An elementary school on Santa Barbara’s Westside has been undergoing a quiet educational revolution for the past few months.
Teachers at Harding School, 1625 Robbins St., have signed on to adopting International Baccalaureate principles and are committed to getting the school IB-approved. It’s a movement that’s enlisted nearly a quarter of a million students worldwide, ranging from preschool to age 19.
In California, however, only 13 primary schools participate in the program. Dos Pueblos High School has participated in IB’s diploma program for a number of years.
“It’s very rigorous,” Harding Principal Sally Kingston explained of the primary school requirements.
The crux of the program lies in focusing on six concepts that transcend traditional disciplines, like math and science. The concepts encourage children to discover the answer to questions about who we are, how we express ourselves and how the world works. Teachers then organize existing curriculum and state standards into these categories.
Among the attributes the students will cultivate as they delve deeper into the program are becoming an inquirer, a thinker and a communicator. In addition to gaining a broader world view, they follow in-depth approaches to academic disciplines and develop time management, problem-solving, research and organizational skills.
Even though teachers began adopting the program only recently, for Kingston, the journey to IB began when she arrived at the school five years ago.
“When I got here, teachers were saying ‘Sally, there’s no joy,’” Kingston recalled to Noozhawk.
The conversation among faculty began to crystallize on how to get students learning, and not just going through the motions.
“Kids are natural learners,” Kingston said. “We started asking, ‘Why are they getting to school and disengaging?’”
Kingston and the Harding faculty looked at supplementing what was mandated to make it more exciting for students at the school with a hawk as a mascot.
After hearing about the IB program, Kingston proposed it to some of the teachers. Getting approved to be an IB school isn’t easy, she warned.
“It’s a huge commitment,” she said.
But the school’s teachers unanimously agreed to jump on board with the program and they went forward with a series of presentations to Santa Barbara School District trustees, who approved the idea.
Five teachers just returned from IB training, and the school is waiting to be approved in its first set of applications.
Harding must be approved by the Geneva-based International Baccalaureate Organization, and while the 500-student campus waits, the faculty is in the middle of initiating what Kingston calls a “whole school reform.”
“Everybody has to do it from your music teacher to your Spanish teacher,” she said.
The teachers are remapping all the school’s themes so they’re interdisciplinary and inter-global.
Instead of just learning about the California Gold Rush and America’s western migration, they’ll talk about the history of migration and why people move.
“Most of our kids have come from Mexico, so that’s a really important conversation,” Kingston said.
Even some of the smaller changes have had big effects at the school. Allowing students to check out an unlimited number of books from the library is important, and the library just received 12 new computers for research.
Fourth-grade teacher Jennifer Lindsay has started using IB principles in her class.
The students are encouraged to synthesize what they’re learning to answer larger questions about the world around them. Lindsay read her students the children’s book, Because of Winn-Dixie, and the children were encouraged to listen for themes.
They decided to do a service project and were inspired to make dog biscuits and donate them to several local animal shelters.
Another book the children read sparked the idea of starting their own store, where they sold pencils, erasers, bracelets and other tchotchkes.
When the students needed a $70 loan to cover their starter costs, they drafted a letter to the Harding School Foundation asking for a microloan.
In the end, they paid back the loan and then some, raising nearly $300.
Students even had to fill out job applications and interview with student teachers before getting their assignments, which ended up educating them on everything from math skills at the cash register to people skills when several of the students were asked to be managers at the store.
Art teacher Ryan Ethington admits incorporating IB with art is a bit of a challenge.
“It forces you to think bigger,” he said. “It allows you to design your own curriculum instead of being told what to do.”
Ethington got a chance to talk with the students about the IB attributes when they tackled an art project dealing with those words.
The letters, like “risk-taker” and “communicator” were made of wood and cut. Students painted them in bright colors and hung them around the school’s play yard, all while Ethington fostered a dialogue about how the kids could be communicators and risk takers.
Ethington, who taught at a charter school in San Diego before coming to Harding, said the IB program provides a wider lens for students than traditional curriculum.
“The perspective in scope is larger,” he said.
Click here for more information on Harding School. Click here to make a donation to the Harding School Foundation.
— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at lcooper@noozhawk.com.
