Playing for Keeps: Life and Learning on a Public School Classroom
That's the title of this book by Deborah Meier, Brenda Engel, and Beth Taylor, published by Teachers College Press.
The rest of this post is the review I wrote of the book, originally published at Education Review. Don't worry - I hold the copyright.
There are few names more honored in education than that of Deborah Meier, who won a MacArthur Foundation “genius” award for her work in founding and running Central Park East and the associated network of schools in New York City in the 1970s and 1980s. Having retired from that endeavor, she was visiting her friend Brenda Engel in Cambridge Massachusetts when they decided to see if they could found a similar school in Boston, which was then embarking on a program of “pilot schools” that would empower public schools with some of the flexibility normally associated with charter schools. With the help of a planning committee of local educators, including co-author Beth Taylor, the Mission Hill School opened its doors in 1997, based on “old progressive educational ideas explored and brought up to date in a contemporary setting” (p. ix). Meier became the first principal, Engel volunteered at the school, Engel and Taylor (then Lerman) worked with students and staff, and Taylor wrote a weekly column in the school newspaper, where her observations became the basis of much of this book, which
“makes a case for the importance of free exploration, wonder, imagination and play to the learning and growth of children” (p. x). While none of the authors still worked at Mission Hill at the time of the publication of this volume, they assert that the school still remains true to its founding vision. As for the book, the authors
The rest of this post is the review I wrote of the book, originally published at Education Review. Don't worry - I hold the copyright.
There are few names more honored in education than that of Deborah Meier, who won a MacArthur Foundation “genius” award for her work in founding and running Central Park East and the associated network of schools in New York City in the 1970s and 1980s. Having retired from that endeavor, she was visiting her friend Brenda Engel in Cambridge Massachusetts when they decided to see if they could found a similar school in Boston, which was then embarking on a program of “pilot schools” that would empower public schools with some of the flexibility normally associated with charter schools. With the help of a planning committee of local educators, including co-author Beth Taylor, the Mission Hill School opened its doors in 1997, based on “old progressive educational ideas explored and brought up to date in a contemporary setting” (p. ix). Meier became the first principal, Engel volunteered at the school, Engel and Taylor (then Lerman) worked with students and staff, and Taylor wrote a weekly column in the school newspaper, where her observations became the basis of much of this book, which
“makes a case for the importance of free exploration, wonder, imagination and play to the learning and growth of children” (p. x). While none of the authors still worked at Mission Hill at the time of the publication of this volume, they assert that the school still remains true to its founding vision. As for the book, the authors
invite readers to appreciate the life of the imagination on the playground, to see the energy children bring to exploring their emotional and physical surrounds, and to share with us the children’s delight in active learning. The book might even trigger for readers echoes of their own childhood experiences in the outdoors. We hope of course, that through the descriptions and comments, readers will gain understanding of the importance of play in the lives of children. (p. x)please keep reading
