The Country Day School movement is a movement in progressive education that traces its roots to the late 19th century in America. As a Country Day school, BCD provides the educational rigor, learning environment, community and values-based education that rank us with the very best independent schools in the country. Our school buildings and campus landscaping offers an intentional environment designed with the goal of creating an inspirational environment that fosters learning and culture.
BCD’s programming is planned to promote the development of the “whole child” while providing a range of arts and afterschool offerings to advance camaraderie, creativity, and leadership. Students are valued as individuals and supported in developing a strong sense of self while learning to respect and show care and concern for others. True to our roots, Berkshire Country Day School exists to inspire the promise of every student, and our philosophy guides us to encourage academic excellence at the highest level while realizing each student’s potential for well-rounded development.
As a veteran educator, another way that I have thought about the “whole child,” and what that means for independent education, has been through the lens of Dr. Howard Gardner’s theory of “Multiple Intelligences.” For more information about Dr. Gardner, click here. His theory advances the idea that every person possesses capabilities and intelligences in eight distinct and measurable categories: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist.
Thomas Armstrong, of the American Institute For Learning and Human Development, includes the following excerpts in his book, Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom, The Association for Supervision and Curriculum, 2009 (all shared with permission). Click each link for more information:
The Eight Intelligences Described
Eight Ways of Learning – a brief chart
MI Theory Summary Chart – a more comprehensive chart
Multiple Intelligences Checklist for Students
Supporting each child’s individual promise and success as a “whole child,” with “multiple intelligences” is what BCD is all about. It’s our master plan: that students will learn, develop, grow, achieve in the many ways of being smart; that they will depart as informed and curious students, capable athletes and physical people, talented singers and musicians, creative artists and thinkers, contributing, conscious, and caring community members, dramatic thespians and able presenters, social and self-advocates, self-aware individuals with self-esteem, and more!
After our amazing winter concert last week, music teacher Jon Suters shared the following Ted Talk with me. More evidence about one intelligence and how playing music impacts a child, engaging them in a “full-body brain workout!”