Category: Program Models and Approaches Assignment

Montessori, Roots of Empathy, Aboriginal Headstart and Bank Street.

As I was telling my group about the Bank Street philosophy I realized although there are no Canadian centres that have adopted this model the philosophy has some similarities to Reggio. A couple examples of these similarities are:

1. The environment a child learns in is very important and is at the root of the two philosophies.
2. Educating the “whole child” and all domains of development.

When we met as a group I was not sure what the guidelines or regulations Bank Street operated under so I had to go back and do some more research and I was still not able to find anything on licensing or regulations. I did however find that the student to educator ratio is 7:1. Based on my previous research and the fact that the school is nursery-grade 8 I would guess that it is regulated by the education system.

While reading Katy’s research on Montessori programs I was surprised by the “sensitive period” within their philosophy.  This means that children are only taught a new skill if that skill is developmentally appropriate.  I did not know much about Montessori prior to reading Katy’s post but I had a preconceived understanding that it was an aged based developmental milestone program which I have now learned is incorrect.  When our group met I had not yet read Juanita’s post on the Roots of Empathy program but when she was speaking about the program she was so pationate about the philosophy behind the program.  Something she said that struck me was “empathy is not taught it is caught” she had come across this quote while doing her research.  The founder of the program had described empathy this way.  The quote for me embodied the purpose for creating this type of program model.  Both the Roots of Empathy and the Aboriginal  Headstart are fairly new programs which makes sense to me as they both seem to be programs cantered around social and emotional well being of children.  The social and emotional domain of development seems to have a new found focus within the Early Learning community.  Bank Street, Montessori and Roots of Empathy are all models that include school aged children which I really love.  I don’t know why a model, or program, that works for early education should change when a child becomes school aged.  This provides a continuity and community all through a child’s educational journey.

I like pieces of each of these programs and I was surprised about how much I agreed with many aspects of the Montessori philosophy.  The best fit for me is the Aboriginal Headstart.  The family-first approach imbedded in the philosophy fits with my own philosophy.  As well as the emphasis on celebrating children for who they are and what they bring to the program.  Sheena wrote that educators work on empowering families within the Aboriginal Headstart program which is so inspiring and powerful.

Bank Street Model

When I was researching models and approaches I chose this model because I had no idea about what it was and because I came across this quote “children’s development unfolds at varying paces and through interaction with the world” (https://edpolicy.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/publications/scope-report-learning-play-lilana-web.pdf) I thought this quote really spoke to my own view of children and their development.

The History of Bank Street Model

In 1916 an educator named Lucy Sprague Mitchell put together a group of psychologists, anthropologists, educators, social workers and medical professionals to study children’s development.  This group of professionals were called the Bureau of Educational Experiments.  The goal was to find out what types of environments best supports children’s development, and nourishing children’s potential.  The data gathered from this study was then meant to be used to educate other professionals to recreate these successful classroom environments.  Mitchell documented that through her observations she discovered that children are explores above anything else.  In the class room children are reaching out and exploring everything they can get their hands on. Therefore  the environment that they learn in should be “…big enough, varied enough; to call forth all their young powers of sense and imagination” (https://eduate.bankstreet.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1020&context=books). The reason why it is called the Bank Street Model is because from 1930-1970 it was located at 69 Bank Street in New York City.

The Philosophy of Bank Street Model

Bank Street Model based centres, like most philosophies, have a morning meeting, calendar time, outside time and a flexible topic that is being discovered. This topic is based on the children’s interests as they are child-centred programs.  There is a large emphasis on the child as a whole and educating the child in the domains of emotional, social, physical and intellectual.  Educators that work within the Bank Street Model believe that cognition and emotions must be equally supported in teaching situations.  In this way the learning that occurs is interdisciplinary.  The classroom setting is a collaborative experience.  The child is valued and encouraged to be a learner, teacher and a classmate.  Families are encouraged to volunteer and are incorporated in the child’s education.  This family feel is evident at many levels from volunteers in the class room, to fundraising and from being apart of the hiring committee to a family bulletin board in the centre.  Scaffolding is evident within the Bank Street philosophy by observing, guiding with questions and encouraging curiosity.  Hands- on and experience- based learning is an integral part of this model.  It is believed that play is an important piece of a child’s learning and development.  There is a strong feeling of progressive teaching and education in action in the Bank Street classroom.  New studies are being put into practice and providing a setting for on going teacher training, educational research and a continuous development of curriculum and materials.

Quality Indicators for the Bank Street Model

Program: Bank Street Model- experience-based, interdisciplinary, collaborative, educating the whole child.

Values:  Valuing and reinforcing the child’s integrity as a learner, a teacher and a classmate.

Experiences: Children are invited to experience their environment through exploration imagination and play

Outcome:  Children are developing at their own pace and supported to develop across all domains ( emotional, social, physical and intellectual)

Current/ or Local Scene of the Bank Street Model

Today the Bank Street Model has moved from 69 Bank Street to West 112th Street in New York City where there is a graduate school to train teachers; a full program of children’s services, including the school for children and an array of out reach programs for the community.  The school for children is broken down into three different programs one program for nursery- kindergarten, one for grade one- grade four and the final program is for grade five- grade eight.  I also found a website for a centre in New Jersey that has a Bank Street based model.  There are no local examples of the Bank Street Model I could not even find anything in Canada at all.

References:

https://eduate.bankstreet.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1020&context=books

Why Bank Street?

https://edpolicy.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/publications/scope-report-learning-play-liliana-web.pdf

Dietze, B., & Kashin, D. (2016). Empowering pedagogy for early childhood education. Toronto, Ontario. Pearson Education Canada INC.