Thoughts from the Chatsworth Primary Hallway

I attended a conference where I saw Dr. Harvey Alvy speak.  Dr. Alvy is Professor Emeritus at Eastern Washington University who has published various books and many publications regarding educational leadership.  

In his presentation entitled The Visionary Leader-Aligning Teaching, Learning and Professional Development for Student and Teacher Success he spoke of the genius of “and”.   It is really quite simple but goes a long way to explain many of the frustrations that teachers and administrators have in terms of education.  Ideas on how to teach, teaching philosophies and strategies in teaching and learning are cyclical.  Every twenty years almost, old ideas are brought back to the forefront of teaching.  The problem with this is that many educators “throw the baby out with the bath water”.  For example, many years ago, teaching reading through phonics was the be all, end all.  Later, whole language was thought to be the best way to teach our students how to read.  Many people quit teaching phonics and focused their teaching towards whole language.  Later, as phonics began “making a comeback”, teachers gave up on whole language and utilized phonics solely.

Education practices do not have to rely on phonics or whole language, phonics and whole language; both strategies can and should be used by teachers.  Chatsworth has a philosophy in how we believe children learn how to read.  But, there are exceptions to the rules; all students do not learn the same way.  As educators, our responsibility is to form a relationship with students to discover the best way that each of them learns.  At that point, the teachers should choose the correct teaching strategy to support each student and how they learn best.  Almost always, a balanced approach using multiple strategies is the best way to move the student’s learning forward.  That is the genius of “and”.  

Dr. Michael Berry
Head of Primary