City Learning & Community

One of the original tenets of the founders’ vision was that this school not only be in the city of Philadelphia but of the city. That vision included gathering a student population reflective of the diversity of the city, partnering with city institutions (museums, parks, libraries) to understand their role in supporting city welfare and participating in that mission, and valuing social justice initiatives as a key part of realizing true democracy.

The Adventures Of Manjiro With The Rosenbach Museum And Library

In their study of identity with Africa as the focus, sixth graders addressed three essential questions throughout the year: How does land define us? How do others define us? How do we define ourselves?

The play unit had several threads including a study of various philosophies of the importance of play, time for structured and unstructured play for the students, and then opportunities to observe preschoolers playing indoors at TPS and outdoors at The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education and Smith Playground. Students developed hypotheses about play in young children and then set up experiments to test those hypotheses using preschoolers at TPS. They used their findings later in developing the playspace at Smith Playground.

Sherlock Project With The Philadelphia Museum Of Art

Originally, this project was designed for medical students to increase their skills in observation (hence the name Sherlock, a detective of unsurpassed observational prowess), key in diagnosing disease. Educators at the PMA felt that building observational skills, using art as the medium, would work well with middle school students across disciplines. The PMA invited our middle school teachers to see if we would be willing to help craft and pilot this program, and in 2017 we offered an intensive (a six-week, cross-grade course) which featured five visits to the museum and a final project that asked students to display their enhanced observational skills. Along the way, students journaled about their insights, shared their questions and comments in discussions with museum educators, and used their artistic talents to complete a final landscape given only a scrap of a piece of art. The success of this pilot program made possible the museum’s adoption of Sherlock for the education program for middle school students across the tri-state area.

In 2000 the Director of Education at the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia, Bill Adair, approached The Philadelphia School with a proposal for a musical program that would cut across all disciplines. With the support of Sandra Dean and the teachers of the Primary Unit, the Rosenbach commissioned Rob Redei, one of our talented music teachers, to write and direct a musical inspired by the museum’s exhibition Drifting: Nakahama Manjiro’s Tale of Discovery. The exhibit documented the journey of a Japanese boy, ship-wrecked off the coast of Japan in the early 1840s, and brought to the United States, one of the first Japanese to set foot on American soil. This collaboration gave students the opportunity to learn concepts relating to time, history, geography, sea life, and cultural differences, as well as present a musical inspired by their learning (program cover drawn by Maurice Sendak). The Rosenbach, in turn, was able to animate its wonderful exhibit. As an extra bonus, four TPS students, two TPS teachers (including Rob), and a curator from the museum traveled to Japan in the summer of 2001 to meet with Japanese students and artists and present scenes from the musical.

Students interviewed senior citizens in the Strawberry Mansion section of Philly, where Smith is located, to learn about how they experienced Smith in their youth. Students also looked through the raw archives at the playground, analyzing primary sources for hints to what Smith was like in earlier times, how it has changed, and how its role in Philadelphia reflected, or did not reflect, larger social trends and ideals.

Students were given freedom to explore big sections of the woods at Smith Playground and, over time, pick a spot that called to them to play. Based on their understanding from all the other threads, they designed a playspace using only natural materials and found objects. They created presentations explaining their design and the rationale, being explicit about their inspiration and how playing in their space would encourage growth in children. A tour was arranged for parents and play designers engaged by Smith Playground. The idea was that parents would learn a little more about the importance of play (maybe impacting a little how they parented), and the play designers would get ideas from the wisdom of kids on what makes a great play space.