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	LREI - On the Leading Edge of 21st Century Education

October 28, 2004

Dear Parents,

As School Historian, I’m pleased to welcome you to the 2004-05 edition of the Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School. Founded in 1921, LREI was one of the most well known and influential American schools of the twentieth century.  And we remain on the leading edge of education that is authentic, challenging, student-centered and democratic in the twenty-first! I have no doubt the coming year will be extremely rewarding for every one of our students and for every school family.

We have much to be proud of at LREI. It is hard to imagine a time when going to school meant sitting silently in rows and reciting dry facts from primers; when moving around the classroom, learning about contemporary life, venturing out into the community, expressing oneself artistically and working with classmates on projects were all unheard of. Yet this was the reality of American education when Elisabeth Irwin came along.  She and her colleagues sought to create a school that would be, in John Dewey’s famous phrase, an “embryonic community,” a school which would meet the academic and developmental needs of young people while providing them with the skills, experiences and values needed to be effective, active citizens.  The educational program they created was intellectually demanding and challenging  because it was progressive. As they conceived it, progressive education was by definition more intellectually rigorous than the lifeless curricula, passive learning and joyless, regimented environments they observed in traditional classrooms - because it asked students to take ownership of their learning, to adopt a critical approach to subject matter and to apply authentic understanding to open-ended problems. They were right – and the quality and achievements of our students past and present, the colleges our graduates attend and the lives of achievement our alumni lead continue to provide testimony to how right they were.  

Elisabeth Irwin regarded an ongoing process of reexamination, renewal and innovation as the very core of the school’s culture, and this may be her greatest legacy to us. “The complacent formalism of schools,” she wrote, “its uncritical and therefore uncreative spirit…must be replaced by an honest hospitality to experimentation.” Over this summer, fifteen faculty members received grants to work on curriculum development. This exciting work will result in new and enhanced educational experiences for students throughout the school and I look forward to describing it to you in future messages. Research exploring teaching and learning has always been an intrinsic part of the Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School and that tradition continues. Three doctoral dissertations about various aspects of education at LREI have recently been published and reviews of this research will be appear as part of this fall’s Annual Report.

One of my roles in this community is to foster conversations among staff members, students and parents about progressive theory and current practice.  Four years ago, the school’s Strategic Plan called for an “invigorating process of rethinking core curriculum, teaching methods, student expectations and assessment of student learning” and that process continues to move forward. I’m very proud to be able to point to curricular and co-curricular programs in every division of the school that stand out as examples of progressive education at its best. In the fall we will host an evening devoted led by our department chairs and other faculty, the director, the principals and myself devoted to a discussion of progressive education at LREI today.  Mark the date – November 8th at 6:00 PM. I’m very much looking forward to it and hope you can attend.  

Finally, let me reiterate what I’ve said before - that a thoughtful, trustful partnership between parents and teachers has always been a distinctive part of the life of this community. As we move forward into a new phase of growth as an institution,   this partnership remains one of our greatest assets. LREI is a deeply mission-driven school, and I look forward to working with all of you as we write its next chapter together.

Best regards,

Nicholas O’Han, School Historian