It can be stressful being a kid these days. There’s pressure from social media and navigating a complicated digital world. They’re worried about earning good grades to get into a good college, a concern that seems to crop up earlier and earlier. They dash from one activity to the next with barely enough time to catch their breath. All the while they’re bombarded with headlines about terrorism, border walls and missile launches while confusing messages about intolerance and hostility boil over across the river in the White House and the Capitol. How can we ease the tension? Often, the right school can help.
Educators are acutely aware of the stress kids experience. They have watched anxiety levels skyrocket in recent years and are striving to create positive school climates where students not only will receive an excellent education but also will have their social and emotional needs addressed.
The New School of Northern Virginia
The New School is a small, close-knit community that offers a one-of-a-kind approach to academics. In fact, the school’s tagline is “A unique liberal arts education.” If they expanded it, it might say “offering the freedom of a self-directed education.”
Students are offered a traditional menu of subjects, but within those they have a menu of options to choose from. Rather than American history, students can take a class on the Great Depression for a deep dive into the time period so they can get very specialized information and come away with a much more sophisticated understanding of the era with a thorough body of knowledge.
“We try to create opportunities for students to fall in love with a topic,” says Travis Cooper, director of outreach for The New School as well as a history and social studies teacher.
Students who love what they’re learning are more engaged. They’re happier, and that leads to lower stress levels.
For example, all the core math subjects are offered, but students can also elect to take a Math in Art class where they work on string art and quilting. They study the curves and how playing with vertices affects the curvature. They explore the geometry and algebra behind designs. They learn mathematical patterns and isometrics and how to collect, analyze and interpret numerical facts through the study of statistics. Final projects are an independently designed piece of string art or a completed quilt.
Students are challenged to think critically and creatively—skills necessary in college and beyond—without the pressure of memorizing facts and figures and acing exams.
Peruse the course catalog and you’ll find My Story, My Self: Creating a Solo Theater Piece in the many offerings in the English section, as well as Native America, which explores Native American writers and the portrayal of Native Americans in literature over time. Among the science courses are Climate Change, The Periodic Table Through History, The Chemistry of Ancient Wars and Survival Science.
“They’re looking at course material through the lens of what interests them the most,” says Cooper. “That’s at the heart of what we do—we offer choices and freedom. We know that when students have a say in what they learn, they feel better about school and they do better. All of our students score well above average.”
The school is very small, and that’s by design. “We cap at 150 students. That keeps class sizes small, always below 10. It’s like a small liberal arts college.”
The students move from class to class on a wooded campus with four brick buildings that house the classrooms, labs, gym, theater, art studio and library, which is part of a consortium with the Fairfax County public libraries and George Mason University library. Teachers and students have a collegial, peerlike relationship where they are on a first-name basis and are always learning from each other. Classes are structured as seminars rather than lectures, and students and teachers work together to co-create the learning in the classroom. It feels like a college campus, and it certainly offers students some of the freedoms of college.
The New School is ideal for students who felt confined and stressed by a top-down approach. “It’s for students who want freedom in directing their own education and who may have felt underserved by more traditional curriculum,” Cooper says.
But with freedom comes responsibility. The academics are rigorous, and students are expected to complete major projects to demonstrate knowledge. At the high school level, students present four formal public exhibitions to demonstrate their knowledge in the classes they have chosen. They answer an essential question of the class in the form of an argument and construct a meaningful perspective to communicate to others. For example, in a biology class a student exhibit explored the question of whether DNA defines us. Can we escape it in any way? How does it impact mammals, amphibians and other forms of life? What are the ethical questions that arise as we learn more about our DNA?
Through these public performances, students demonstrate their understanding of a body of information, the skills needed to make sense of that information and the skills needed to communicate that understanding to others.
Students also compile a junior portfolio containing examples of how they’ve mastered knowledge and use of the school’s essential skills, a fundamental component of the school’s pedagogy and culture that are drawn from conversations with colleges and include acting to benefit the community, appreciating and understanding different perspectives, persisting in achieving quality and making connections and being aware of context.
Portfolio items can be anything from school or life outside school. They can consist of papers, tests, worksheets, designs, CDs or DVDs of work, artwork, graphs, essays, creative writing, event programs, volunteer activities, self-created websites, posters, logbooks, awards, computer programs and photos of events or things too big to include in the portfolio. The chosen items should be representative of anything that shows the student’s continued development toward mastery of skills. The portfolio does not have to be limited to a binder; several students developed and maintained digital portfolios.
After students submit and successfully defend their junior portfolio, they move on to the senior exhibition, which is much like a dissertation defense. Students submit a 10- to 15-page paper and present a one-hour exhibition on their topic to a panel of teachers or outside evaluators. For example, one student presented his work on how U.S. domestic drug policy affects foreign policy to a Washington, D.C., think tank.
Students at the New School come away with a college-level education and are prepared to succeed in any higher education setting. What’s more, they are more confident after being part of a welcoming, accepting school community. They have a strong sense of self and see themselves as creative thinkers.
“The New School is ideal for parents who are looking for a small, welcoming community. We are the anti-clique, anti-Mean Girls school,” says Cooper. “Everyone is accepted here. Some of our students didn’t experience that in other school settings.”
Saint John Academy
Many families look to parochial schools for their children. They are more affordable than some independent schools, and they offer an excellent education. But what some families and students find comforting is that they also infuse faith into everything they do at the school. During uncertain times, that assures parents who want to ease anxiety for their kids while also providing a challenging education.
Michael Busekrus, headmaster of Saint John Academy in McLean, says his school provides an individualized experience for students. The school staff and faculty get to know each student so they can get the support they need.
“The education at Saint John is unique, cohesive and child-centered,” says Busekrus. “It seems like each and every year we have a few more students needing more and more support as we see our families changing and the world changing. The needs are greater now than have been in the past 10 years.”
Not only are needs greater, but the needs also are different from one another, and student learning styles are different. That’s why Busekrus says the school focuses on differentiation to meet students where they are. Differentiated instruction is providing different students with different avenues to learning.
“We are studying and learning what it means to provide the necessary tools or supports to have a differentiated learning experience for each child so they can thrive, not just survive,” says Busekrus. “A lot of kids are just surviving, especially as they get older. We see them changing and evolving and having more pronounced needs. It’s about looking into the heart and mind of each student, identifying their needs and being there for them.”
Differentiation is much easier with small class sizes, which is what Saint John offers. Many Catholic schools, especially those in American cities, can have class sizes of 20 to even 30 students. Saint John classes are half that size.
Part of differentiation is allowing students to be in differently paced classes, and Saint John offers fast-track, or accelerated, classes in addition to grade-level classes.
“Our pastor really supports our approach and allows me to have extra teachers so we can provide sixth grade math in two sections and seventh and eighth grade literature in two sections,” he says. “Many principals in diocese don’t have the funds to do that.”
He says they are successful because of the Saint John Beloved Parish community, whose members are very generous in giving to the church. Part of the church’s mission is to provide an excellent school with affordable tuition and a first-class education.
Busekrus has also noticed that kids today seem more stressed than ever, which is why he says the Adoration Club has become very popular among the students. Every Wednesday a group of students goes to spend time before the Blessed Sacrament of the Catholic Church, which is symbolized by bread and communion wine.
[Related: A conversation with Janet Marsh, head of school at Congressional School.]
“It’s a time to come for contemplative prayer in presence of God before the altar,” Busekrus says. “It’s an opportunity for kids to present whatever is on their minds and allow God to still them. They take every worry and concern that they might carry with them in baggage and put it before God and come away feeling renewed and refreshed. This is a tradition that’s very special and at the heart of Saint John.”
Saint John also has single-sex classrooms for eighth grade religion classes, which has been very helpful, especially for the girls, to feel confident and be completely free to ask deep questions about their faith. With fewer inhibitions they can ask and talk about whatever is on their minds.
“I’m very proud of being able to offer that,” says Busekrus.
The school shifts and evolves over time, but Busekrus says he looks to the parents, students and faculty to guide the evolving school culture.
“Our school reflects the dignity of each student and family,” he says. “That comes with the example we set as faculty and staff. We meet every morning and pray together and talk about things we’re doing or seeing or light bulbs going on. It starts with us; where we are with our own faith before we go out into the trenches makes a big difference in our school.”
Oakwood School
The Oakwood School in Annandale is also a safe place where students and educators try things differently. Students at Oakwood are just as bright as those at The New School, or any school, but they have learning differences and challenges. To ease their academic anxiety, they need more support and structure rather than more freedom and independence. Some Oakwood students weren’t achieving academically in other settings; others weren’t achieving socially and were bullied. Oakwood offers them an alternative—a safe place to learn and succeed.
Founders Robert and Mary McIntyre were both educators who recognized that there was a large population of students in Northern Virginia who were very bright but weren’t succeeding in traditional school settings. It was the early 1970s, and there were no schools for students with learning differences. Now there are more options, but Oakwood is considered one of the first and top schools serving the learning disability, or LD, population in the region.
“Students here don’t learn the same way as other students. They have a different way of thinking and need a different way of teaching,” says Muriel Jedlicka, Oakwood School’s director of admissions. “We have a small ratio of 1 teacher to 6 students, and it’s the quality of the teachers that makes all the difference.”
Oakwood has the most highly credentialed teaching faculty of any LD school in the Metro-D.C. area. Every lead classroom teacher is licensed by the Virginia Department of Education and has a specific endorsement in learning disabilities, and more than 80 percent of the faculty have master’s degrees or higher.
In the past decade, what has changed in the school is not the approach but the new research coming out in brain science. “The research confirms what we’ve been doing,” says Jedlicka. “We can now put the science to the teaching.”
[Related: A conversation with Christin Soly, executive director at Merritt Academy.]
The teaching is multisensory to increase neurological pathways. It’s strategy-based so that students figure out strategies that help them learn and retain new information and then rely on those strategies time after time as they learn more, grow and gain confidence. The strategies emphasize the process rather than the product.
“We don’t praise performance here; we praise effort,” says Jedlicka.
Students track efforts in strategy notebooks that everyone is given when they start at Oakwood. The contents ebb and flow as their strategies change and grow. There are tabs for “How Do I Learn” or “How Do I Read Best.” There are study checklists in eye-catching colors, and tabs are divided into content areas such as reading, math and science with strategies for success in each. There are also tabs about whether the student is left- or right-brained.
Oakwood students get a very thorough education in brain science and how their brains work. They are always reminded that that the process is more important than the product. That takes some of the pressure off as they gain confidence in their abilities.
“We meet the students where they are academically, and we focus on building that solid foundation that they need to succeed,” says Jedlicka.
Most students arrive at Oakwood because of a language or reading challenge, like dyslexia. Others have dysgraphia (writing challenges) or dyscalculia (math challenges). Some have auditory and visual processing differences, attentional issues or problems with executive function. These are students who got lost in traditional schools. They felt unsuccessful. They felt like they weren’t smart enough. But once they find new ways to learn and solve problems, they start to feel good about school, that they’re getting smarter and making more connections. Then they realize they can learn as much as anyone else, just in a different way.
“Once we equip our students with strategies, they begin to see success and gain confidence,” says Jedlicka. “We’re unlocking learning capabilities that were always there.”
“They took the wall out of my brain,” is how one student put it.
There are classes of 10 with two teachers in each. Teams work together for instruction so that there are four reading groups and four math groups, and every teacher at Oakwood is both a reading teacher and a math teacher.
“True integration of these important subjects occurs when students realize they can apply skills learned in reading to another subject, such as math,” Jedlicka says.
Each team works with another team for the content areas of social studies and science. One team teaches social studies while the other teaches science. “There are no lone rangers here,” says Jedlicka. “There is always a group looking at each individual student.”
The goal is remediation, not accommodation. The educators at Oakwood give students the skills and strategies they need to be successful when they move on. Whether students stay for a year or all the way to eighth grade, Oakwood faculty and staff want to give them as many school options as possible.
[Related: A conversation with Nicole McDermott, head of Pinecrest School.]
“We want them grow them into students who can thrive in less supported environments,” says Jedlicka. “We want to give them a toolbox to be successful outside our walls.”
Jedlicka says there is renewed focus on easing student stress as they’ve seen major increases in anxiety among students.
“The world is a stressful place today. On top of the pressures social media puts on our kids, the news is everywhere. Kids are picking up bits and pieces or more, and most of it isn’t good,” says Jedlicka. “It ratchets up anxiety, and if your fight-or-flight response is going 100 miles per hour, you can’t learn. It’s especially hard for students with learning differences who already have stress in the classroom.”
She says to imagine sitting in a lecture taught entirely in a foreign language and knowing that you’d be tested on the material that was covered. Wouldn’t you feel anxious? At Oakwood they spend an equal time helping students decipher the material with different strategies and focusing on strategies to cope with anxiety.
“We teach mindfulness and deep-breathing exercises. We chew gum here. Things you might do in a meeting to keep focused like pop a mint into your mouth, we do that. We do seat push-ups. We doodle. We use squishy balls,” says Jedlicka. “The idea is to let students figure out what they need to retain their concentration. The difficulty can be knowing when a child is trying to avoid work. How do we do that? By knowing each and every child. We identify what each child needs and over time grow them into strategic thinkers and lifelong learners.”