Principles of the Dragon

Discussion-based education is a very ancient idea. It is, in fact, the basis of the Socratic method. Socrates, the great thinker and mentor, engaged his students in dialogue about the essential and eternal questions. The point is not for Socrates, or any other great thinker, to transmit his or her ideas, but to fill the student with questioning, and encourage the deepest self-questioning, which leads, as Socrates tells us, to knowing yourself. This ancient sharing of ideas and pursuit of wisdom is the method chosen by all the great teachers of history.

The Dragon way of teaching has a broad basis in the research of the past century, research into our exploration of how we know, how our minds work, how we develop, and how we can foster true understanding and meaningful knowledge. All the fields which research these issues are agreed on a few consistent elements for the most suitable, effective, and meaningful learning.

Classrooms must be small, and structured both physically and conceptually as seminars, no more than 15 people sitting around a table. It's hard to speak up or engage with others, even your teacher, when you are sitting with thirty odd other people in rows all facing the board.

Object-based learning, exploration of reality, is more powerful than textbook/fact based learning, which is merely swallowing (and then, inelegantly, regurgitating) pre-digested interpretations. It is so much more convincing and engaging to experience things for yourself. This is why The Dragon is museum-based, taking our students out of the classroom to discover the rich cultural institutions of this city.

Teachers must engender trust in their students, and convey respect and support. Adolescents are very sensitive, and scornful of pretence and hypocrisy. They are inspired by affection and faith, and will work unstintingly for someone they admire. Teachers must also model the excitement of learning and its deeper meaning. It's hard to teach what you don't know at a profound level, or to convey the relevance and beauty of a subject to which you are yourself indifferent. Our most important lessons are moral: the lessons of freedom, friendship and compassion.

The diversity of innate learning styles and strengths requires a diversity of teaching strategies and flexibility. We tend to teach as we have been taught, which is traditionally didactic and controlling. This creates a divide between teacher and student, between subject studied and oneself. There are many ways of conveying what is true and important, and many ways of assessing achievement, as an abundance of recent research shows. At The Dragon, we use it.

There needs to be a reason for all that work, for caring about what you learn and remember. Traditionally, this has been extrinsic: grades, status, admission to desired schools or professions. But there has been a great deal of attention to instrinsic motivation, to doing something for the sheer pleasure, for its own sake. This springs from meaning, not textbooks.

The best approach to learning is to integrate subject fields, not dis-integrate them, to show how core concepts, historical developments, and key skills cross subject boundaries, how they recur across the years of the curriculum, how they may be transformed and transferred from one application to another. The integrated curriculum breathes life into dusty collections of facts, it awakens curiosity, and connects what is studied in school to the world all around.

Fundamentally, The Dragon is a laboratory school, experimenting with modernizing and carrying forward the core values of progressive education: freedom of expression, imagination, co-operation and commitment to social justice. What are the habits of mind of truly thoughtful people? How can we cultivate our students' imaginations, their critical thinking abilities, their sense of history? Progressive education deliberately sets out to train students to think, and to develop creatively, encouraging young people "to care for the common good, to seek justice, to cherish diversity and truth" as Milton Meltzer teaches us. A progressive approach provides young people with hope that this imperfect world is open to change and improvement, Or as Dewey would have it, we should teach democracy and co-operation, and provide the necessary tools for confronting social and moral problems.

Surely the great task of adolescent education is to awaken a sense of moral interest in others, of social responsibility, a dream of what the young person can give back to the world. This is what young people themselves will tell you they want, if they trust you. That's why we called our school The Dragon Academy: adolescence is a quest.