Ask Michelle: What Makes Progressive Education Relevant Today?
- May 31
- 4 min read
Progressive education has its origins in the late 19th century, with roots in the Enlightenment era ideas of John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. So, what makes this approach relevant today? Our Head of School reflects on challenges and opportunities of the moment.
“When Progressive education arose,” says Head of School, Michelle Healy, “it was the turn of the 20th century. We were looking at issues similar to now: wealth imbalance, new industry overhauling employment in the form of the Industrial Revolution – with technology providing more time for bigger ideas, as well. We are in a similar place now, an era of real government strife and polarization, where wealth is very imbalanced, and we’re unsure how tech will change our lives.”
It’s an unsettling time, but we are fortunate that, in many ways, Progressive education was designed to meet it.
“Progressive education doesn’t emphasize acquisition of facts,” Michelle explains. “Rather, it focuses on being able to grapple with history, big issues, big problems. It asks students to come to their own conclusions. Progressive education was made to get children thinking and doing, asking questions as a way to learn, centering curiosity. It equips kids to engage and advocate with the tools of the moment. It teaches them how to participate.”
In progressive education, we really equip our kids with skills for research, the ability to take in and synthesize info from many sources, to recognize bias, and to seek out what’s truthful through that idea of gathering many different perspectives.
This approach not only promotes creative problem solving, it develops the critical thinking skills that undergird, in Michelle’s words, “the ability to decipher the truth. In progressive education, we really equip our kids with skills for research, the ability to take in and synthesize info from many sources, to recognize bias, and to seek out what’s truthful through that idea of gathering many different perspectives.”
That starts from early childhood. While we may not think of it as such, the natural world is a laboratory for research. “When we immerse children in the natural world,” Michelle says,“they begin by developing hands-on, sensory-based, holistic understanding. Then, when we incorporate texts – primary sources, secondary sources – they have the experience to get in touch with what’s real.”
Another central facet of Progressive education is being community-based. “If we are to be successful in meeting the needs of this time, community is going to be such a huge component of that,” Michelle says. “Traditional school is generally more built on power imbalance. We try to democratize voice in our community, raising young people with the tools to participate and form opinions, not simply receive them, with skills to advocate for change, rights, and a sustainable future.”
At an organizational level, High Meadow is also adapting to shifts in technology and culture. “One of the main questions we use to guide tech use at the school,” Michelle explains, “is ‘will this in some way enhance the learning?’ If not, we don’t need to use the technology.”
Use of digital technology in the classroom is light through our lower school program. “It may include use of tech like a document camera or projector,” Michelle says, “or an adaptive/assistive technology for a certain child. We also make sure to define technology not as computers or electronics, but as any tools we use to make something easier or better. For example, the little kids are really interested in the key fob systems we have at school. We talk about all sorts of tools we can use and the why behind them, how they work.”
As students approach middle school, they begin to explore keyboarding and computer search basics, then use digital tools to organize assignments, and in their final years, they develop more sophisticated word processing, research, and design and creative skills.
Throughout, teachers also take time to directly foster the knowledge necessary for responsible tech use at all ages. “We want students to be ready to negotiate tech in a way that feels effective and healthful,” Michelle says, “using it to enhance their learning and doing, not as a substitute.”
We try to democratize voice in our community, raising young people with the tools to participate and form opinions, not simply receive them, with skills to advocate for change, rights, and a sustainable future.
How has Michelle’s own experience as an educator prepared her for this moment? “In my first position, when I was first going into the teaching world, there was a hiring freeze,” she explains. Called on to be adaptable from the start, this led her into the Charter schools network.
“Nearly all my background in the Charter networks is in start-up schools,” she continues, “using research, colleagues’ expertise, drawing on what exists to make something new. The experience of being in start-ups has come in really handy in thinking about how to build for now, with the future in mind.”
Michelle also spearheaded a research project called The Odyssey Initiative, visiting 67 schools across 23 states to witness the diversity and breadth of our educational communities.
“We can get caught up in the idea of one right or best way,” Michelle reflects, “but there are so many different ways and environments for learning. They must be tailored to the place, the people, and the moment. Those communities assemble differently, look different, hold different ideals about education, but a through-line is an end goal of human thriving. Every community we saw was formed by every person in that community mattering.”
