Philosophy
The Lab School of Washington is unique. Here, the arts are central to the educative process in the Primary, Elementary and Intermediate Divisions. Spending half the day in highly specialized, individualized classrooms and the other half in the arts, younger students with moderately to severe learning disabilities develop the basic skills necessary for their academic development. Social studies and humanities are taught through a unique program incorporating art, music, drama and hands-on learning experiences. At the Junior High and High School level up to 90 minutes a day may be devoted to the arts.
The theoretical framework of the school asserts that the arts, taught in a specific way, help develop the neural organization that our students lack and must learn in order to succeed at school. The arts are treated as organizers, each having its own discipline. The student concentrates on the product or performance while faculty concentrate on teaching the process, which includes visualizing, following directions, remembering and predicting sequences, and being able to put into clear language what has occurred. Besides the perceptual, cognitive and often very specific academic learning that takes place through the arts, there are many opportunities for creativity to flourish and success to be enjoyed. The exhilarating feeling of “I can do it” builds self-esteem, often badly damaged by school failure. Success in the arts often renews effort in academic areas and prepares youngsters for vocations and careers. Being taught the approach to a task is as important as any task a student with a learning disability can learn. The Lab School must teach its students explicitly the skills that other students may learn “naturally”: how to organize their work, their assignments, their belongings, themselves.
Since Lab School students are neurologically immature, many have difficulty separating one movement from another, left side from right side, one shape, one letter, one word, one idea from another. It is in the preschool years that most children learn the skills of differentiation and integration that enable them to do formalized academic work by the first grade. In sophisticated ways that respect their ages and intellectual levels, Lab School students of all ages must be taught the preschool skills they lack. Instruction in classrooms and in the arts forms must emphasize the distinguishing of sounds, visual symbols, movement, touch, and then link sound and symbol in meaningful ways. Since “disorder” is the problem of our students, “order” is the key to teaching them. Every part of our curriculum is geared to helping students organize themselves, their bodies, their minds, and their work. In Junior High and High School, students must be taught specifically how to study, how to manage time and space, and strategies to help themselves attend, focus, and remember what they have seen and heard.
While the slow neurological process of remediation takes its course, challenging the intellects of youngsters with learning disabilities is vital. The Lab School’s program is unusual in that it concentrates on critical thinking, the development of reason and logic, and the knowledge and understanding of history, geography, civics and literature. Bright students need stimulating content, ever wider funds of information. The Lab School assumes responsibility for giving its non-readers or poor readers a quality education that promotes the spirit of inquiry and offers intellectual journeys through classroom experiences, projects, technology and all the arts.
Our philosophy is based on the belief that a child’s failure to learn means that the teaching staff has not yet found a way to help him. It is up to the adults to seek out the routes by which each child learns, to discover his strengths and interests, and to experiment until effective techniques are found. Then, each child is taught through his or her unique style of learning. Our job is to program each child for success and pleasure in learning and to counter defeat and failure with confidence and competence. The job of the school is not simply to educate minds, to develop a commitment to inquiry, to remediate reading, oral and written language, math and motor skills, but also to help young people function effectively in society. Knowing the appropriate behavior in a given situation, knowing how to approach the unknown, knowing how to use the telephone effectively, to fill out forms, and be interviewed, constitute life skills that must be taught. All youngsters are being prepared for return to the mainstream, be it in three, five, or more years. When the job is done, we know they will succeed! The focus of the High School is to prepare students for higher education. Our graduates are proof of this.
The quality of the staff that puts our philosophy into practice has to be extraordinarily high. The Lab School prides itself on its top quality staff, unusually talented teachers who respect and deeply care for their students. Related Services staff members (occupational therapists, speech/language therapists, social workers and psychologists) are an integral part of the academic team. With the arts central to the educative process at The Lab School, a number of artists and teachers with an arts background work here. Since these creative people often approach life in untraditional ways and are known for their problem-solving ability, they are particularly well equipped to work with the youngster who does not learn traditionally and who puzzles most adults. The philosophy of the school is to build on the strengths of the adults working here and nourish them as we expect them, to build on the strengths of our students and, in turn, nourish them.
The theoretical framework of the school asserts that the arts, taught in a specific way, help develop the neural organization that our students lack and must learn in order to succeed at school. The arts are treated as organizers, each having its own discipline. The student concentrates on the product or performance while faculty concentrate on teaching the process, which includes visualizing, following directions, remembering and predicting sequences, and being able to put into clear language what has occurred. Besides the perceptual, cognitive and often very specific academic learning that takes place through the arts, there are many opportunities for creativity to flourish and success to be enjoyed. The exhilarating feeling of “I can do it” builds self-esteem, often badly damaged by school failure. Success in the arts often renews effort in academic areas and prepares youngsters for vocations and careers. Being taught the approach to a task is as important as any task a student with a learning disability can learn. The Lab School must teach its students explicitly the skills that other students may learn “naturally”: how to organize their work, their assignments, their belongings, themselves.
Since Lab School students are neurologically immature, many have difficulty separating one movement from another, left side from right side, one shape, one letter, one word, one idea from another. It is in the preschool years that most children learn the skills of differentiation and integration that enable them to do formalized academic work by the first grade. In sophisticated ways that respect their ages and intellectual levels, Lab School students of all ages must be taught the preschool skills they lack. Instruction in classrooms and in the arts forms must emphasize the distinguishing of sounds, visual symbols, movement, touch, and then link sound and symbol in meaningful ways. Since “disorder” is the problem of our students, “order” is the key to teaching them. Every part of our curriculum is geared to helping students organize themselves, their bodies, their minds, and their work. In Junior High and High School, students must be taught specifically how to study, how to manage time and space, and strategies to help themselves attend, focus, and remember what they have seen and heard.
While the slow neurological process of remediation takes its course, challenging the intellects of youngsters with learning disabilities is vital. The Lab School’s program is unusual in that it concentrates on critical thinking, the development of reason and logic, and the knowledge and understanding of history, geography, civics and literature. Bright students need stimulating content, ever wider funds of information. The Lab School assumes responsibility for giving its non-readers or poor readers a quality education that promotes the spirit of inquiry and offers intellectual journeys through classroom experiences, projects, technology and all the arts.
Our philosophy is based on the belief that a child’s failure to learn means that the teaching staff has not yet found a way to help him. It is up to the adults to seek out the routes by which each child learns, to discover his strengths and interests, and to experiment until effective techniques are found. Then, each child is taught through his or her unique style of learning. Our job is to program each child for success and pleasure in learning and to counter defeat and failure with confidence and competence. The job of the school is not simply to educate minds, to develop a commitment to inquiry, to remediate reading, oral and written language, math and motor skills, but also to help young people function effectively in society. Knowing the appropriate behavior in a given situation, knowing how to approach the unknown, knowing how to use the telephone effectively, to fill out forms, and be interviewed, constitute life skills that must be taught. All youngsters are being prepared for return to the mainstream, be it in three, five, or more years. When the job is done, we know they will succeed! The focus of the High School is to prepare students for higher education. Our graduates are proof of this.
The quality of the staff that puts our philosophy into practice has to be extraordinarily high. The Lab School prides itself on its top quality staff, unusually talented teachers who respect and deeply care for their students. Related Services staff members (occupational therapists, speech/language therapists, social workers and psychologists) are an integral part of the academic team. With the arts central to the educative process at The Lab School, a number of artists and teachers with an arts background work here. Since these creative people often approach life in untraditional ways and are known for their problem-solving ability, they are particularly well equipped to work with the youngster who does not learn traditionally and who puzzles most adults. The philosophy of the school is to build on the strengths of the adults working here and nourish them as we expect them, to build on the strengths of our students and, in turn, nourish them.