Writings

The Private School Privilege: How Independent Schools are Changing in 2019

Winchester Thurston School North Campus is located in an idyllic area outside of the city of Pittsburgh.  Nestled in the center of Hampton Township, the school offers a great deal of recreational space and is situated adjacent to Hartwood Acres Park. This independent school affords a multitude of opportunities for families across the Pittsburgh area. The school can reach many students in Pittsburgh by the North Campus, but also a PK-12 City Campus located in Shadyside. It should be noted that this prestigious educational institution does not come without a hefty price. Winchester’s tuition costs upwards of $31,000 a year to attend.  The North Campus is attended by about 90 children from Pre-Kindergarten through grade five. It is a cozy set of three buildings that creates a familial experience for all who teach, learn, and parent.  

Brock Perkins has been a teacher at Winchester Thurston for over 20 years.  He spent time at the city campus as a fourth-grade teacher before moving permanently to North Campus. At the City Campus, Mr. Perkins taught fourth grade.  At North, he taught fifth grade for many years and now is teaching science.  He has seen Winchester grow over the years and was able to give important insights for this unique learning community. Schools are ever changing with the dynamics of students and faculty.  There is always a change in emphasis on what are considered the most important subjects for student to be studying. There is focus on core subjects, but in recent years social and emotional learning too. There is pressure on students to have top grades, to attend the best schools, and to secure the best jobs. Then, there is the issue of safety and how prominent that has become in current day American society.  These are all things on which Brock was able to speak and elaborate. 

“Something we’ve been using for a long time at Winchester is called the ‘Responsive Classroom’ approach. At its core, RC basically believes the social learning is as important if not more important than the academic learning. It is very important for even the youngest students to learn how to work together as a group and how to function as a classroom community. Building the classroom norms. Then, all the academic stuff will follow easily because they know how to work with others. So that’s the biggest thing that we do,” Brock said in response to me asking about the classroom environment.  I was curious as to how the teachers deal with bullying and inclusion at Winchester. The issue of bullying has been present throughout history, but how it is dealt with has changed. I asked if there anything in place at the school that helps prevent interpersonal conflict, and create a positive learning environment? Brock said “Yeah. They call this the ‘first six weeks of school’. This is important because it is all about teaching the children the routine, getting input on what the children are interested in learning about, their hopes and dreams for the school year.” Through the year the staff tries to teach, model, and role play how to deal with conflict.  How do you deal with someone you conflict with? Social and emotional learning and the Responsive Classroom is something many schools are working on.” Brock said.

With such an emphasis on doing well in school to go to the most prestigious colleges, and universities; I wanted to know if grades were a big deal at Winchester. If students were stressed about academics? Pushy parents?  ” I think it depends family to family. There are students who are anxious by nature, so it is hard to tell sometimes if it is coming from the parents or if the student really wants to do well and is putting a lot of pressure on themselves.  We do have a few of those students who are very hard on themselves. But we also have students that ‘hey I did my best so great!’ so we run the gamut.” He said, “It becomes a little bit more evident as you move into fourth and fifth grade. Fourth grade you see percentages. And fifth grade they get letter grades on their report card. And so sometimes that steps up the stress for students. Often, it is the same students who are concerned about workload before.” Brock pointed out the fact that fourth grade used to get letter grades as well, but he really pushed to only have it for fifth grade and up. The reasoning behind that is because the middle and upper school do grades.  Fifth grade is a year to help ease the transition for students.

Something I was curious about and eager to ask Brock was if there was a push on a certain set of subjects.  As we head further into a science and technological era, I was intrigued to learn if there was a push for that starting in an elementary school setting? Brock replied, “This summer the faculty read ‘Most Likely to Succeed: Preparing our Kids for the Innovation Era. It questions traditional schools that are lecture based.   Saying no to traditional teaching, that isn’t the real world. They need to be problem solvers, critical thinkers, and able to communicate and collaborate. We have always had that at Winchester, but we are trying to be more intentional about it.”  “The lower school has always had a strong very hands on science program. In particular, I think STEM and STEAM are very important.” At Winchester there has even been added computer science courses to all levels of the schools. At the Middle and Upper Schools, they have a program called “Design to Make a Difference”.  This is where students look at real world problems and come up with a design to fix that problem then showcase that work. They are trying to get other schools in Pittsburgh involved in the program as well.

School safety has been a hot topic in recent years; with multiple instances of violence across the United states including shootings. As of September 1st, 2019, the data collected by Gun Violence Archive stated there were 283 mass shootings since January 1^st, 2019.  The number of shootings at the time of the study were higher than the amount of days that had pasted this year. As for school shootings back in July it was reported by CNN that there have been 22 school shootings in 2019 thus far.  I wanted to see how that has affected Winchester and what they have done to reimagine a safe learning environment.  Brock responded this way, “So, it used to be that we used to just the whole lock down. Where you would just basically shelter in place, turn off the lights, close the blinds, hide. That is still an option, but we have all gone through ALICE training as well.  ALICE training is a mock scenario where there is a shooter on the grounds and how to respond to that. The teachers do that at the Lower School without students, but at the Upper School the students do a drill as well. There are some other things that are have changed for the school Brock added, “We used to be a school here because we are so small that it was no big deal to come here and find the door propped open. We do not do that anymore. There have been added cameras. Added camera that are in color instead of getting the fuzzy black and white at each of our entrances. Particularly the ones that have buzz in. So yes, there is a priority on safety and how to keep kids safe.”

Winchester Thurston North Campus is small, yet mighty.  When the bell rang for the end of the day, you could see and hear the students talking and laughing with one another as they poured out into the hallway.  The Lower School North Director Heather Cappazutti stopped in just to say hi to Brock and me. This school gives an impression of a close-knit community while maintaining academic rigor.  While Winchester is a small representation of school and learning today, there was a lot of insight Brock offered that showed the progress schools are making. As a teacher, Brock is passionate on creating a safe environment for students so that they can focus entirely on learning.