Learning is Messy

In the "quiet" hallways of most schools, you'll find students sitting in chairs and tracing along dotted lines. Even in early childhood, the term "rigor" is heard far too often; teachers worry that by allowing students to play with blocks standards will be missed. These top-down methods are utilized in so many classrooms across the nation because to teach means to be the sage on the stage. At Raintree, we don't buy into this methodology because our educators know learning doesn't look the way grown-ups expect it to look. It's boisterous and playful and purposeful - one thought leading to another which then transitions into an organized and wonderfully chaotic experiment. In this clutter of tubes and blocks and loose parts, there was true acquisition of knowledge.