Educational Innovator Visits Bing

By Svetlana Stanislavskaya, Enrollment Administrator

In 1993 a group of Bing teachers attended a symposium in Washington, D.C., and visited the Model Early Learning Center (MELC), located above the Capital Children’s Museum. In 1994, Child magazine had selected MELC, along with Bing Nursery School, as one of the 10 best nursery schools in the United States.

Ann Lewin-Benham opened MELC in 1989 as a school for Head Start-eligible children. Inspired by a visit to the renowned preschool programs in Reggio Emilia, Italy, Lewin-Benham was determined to implement the Reggio approach to teaching in an urban American preschool. To help her realize her dream, Lewin-Benham enlisted the expertise of retired Reggio teacher, Amelia Gambetti, who worked closely with the MELC teachers.

Upon visiting MELC, the Bing teacers were struck by the Reggio aesthetic resulting from attention paid to the environment’s every detail: Panels of photographs documenting projects were placed so children could reflect upon them throughout the year, mobiles were hanging from the ceiling, collections of natural objects-leaves, cones, seeds and seashells-were arranged in jars and baskets. A four-foot-high mirrored kaleidoscope invited children to crawl in and view their reflected images. This effort resulted in large amounts of environment-guided activities, the classroom itself directing children in their discoveries.

MELC was unique on several accounts. Its urban location shaped daily experiences at the school. For example, the children had complete access at all times to the entire fifth floor of a rambling building within sight of the Capitol Dome, but no outside space was available to them. One great advantage of its location was unlimited access to the resources of the Children’s Museum, also run by Lewin-Benham and located downstairs in the same building.

The teachers were from middle class backgrounds while the children came from economically disadvantaged families, lacking the social and financial resources that staff took for granted. It became clear that “on stage” and “behind the scenes” of her school were passionate colleagues who did a superhuman job, working 60 hours each week with the children in the classrooms or together in meetings. Their reward was the creative process and the children’s growing self esteem.

Lewin-Benham, a longtime educational innovator and visionary, gave an account of her experiences with the MELC in her recent book Possible Schools: The Reggio Approach to Urban Education. She described how her school faced every imaginable obstacle, succeeded against all odds, achieved the highest form of accreditation and then, having lost its leadership and its funding simultaneously, closed down in 1997.

Last November Lewin-Benham, a social entrepreneur to her bones, came to Stanford’s psychology department as a guest speaker. Lewin-Benham was delighted to visit Bing’s classrooms.

As Lewin-Benham toured the Bing classrooms, she offered her thoughts on a variety of subjects: use of basic materials, the “pushed down” effect of over-emphasis on academic achievement in kindergarten, inclusion of children with special needs and the importance of social and economic diversity. After looking at the sand area in East Room she turned around and exclaimed, “You know, it’s funny; we give children sand and water and blocks when they’re three years old, and then we take them away and don’t give them back until we are trying to turn them into engineers.”

When standing on the bridge in West Room, she had a revelation: “I have heard so much about Bing and now I see for myself—your environment is your curriculum.” It brought back the memory of the project Bing teachers saw documented on the walls in her center in 1993. It started with the children observing out the school window the Statue of Freedom lifted by helicopter sky-crane off her pedestal on the U.S. Capitol!

Later that day Lewin-Benham presented her book Possible Schools to Bing teachers and local early childhood educators. Passionate and eloquent, Lewin-Benham described children’s accomplishments and their families’ involvement at her school, illustrating her talk with slides and examples of documentation put together by teachers.

Lewin-Benham talked about the history, philosophy and practice of a preschool in the tradition of progressive education in a challenging urban area. The inspiring account showed that children and families in poverty will thrive when their abilities are promoted and their intellect respected.