What Makes Corbett Charter School Unique?

Multi-age practice is so self-evidently the smart way to organize elementary and middle schools that to do otherwise is simply wasteful. It is inefficient both educationally and fiscally. It puts equity at risk. Multiage practice is better for kids. And we do it. But it's not unique.

Imaginative Education is a monumental breakthrough that Kieran Egan began expounding some 30 years ago. Corbett Charter School is fortunate to have had the opportunity to take up this tradition, and perhaps we will implement it more thoroughly than has been done before. But it's been done before, and on several continents. Not quite unique.

What about the use of big, brilliant thematic units that place an emphasis on understanding the wonders of the world as well as our immediate surroundings? Highly unusual. This happens in only the best schools. But it happens.

What's truly unique about Corbett Charter School is that it is a place where the professional teachers in the room are authorized to do the work for which they were hired. This sounds mundane enough, but more than one person has expressed surprise (and sometimes even dismay!) that the teachers are trusted to do their jobs without interference from the administration or from anyone else.

Corbett Charter teachers have a common mission. They have a common curriculum and methods that they all embrace. But they are each entrusted, one at a time, with the hundreds of judgments and decisions that every teacher makes every day regarding the conduct of their classroom and their class activities. They are solely responsible for the school experience of their charges. This is not negotiable. Ever. That's unique.

Why are we so adamant about this? It's what works. Or, more precisely, its opposite is what doesn't work in schools across the country. Teachers have an incredibly demanding job. It is demanding both intellectually (assuming that they don't teach from zip-locked, prefab programs) and emotionally (as the result of managing literally dozens of relationships simultaneously) and they don't need the distraction of wondering at every turn whether some moment in time, some drop of water in the stream, is going to be taken out of context, scrutinized, and found wanting. In Corbett Charter School they have no such worries. And that, as some poet somewhere once said, makes all the difference. Our teachers are remarkable. And they can only be fully remarkable when they know that they are fully trusted.

Why are we so adamant? Because too many cooks spoil the broth.

Why so insistent? Because a survey of 100 concert pianists confirms that 94 of them don't believe that they benefit from someone else wanting to help out with that C# in measure 74...it tends to disrupt their performance.

Why so inflexible? Because marathoners have been known to trip when a spectator attempts, out of kindness, to tie their shoes mid-race.

Why so sure? Because we hold teachers responsible for educating the children in their little classroom communities. Solely responsible. Because we take very seriously our charge to provide the best possible education for every child who walks through the door and is willing to take instruction. Because we believe that each child's education is our obligation. Because we don't pass the responsibility off on others. We take it to ourselves. And responsibility entails, necessarily, the ability and authority to respond.

Teachers own their classrooms at Corbett Charter School. We promise. And that is perhaps our most unique attribute. It is also perhaps our greatest strength. It is our best guarantee that every child in our care will receive the best possible education. That's what we are here for. Nothing else. O.K., that might be unique as well.