The three of us, teachers from the early years of the OC, have yet to find professional situations where both the challenges and the support are as strong as in the OC. (Marcy went on to start her own business boarding and training horses; Theresa is now principal of a private school; Marilyn became a university professor.) Perhaps the combination of challenges and support was the key to why this was such a powerful context for our growth and development—and for the development of this learning community. We trace a significant strand of our intellectual growth and development to our participation in the early years of the OC (and, before it, the Thoreau School). Its influence has followed us into our subsequent personal and professional lives, permeating the crevices of our minds and feelings in ways that we have only recently come to appreciate. Our recollections of being teachers in the OC are filled with sharp images and memorable experiences; it was a time of challenge, exhilaration, and exhaustion. We have likely romanticized some of these memories, yet the pains are also vivid. What is most evident is that it was a time of immeasurable learning, for us as individuals as well as for the development of the program as a whole. Many aspects of our participation in the OC prompted this learning. The inherent ambiguity of our loosely defined roles and the changing nature of the program created a challenging environment for us as teachers. Our roles and responsibilities as teachers were ill-defined, collaborative decision making was an unfamiliar way to make educational decisions, and the curriculum was open-ended and required the integration of student and parent interests. As a consequence, we developed a strong, mutual support system, which in turn encouraged the risk taking that nurtured our further development as teachers. The intense support and challenges are the basis of the initial and continuing development of the curriculum and philosophical principles of this community.
One thing that characterizes the OC is the respectful way OC teachers talk with kids. When two former OC teachers who had moved and now teach in different schools viewed a videotape of one of them teaching, the other was struck with how, after many years apart from each other, they still talk to kids the same way. Respectful conversations happen in the OC and in other schools where many exceptional teachers reach out and make connections with students. An OC teacher recounted an event that illustrates the contrast with other ways of interaction: . . . When a junior high school counselor came to register the kids in my room for junior high the next year, there was not an available table where she could sit with a small group. So I said, “Just a minute, I'll get you a space.” I asked a few kids who were working together at a table if we could use it for a while and then they could have it back. We teased each other a little and then the kids packed up their supplies and moved to work on the floor. The counselor said, “Is that how you talk to kids usually?” I said yes. She told me that in her school adults didn't treat kids like that at all— “There's hardly anyone who would have fun with kids, or even ask them for the table.” I was so stunned, I asked her what she would have done in that situation. She said she would have told them to just “move out, I need the table.” So there would have been no conversation. I asked her if that was the way the whole school interacted with children, and she said there was one person who talked just like me, and it turned out to be a former OC co-oper who now teaches there. . . . If the classroom structure allows conversations, people can learn to converse with respect. Children themselves can play a role in helping adults communicate with them.
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