destiny is not, at Boys Latin, a conscious means of usurping a divine right. It is a means of healing misconceptions about personal power or lack thereof. Joylynn Blake, EdD