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Press Room
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Touchstone Community School in the news:
Listening
to Learn, Learning to Listen Touchstone
Community School Pairs with the Touchpoints Center and Insight
Management to
Re-Imagine Essential Skills Grafton,
MA, April 2010—Many people think of school as the
place where children learn to listen. But sometimes, it’s the grown-ups
who
need to re-evaluate and recapture that skill. That’s what a group of
some 40
parents, faculty, and staff of the Touchstone Community School (TCS)
did over
four Wednesday evenings this winter. The gatherings were part of a new
venture
for both the school and the facilitators of the workshops—Dr. Joshua Sparrow, Director of Special
Initiatives for the Brazelton Touchpoints Center (BTC) in Boston and
Charlie
Kiefer of Insight Management Partners (IMP), a former TCS parent. For
13 years, BTC has
worked with healthcare and early care/education providers to create
better and
healthier family environments for children. For 15 years, IMP has
worked with
executives to increase the frequency of insight and wisdom in their
business
discussions. Sparrow
and Kiefer
combined these experiences to create a course for the TCS community—the
first
of its kind. Designed
to encourage
opportunities for insight and wisdom in communication among adults
(parents,
faculty, and administration— in all
combinations) and ultimately do the same for adult-child communication,
the
workshop required intensive, small- group work from participants. “How
would you listen to
a child so that you fully understand what they are trying to say?”
Charlie
Kiefer asked on the opening evening, setting the stage for a series of
thoughtful interactions among the adults as they talked about how to
listen to
children—and along the way learned to listen to one another while
suspending
judgment. .
Participants practiced the
technique of clearing the mind and not allowing the intervention of
personal
ideas and thoughts when listening, and discovered how a calm state of
mind
enhances the process of making new—and sometimes surprising—learning
possible. As
TCS parent says, “I
learned to enter a conversation willing to be changed by it.” Another
Touchstone
parent took deep listening home with her. “Listening to my child
without the
intent to correct, instruct, or solve problems has allowed better and
more
complete conversations,” she says. A
third TCS parent says,
“I
learned that I can learn from my children, if I let them teach me.” Not
only did
participants discover new ways to communicate with their children, they
also
learned to identify and nurture the kinds of fresh ideas that emerge
from what
IMP’s Kiefer calls “insight thinking.” The workshop exercises were
designed to
help people recognize and seek those moments, which happen when
the mind is calm, at rest, and unpressured. “Everyone
has had the
experience of a striking insight that comes out of nowhere,” Kiefer
says,
adding that the project was, from his point of view as presenter and
facilitator, a success. “It
was great; I think it proved our case that we could
combine insight thinking and child-development ideas from Brazelton
and—and
that together they are an impactful offering. What I would hope is that
parents
and the teachers and the administration of any school would find a
renewed
commitment to the betterment of the kids and a recognition that no one
person has
the whole answer even if you think you probably do.. Together, a
community
brings a much richer array of support,” he says. To follow up the
pilot project, Touchstone has created a Touchpoints Center Pilot
Project Task
Force to evaluate the experience and consider ways in which to
integrate its
lessons into the daily life of the school. “The
Task Force is excited about building on the Touchpoints
pilot project. We
hope to offer parents
who are new to our school in the fall a session on the importance of
deep
listening to families, teachers, and children.
At the same time, we anticipate telling the
Touchstone/Touchpoints story
to other schools—actually, to any educator who will listen,” says TCS
head of
school Don Grace. Touchstone
Community School
(www.touchstoneschool.org)
is an independent,
progressive preschool, elementary and
middle school located in Grafton Massachusetts. The school was founded
in 1982 by
a group
of parents and educators and is accredited by the Association of
Independent
Schools of New England (AISNE). The
school’s
mission statement says,
“We envision a world of
lifelong learners, participating
in communities in which each member cares for the social, emotional,
physical
and intellectual well being of all in the community. We
envision
communities working together to care for, appreciate, and protect the
earth and
universe we inhabit. Touchstone’s mission is to gather families that
share this
vision and to offer a child-centered educational program and
environment that
will nurture competent, thoughtful and enthusiastic lifelong learners.” Brazelton
Touchpoints Center
(http://www.touchpoints.org) is dedicated to strengthening the systems
of care
that serve young children and their families. Founded upon the research
and
practice of renowned pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton, MD, the Center
provides
knowledge development, professional development and training, technical
assistance, and collaborative consultation in communities where
professionals
serving families of young children have made a commitment to forming
empowering
partnerships with them. BTC programs and services are designed to shift
the
paradigm of care so that our service delivery systems are appropriately
focused
on discovering and meeting the needs of families. Dr. Sparrow is an
Assistant
Professor of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School and Director of
Special
Initiatives at BTC. Insight
Management Partners’
(www.insightmanagementpartners.com) purpose is to help organizations
access
their best thinking. This boosts problem-solving ability and improves
decision-making, resulting in better business performance. At the core
of their
service offerings is Insight Thinking Methods (ITM), an approach that
increases
the frequency, reliability, and depth of insights. Mr. Kiefer, a former
Touchstone Community School parent and one of the founders of IMP, is
an
organization consultant that helps global companies leverage the human
side of
their enterprise primarily by working with executives and their teams
to
improve the quality of their thought.
* * * * *
Touchstone Community School is delighted to announce a partnership with J. White's Automotive to build connections between our students and the wider community. J White's Automotive, located at 143 Milford Street in Upton, MA, is featuring a display of artwork created by students in our 7th and 8th grade classes. The artwork was the result of an extended, integrated study of symmetry, in which the students had both mathematics and fine arts instruction. During the arts portion of their work, the students carved designs onto 4" x 4" pieces of foam which they printed in rotation in two directions. The finished prints were framed and are now on display in the waiting room of this local business. J. White's Automotive has won local customer satisfaction surveys and is committed to treating their customers with integrity and respect. Eager to set themselves apart from others in the industry, their waiting room is designed to be bright, comfortable, and enhanced with artwork from the community. Education Springs to Life at Touchstone Community School, Worcester Telegram & Gazette 10/3/2008 Don Grace joins Touchstone Community School, Worcester Telegram & Gazette 8/23/2008 Good nutrition is one key to a good education, Community Advocate 12/28/2007
If
you need a media contact, please call
either our Head of School, Don Grace,
at 508-839-0038 or our Director of Admission, Jennifer Weeden,
at the same number.
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