Fall Update - August 2020

Dear Arbor Families, 

As we shared in our last update, on July 28 Governor Brown issued public-health metrics that govern when all public and private schools in Oregon may return to in-person instruction. Although we had every hope of welcoming your children back to campus in September, it is now these metrics --the infection rate in the metro area -- that will determine when that is possible. As a school that draws more than ten percent of its student, staff and faculty population from Clackamas, Washington and Multnomah counties, the guidelines require that we consider the infection rates in all three.

To help us track progress toward in-person instruction, we have prepared and will maintain this table of the number of cases per 100,000 population in each county. In addition to the number of cases, the test positivity-rate in the three counties must be at or below 5%. The county case rates and test-positivity rates for last week can also be seen here.

Given the current numbers and even with the somewhat positive trend, we cannot set any realistic timetable for inviting students back to campus, although we will be prepared to do so at the first opportunity. However, on August 11 the Oregon Department of Education issued amended guidelines within which it appears that we will be able to invite small groups of students to return to campus for partial days on a recurring basis. Some questions remain about the extent of what is possible, but we anticipate gathering students for important orientation and relationship-building activities as classes begin, and ongoing opportunities for critical social interaction as the fall progresses. We will share our plans for gathering as we learn all that is permitted and we will continue to explore all possibilities for bringing students together.

In the meantime, faculty have been hard at work developing a robust online program, building on what we learned in the spring and informed by research and coursework this summer.

It is our aim to offer curricula and schedules that are developmentally appropriate for each grade level, that provide for the differentiation that matches what we offer when we are in classrooms together, and that give families room to make choices about what is possible for them to support. As we plan for students to be working at home, we are also planning for the pivot back to the classroom, so that the work will be consistent between both contexts and the transition will be as seamless as possible. See a summary of on-site plans here. 

We understand that families are of necessity finding creative approaches to supporting students managing their schoolwork at home, including gathering small groups of children together in pods. We see the social and academic benefits of these groups for students and understand the necessity for parents to be able to establish work schedules. However, we also understand that the formation of such groups can raise equity issues, particularly if there is to be a paid adult working with the children, and that there are families for whom these groups will not be possible, whether for financial reasons or because of location and/or health risks.Therefore, our distance learning curricula will not be specifically tailored to these groups and we ask that familles forming these groups attempt to be as inclusive as possible, so that all feel welcome, and that an effort be made to extend the invitation to the new families joining us this year.

Although we won’t be in classrooms in September, It is the time of year when we would normally be sending you lists of needed school supplies. This year, because of the uncertainty of when we will be back in classrooms and to meet our wish for students to have particular materials at home to meet curricular needs, we will purchase and organize a packet of materials for each student, to be delivered in person on campus when students gather in small groups, or delivered to homes. Should there be a need for additional materials, for design work for example, we will supply those as needed.

We have spoken with many of you as you try to plan for the fall and to put in place structures that will support your children in learning at home while also allowing for the semblance of a normal work day. The disruption to the school calendar has asked so much of all of you and we keep that understanding in the forefront as we work toward having your children on campus, even for short visits. To do so with an acceptable level of risk for all in the community requires investment on our part -- an investment of effort in creative campus and cohort planning and a financial investment in things as tents, air purification equipment, and enhanced cleaning -- and it requires the commitment of Oregonians to fully adopt the practices that will reduce the rate of infection in our communities. We join you in doing all that is necessary to move to a more sustainable level of response to the presence of coronavirus in our lives and are grateful for all of the ways in which you continue to nurture the Arbor community in this difficult time.

With hope, 

Peter and Lori 

Mind Your P's and Q's - Jobs at Arbor

From the first, students and staff at Arbor have always been part of making the campus work.  Every day every student in the school has a job -- from taking out the trash to running an elaborate composting program that keeps all of our paper towels and weekly pizza boxes out of the solid waste stream and helps to create soil for our gardens; from cleaning the guinea pig cage to mucking out the pygmy goat pen; from reorganizing classroom bookshelves to checking out and shelving library books... the list goes on and on.

Once a week the older students take on one class period of service to the community.  They may write letters of thanks to recent classroom helpers, prepare the food bank for a weekend backpack lunch program for children in other schools who are receiving free lunch at school but need it also on weekends.  They may work in the Office helping to.prepare mailings or go to our Primary classrooms to read and listen to young readers.  

This notion of tending to others beyond oneself is deeply embedded in many ways throughout the school.  It is so central that it was the a subject of a recent in-house publication produced and distributed by our Intermediate  (4th & 5th grade) Letterpress Elective

What follows is a result of their reporting on jobs throughout the school:

Primary Jobs by Margaret

The Den thinks that the Guinea Pigs are the most important job because they are "alive animals," and Denner Charlie has made up a song about pencil sharpening. The Nesters use the saying, "Many hands make light work" to help them with their jobs.

Junior Jobs by Elliot

The Juniors rotate through their jobs with a chart. They have partners called mates who give tips to each other. Most kids like supervisor, because the supervisor picks the words for the hangman game at the end of the day.

Intermediate Jobs by Lauren

The Intermediates now have four job crews with unique names like Environmental Enhancement, Intermediate Conservation Corps, Marc's Cleansers Incorporated, and Groundhog Cleaning Crew. 

Senior Jobs by Henry

The Seniors have two sets of jobs: classroom cleaning and speciality jobs. Classroom jobs involve sweeping, trash, recycling and compost, and other domestic jobs within seminar groups. Speciality jobs assigned based on surveys include curbside trash bins, gardening, and chicken wrangling.

Community Service by Harry

In Sr. Community Service Greg says goat vaccination or building African drums from Arbor logs are the craziest jobs, but Nick says rafter work is.

Dangerous Tools

As a school we are constantly seeking sources of reflection, ways to have mirrored back to us those elements of practice that are producing evidence of efficacy for our students.  We send out questionnaires, conduct decadal self-evaluations, follow students through high school, college, graduate school, and into their lives as spouses and parents and community members.  We are further fortunate to have some of them return to Arbor as teacher residents in the Arbor Center for Teaching MAT program, as teachers, and, increasingly, as parents of Arbor children.

Those sources of feedback have been invaluable in correcting mis-directions, in opening up new avenues of practice, and refining Arbor ways.  Receiving unsolicited feedback is likewise very powerful.  This summer I received a remarkable letter from a young man who had just graduated from eighth grade at Arbor. He is a thoughtful and self-possessed young man, and I opened it with happy anticipation.  I have been carrying the letter around with me ever since.  

He writes... "Arbor is a sort of dream world.  One would almost call it the 'Arbor experiment.' Arbor is a place where the expectations are high, and yet always met with an unbelievable enthusiasm, a place in which you are not just expected but praised for being you, where your teachers, classmates, and principal do not just respect, but love you for who you are.  It is a place in which young children are given great responsibility and are trusted well beyond the average adult.  At Arbor we do not take away the dangerous tools, but instead show children their power, and show them how they can be used safely, to work towards a better world.... It is not a worried safety that limits kids, that keeps them from their curiosity; the world has too much of that.  It is a trusting safety, and it is truer, more two-sided, and it is something our world greatly lacks."

This gracious portrayal has now become a powerful source of inspiration for us.  May we always be worthy of this young man's positive regard.  We believe he will go on to make contributions to the world  that arise out of his unique temperament, curiosity and drive.  He knows we will be watching and rooting for him every step of the way.

Warm Demanders

How can a little, independent school amidst fields and woods have anything to say to developing teachers whose classrooms will one day be found in large buildings in the middle of a city?  While the externalities may appear to separate the two contexts, the essence of schooling is based not on such surface elements but on the practices that can be learned in such a setting as Arbor's.

In a recent conversation with former Arbor Center for Teaching (ACT) apprentice, Ren Johns, who was aiming for and found a mathematics teaching position at a large urban high school after earning her MAT through ACT, we discussed what it is that she believes she brings to her students that is making the difference in her teaching.  She attributes her successes with her current students, who might appear to be very different from those she taught at Arbor, to the lessons she learned through ACT, to the relentless commitment to students she saw modeled and now exhibits herself, both in the development of meaningful relationships with them and in her provisioning them with work at which they can be successful.  Ren commented further that she finds herself at the same school as another ACT graduate, Ben Malbin, whose successes in teaching American Sign Language to a wide range of students are likewise predicated on connecting with students authentically as human beings and as capable learners.  

Both of these teachers are "warm demanders," intent on working with their students students from a perspective of high expectations and empathic understanding.  Becoming committed to such understanding and developing the pedagogical imagination required to do this kind of work can be learned in any school committed to individual growth and development within a community of learners being asked to be their best selves.  Arbor is such a school.