By Marty Gravett

What do our childhood experiences of education bring to our adult experiences of teaching and learning? While most of us would agree, theoretically, that it is hard to teach in a way we haven’t learned, the harder part is the next step: learning from those early experiences. How do we develop an understanding or become metacognitive about these experiences? How do we explore deeply enough to impact our classroom (or even parenting) approach so that we can find a more responsive lens for our teaching and learning? 

Our goals are threefold: to become metacognitive about our early experiences; to keep the image of children who deserve understanding and adult belief, who seek justice, and who inspire our new ways of being with children; and to explore the central role of pursuing a culture of engagement and an ethos of studio-thinking. These are the goals, but what is the process?

One central way is exploring story – our own story and the stories of our colleagues. Over the years, we have invited parents and our professional colleagues to remember a learning experience from their early years that stood out – a story that still resonates with them years later. We invite them to tell us and one another about experiences that put them in the center of the experience as a learner. 

We recently took on this exercise while consulting with the faculty at a Reggio-inspired school in Florida. The learning experiences they described had many remarkable similarities. Their stories included mysteries and questions which were authentic and filled with choice and possibility; they often included messy and tactile experiences; they embraced relationships, shared experiences, connections to teachers, their parents, their friends; the experience often offered new windows on the world and new ways to think; and frequently the stories embodied hard questions and high standards. 

To us, these sound like the foundation for rich moments in any classroom, almost like a template for the extraordinary teaching and learning we would want for any child. So we invite you to explore your own story. Start with the story that has the most salience from your childhood schooling. Reflect on it for a few moments on your own, then find someone with whom to share it. Maybe you want to reciprocate and listen to their story as well. Can you go a little further and compare your experiences? In this co-construction, what elements emerge, and what do they tell you about what you want in your teaching or parenting experience and what your children might want? Looking to story is important in any classroom: not only for the children in the classroom but for the child we all carry within. 

While consulting is not new on the Sabot Institute’s docket, what is new is traveling to a public charter in Florida to spend time with teachers in a newly launched Reggio-inspired experiment in education. The Creative Inspiration Journey School (CIJS) opened its doors in August of 2019 and in October, invited Sabot Institute consultants, Irene Carney and Marty Gravett to spend two days in their K through 5 custom-built school. CIJS faculty have spent many a day on the Sabot campus observing in classrooms and jumping into conversations with Sabot educators but with a growing faculty, they were ready for the next step: onsite consulting.

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