Keep Pace or Keep Out
Columbia University Teachers College recently announced the dissolution of Lucy Calkins’ Reading and Writing Project. Now this may not mean much to you unless you happen to be a Reading Specialist, but for more than four decades Lucy Calkins and her group at Columbia were some of the premier agents in reading education. Her curriculum was adopted by many school systems across our country, with her group providing the training and tools to support it, all from her base at Columbia.
Throughout recent years, however, some reading experts have questioned Lucy Calkins’ approach. They claim she hasn’t incorporated brain science, specifically how it relates to learning to read, into her work. “In a 2022 interview with the New York Times, she said that for many years, she was fully immersed in grade-school classrooms and had not focused on cognitive science research. ‘I don’t think that I thought about an M.R.I. machine as part of how you get to know a reader,’ she said.” The result is that Teachers College has decided to diversify its approach to reading to include several lenses, including cognitive science and linguistics, as well as reading.
Now what has this got to do with us and The Island Academy, you may ask. When Teachers College decided they needed a more expansive look at teaching teachers how to teach reading, they were deciding that they need to use more lenses to get the job done. They were clear to acknowledge the work of Lucy Calkins, but they also recognized that Idea Change comes fast and furiously these days, and not the least because of all the new advancements in every discipline. We here at The Island Academy recognize that as well. Through our emphasis on competency and mastery, we send the message every day that there’s always more to know, more to learn about.
Additionally, we live in times when some around us think it’s important to learn something and then take a stance about it. Or worse, to learn very little about something and then take a stance about it. This is how we find our country in the throes of book banning and CRT arguments. And we’re missing the bigger picture. Ideas are what move us forward. Ideas are what drives creativity, invention, and innovation. Ideas are what our students need way more than any tool we can give them. Once they have those and know about the importance of having their ideas, we can then, and only then, help them to question, challenge, and add to those ideas.
The Island Academy of Hilton Head is committed to open minds. We are committed to looking at ideas through a variety of lenses; everything we study is connected to something else. If we can’t see that, we will be marginalized as society moves ahead without us. If we don’t keep pace, we will be left behind. Growing ideas is the best way to become those lifelong learners everybody talks about.
So, what can you do to help your children discover more lenses? A good start is to model asking the “how” and “why” more than the “who, what, and where” questions. Become explorers with your children. Learn together, question together, and celebrate the growing of Ideas. It is the most important tool they need as they make their way.
