Shira Leibowitz - Havens of Hope: Ideas for Redesigning Education from the COVID-19 Pandemic

Ideas for RedesigningEducation from theCOVID-19 Pandemic

By Shira Leibowitz, PhD

Published by Redleaf Press

10 Yorkton Court

St. Paul, MN 55117

www.redleafpress.org

2022 by Shira Leibowitz

All rights reserved. Unless otherwise noted on a specific page, no portion of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or capturing on any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a critical article or review to be printed in a magazine or newspaper, or electronically transmitted on radio, television, or the internet.

First edition 2022

Cover design by Erin Kirk

Cover photograph by Irina Tkachuk/stock.adobe.com

Interior design by Michelle Lee Lagerroos

Typeset in Arno Pro, Futura PT, and Miller Text

Interior illustrations by Liliia/stock.adobe.com

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Leibowitz, Shira, author.

Title: Havens of hope : ideas for redesigning education from the COVID-19 pandemic / by Shira Leibowitz.

Description: First edition. | St. Paul, MN : Redleaf Press, 2022. | Summary: This book shares the hopeful energy and positive transformation that is emerging through the early childhood education field in this historic time of pandemic, economic uncertainty, and protests for racial equity. It brings readers on a journey into the possibility for new approaches in education to learning emerging in response to the momentous challenges of our times-- Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021059944 (print) | LCCN 2021059945 (ebook) | ISBN 9781605547619 (paperback) | ISBN 9781605547626 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Early childhood education--United States. | Educational change--United States. | Social distancing (Public health) and education--United States. | COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020

Classification: LCC LB1139.25 .L44 2022 (print) | LCC LB1139.25 (ebook) | DDC 372.210973--dc23/eng/20220106

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021059944

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021059945

To the many educators, families, and children throughout the world who, through times of tremendous adversity, made the impossible possible, creating havens of hope in a world in need of so much healing.

With appreciation and thanks to the educators, families, and children of my very own Discovery Village Childcare and Preschool in Tarrytown, New York,

and

with gratitude to those who gave their time and wisdom to share their inspiring stories with me:

Acton Academy Silicon Valley, Belmont, California

Maria Ferrari, cofounder and head of operations

Beacon Hebrew Alliance Preschool, Beacon, New York

Ilana Friedman, director and lead teacher

Boulder Journey School, Boulder, Colorado

Alex Morgan, community outreach specialist

Lauren Weatherly, partner school program director

Alison Maher, executive director

Andrea Sisbarro, school director

Building Blocks Preschool, Highland, Michigan

Suzanne Gabli, owner

Discovery Child Care Centre, Barrie, Ontario, Canada

Jessica Holder, pedagogical leader

Karen Eilersen, founder and owner

Emergent Expressions, Peru

Kaitlin Coppola, founder

Farmingdale School District, Farmingdale, New York

Dr. William Brennan, assistant superintendent for innovation and organizational development

Hope Day School, Dallas, Texas

Cori Berg, executive director

Hudson Lab School, Hastings-on-Hudson, New York

Cate Han, founder

Stacey Seltzer, cofounder

Joanne Corrigan, intergenerational program coordinator

Inspiring New Perspectives, Waltham, Massachusetts

Susan MacDonald, founder

Kaleidoscope Community School, Salem, Oregon

Ashley Acers, owner/founder

Molly Brown, director

Koala Park Daycare, Tuckahoe, New York

Karina Wyllie, owner

Larchmont Charter School, Los Angeles, California

Sara Lev, transitional kindergarten teacher

Muck and Wonder Farm School, Sacramento, California

Jenna Maggard, director

Jess Durrett, parent of a Muck and Wonder Farm School student

My Reflection Matters Village, Waterbury Connecticut

Chemay Morales-James, founder

Tamsyn Ambler, member

Cecilia Cruz Brooks, member

Dominique DjeDje, member

Preschool System and Preschool All Stars Membership

Joy Anderson, owner

Randolph School, Wappingers Falls, New York

Josh Kaplan, director

Santa Clara Unified School District, Parent Participation Preschool,

Santa Clara, California

Josiane Sawaya, teacher

Sunbeam Nature School, Petaluma, California

Shawna Thompson, founding director

Temple Beth Shalom, Needham, Massachusetts

Rachel Happel, director of K-12 learning

Sarah Damelin, program director

The Open School, Santa Ana, California

Cassandra Clausen, founder

Tomorrows Promise, The Montessori School of Huntsville,

Huntsville, Texas

Kaye Boehning, director

White Dove Montessori, Plano, Texas

Nelum Walpola, directress

Windsor Hill Primary School, Falmouth, Maine

Mary Roux Train, cofounder and teacher

Standing in the only open room at the child care center and preschool I had begun less than a year earlier, I wondered: Were we experiencing a founding moment for education, the start of something new? COVID-19 had changed everything. And not only in the obvious ways.

Long faulted for being painfully slow to change, schools transformed, literally overnight. Many did it exceptionally well. Not only were we navigating through a global pandemic and managingwe were getting better. The process was messy and full of challenges. Yet we were not only improving incrementally, as is typical in schools, even schools of excellence. We were improving exponentially, accomplishing what we had never before imagined possible. It was both a time of despair and a time of renewal.

It wasnt the first time that crisis had fueled educational rebirth. The Montessori, Waldorf, and Reggio-inspired approaches to learning were all born out of the turbulence and despair of twentieth-century Europe. Maria Montessori encountered gender and economic inequity in turn-of-thecentury Italy. Rudolf Steiner, founder of the Waldorf approach, was deeply influenced by the devastation Germany suffered in the aftermath of World War I. Loris Malaguzzi, who pioneered what has come to be known as Reggio-inspired learning, experienced the brutal oppression and destruction of World War II.

The messages of all three of these educational founders resonated deeply, reaching across continents and generations. I never imagined that I might one day live through events even remotely as consequential. Yet here I was, running a child care center and preschool in 2020 in downstate New York, one of the first and worst COVID-19 hotspots in the United States. Deemed essential in many states, including New York, child care programs were allowed and even encouraged to remain open even as schools and most businesses were required to shut down or operate remotely. K12 schools and numerous early childhood programs moved immediately online, continuing to serve although they could not remain physically open.