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OUTSTANDING PRIVATE MIDDLE SCHOOL

Deep Thinking in Young Minds
Unabashedly progressive, Bank Street turns out critical thinkers

Like school administrators everywhere, Toby Weinberger uses complex and intersecting criteria to determine whom to hire to teach the 6th-, 7th- and 8th-grade students at her school.

One of Weinberger’s standards is terribly simple, though.

“The mission of my teachers is to make middle school better than they had it,” said Weinberger, who retired in the spring after 13 years as the coordinator of the Bank Street School for Children’s upper school. “Upper school” is the classification the Upper West Side institution uses for traditional middle school grades, since the School for Children runs from nursery through grade 8.

Weinberger’s criterion goes to the heart of the school’s philosophy: educate the whole child.

Toby Weinberger, former head of the upper school. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

That means that in addition to academic lessons, this progressive private school, run by the 91-year-old Bank Street College of Education, charges its teachers with students’ social and emotional development. What’s more, academic lessons are tied specifically to where students are in their social and emotional development.

For example, as the 12- and 13-year-olds at the School for Children embark down the rebellious path of adolescence, they study revolutions: the Chinese Revolution, the Russian Revolution, the Revolutionary War.

In addition to the obvious history lessons, Weinberger said students also learn an important life lesson: “If you’re questioning the authority you’re under, what do you do then?”

A study of the American colonial period and revolution in the 7th grade, therefore, leads naturally into a comprehensive U.S. history unit the following year, starting with the formation of our government.

Structuring the curriculum in this way comes from nearly a century of observation and research at Bank Street College of Education. The idea is to center the learning “on the needs of children instead of the needs of adults,” Weinberger explained.

But because all School for Children students must move to other schools for 9th grade, some parents wonder if their children will lag behind in the new environment.

“The timing is sometimes difficult for kids at Bank Street,” said Jane Margolies, whose daughter, Hannah O’Grady, attended the School for Children since nursery school and graduated this past spring. “Eighth grade seemed late to learn about U.S. history,” Margolies added.

Her concern arose because O’Grady was applying to public high schools, where most of the students likely would be coming from public middle schools that used common curriculum frameworks. The 8th-grader was up to the task, though, and is now a freshman at Stuyvesant.

The parent agreed that the School for Children excels in teaching thought. Math is her daughter’s weakest subject but, Margolies said, she “understands math topics well because they teach them ‘why,’ and not just how to use the formula and get the right answer.”

Another parent, David Millison, had two children graduate from the School for Children. During both high school searches, Millison said he thought that his children were very competitive in their admissions test scores and applications. When Millison took his daughter, Julia, and son, Henry, to visit public and private high schools, administrators said, “We look forward to the kids from Bank Street coming here,” he recalled.

Millison said he believes that is because ?while the School for Children may not teach all the units that more traditional schools do—and certainly presents them in a different order—the institution definitely succeeds in teaching students how to think.

A teacher leads a class at The School for Children. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

Stressing deep thinking instead of memorization is not the only way the School for Children differs from most other schools. Students here receive written evaluations instead of grades. They take few tests, call teachers and administrators alike by their first names, and families actively voice topics they would like to see incorporated into the unabashedly progressive curriculum.

But don’t make the mistake of thinking the school is lax—academically or socially.

Students specifically learn to respect one another, as well as authority figures. Weinberger joked, “I can still silence a room of 160 with the evil eye.”

In addition, the curriculum in every grade includes the crucial life lessons of organization and time management. And as students work their way through the upper school division, they learn increasingly thorough research techniques.

That said, students at the School for Children still seem to have fun in the classroom.

A student puts the finishing touches on an end-of-the-year project. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

Millison, who works on Wall Street, said that’s as it should be. He knows firsthand just how competitive life can be. But when he and his wife began looking for schools for their children, “The belief we had was that you didn’t have to go crazy with the kids in kindergarten,” he said. “Along the way, they should have a good time.”

— Michal Lumsden