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2008: Lifetime Achievement Award

'Nothing Compares to Paula'
Rogovin brings students to the world and life to the classroom

In her 35 years of teaching 1st grade at P.S. 290 Manhattan New School, Paula Rogovin has discovered a great resource for crafting lesson plans: students.

“Paula lets the students drive the curriculum,” said parent Deborah Cohen. “They decide what they want to learn about, they come up with research questions and they figure out ways to find answers together.”

Rogovin takes great pride in engaging her 6- and 7-year-olds in the research process by teaching them to conduct interviews. Inviting parents, community members and other guests into the classroom, Rogovin teaches her students to ask pointed questions to everyone from the school principal to a Supreme Court judge.

“I really want the kids in my classes to think,” Rogovin said, “to do research, to do inquiry, to search for answers to their questions. My whole curriculum is based on their questions.”

To find their answers, Rogovin often takes the students out of the classroom environment. Once each week, she brings her class to a construction site to watch the process of demolition, excavation and construction over the course of a year. The students interview the workers; learn how construction relates to math, science and social studies; and build their own construction site in the classroom, complete with caution tape.

“Her real strength as a teacher is that it’s not about what’s in the book, it’s really about life and what’s going on in the world,” said parent Scott Zemser. “That’s the gift that she gives to the kids—thinking about things and learning how to ask questions.”

When students began asking questions about restaurants, Rogovin took them on a tour of several spots in the neighborhood before creating their own classroom restaurant. But she took it a step beyond playing kitchen.

“My student-teacher and I would put little notices up about violations in the restaurant,” Rogovin said. “We have a student whose father is a judge, so we rearranged our cozy classroom into a courtroom, got sworn in and found out why we had these violations.”

After giving the students a 30-day window to correct their wrongdoings, the judge returned, gavel in hand, and ruled that the restaurant could remain open. The students reciprocated by traveling to the judge’s place of work, the New York Supreme Court, to see how he conducts his business.

Rogovin integrates all manner of relevant social issues into the curriculum, from fair trade goods and poverty to hate crimes and local demolition.

“I’m concerned about making this a better world,” Rogovin said. “I want them to have a social conscience.”

Her classroom door is always open to parents, whom Rogovin encourages to participate as co-workers, and everyone who crosses her threshold leaves with a lifelong love of learning.

“Nothing compares to Paula,” said parent Shelley Biederman. “If her model was followed, all of the children in 1st grade would see a different kind of progress.”

— Carolyn Braff