Three Girls, Three Schools, Three Philosophies on Learning

Noni will head off to preschool this fall, two days a week, on Wednesday and Friday mornings. This is a simultaneously wonderful and sad thought for me. Sad because my last baby is heading off to school. Wonderful because I'm excited for her and, let's face it, I'm excited for me to have eight whole hours to myself a week. Eight hours to paint and write and climb mountains and, probably, to learn that eight hours isn't all that much time. But still. It's more time than I've had in nine years so it's sounding kind of luxurious right now.

With summer still in full swing (or, according to the calendar, not even officially started yet), I am not too focused yet on how I will feel when Noni walks into her classroom on the first day. But I did just get an email from Noni's school director today, which started with a quote about King Sun climbing higher in the summer sky, that got me thinking that, while Noni is following in the footsteps of her sisters as she heads off to school this fall, the girls have all gone to notably different types of preschools.

When Evie turned three, we had just moved to Maryland and I signed her up for the school our neighbors there recommended. I soon found out that it was an evangelical Christian school, which is not really our thing, but I loved her teachers, who were warm and encouraging. I'll never forget Mrs. Tregoe and her guitar. She taught Evie the love of singing. She would come home from school belting out the lyrics to every Jesus song out there (Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so!) It was a traditional school so she also learned her letters and numbers and how to stand in a line to walk to recess. She loved it. She walked right in and never looked back. I remember her coming home after the first day and she wanted to play school. To "play school", I had to pretend to be Evie and cry because she had to leave school, while Evie pretended to be her teacher, telling me I'd get to come back tomorrow.

Lucy started her preschool years at the same school, but obviously had to change when we moved to Los Angeles. "Where will Lucy go to school?" was one of my first thoughts once I knew we were moving. From my desk in Maryland, I discovered one open spot at a school I found online, knowing nothing about it except for its convenient location, and sent Toby to look at it while he was working in LA for the week. As soon as he finished the tour of the school, he called me and told me he couldn't be more certain that Lucy would love it. He was right. Every corner of the school was bursting with children's artwork, much of it displayed outside. The kids played freely in the yard and there were tables covered in boxes of paint, wine corks, puzzle pieces, glue, or other materials for the kids to put together as they wished. You couldn't walk into her school without feeling happy about the creative energy swirling around you. Lucy is a free spirit and the school was absolutely perfect for her. Toby and I have marveled many times how much Lucy grew up that year we spent in Los Angeles and I give most of the credit to her school.

With Noni, as you know, we have moved yet again. So once again, I had to find out a different preschool. A few people had recommended one, a Waldorf school, just a few blocks from our house and in September I walked down to check it out. I immediately fell in love and didn't look any further. The yard of the school looks like something out of a fairytale. All of the play structures are made of wood and blend in with the trees and plants. Inside, Laura Ingalls would feel quite at home. Hand-dyed dolls sit around a wooden table drinking out of wooden cups in one corner and a table for peeling apples and making bread is in the other. The teacher talked about how they spend their days taking walks around the neighborhood, preparing for the numerous festivals they celebrate, and cooking and playing in the classroom. I don't know yet how Noni will feel about going to school this fall, but I am confident that it will be a great place for her.

With Noni heading off to a Waldorf school this fall, we have tried structure and unstructured and now seemingly-unstructured-but-actually-quite-structured. One school was traditional, one arts-based, and now one's focus is on the natural world. I can't help but wonder how the different starts to each of their school experiences has and will affect the girls and shape the way they view both school and the world. Or will all that really matters be that each of them went to a preschool where they were taught by loving and dedicated teachers?