An Overview
Birchwood’s Talent Development Model of education summarizes several classroom practices that guide our pedagogy. Historically, it is derived from the master-apprentice educational model.
Prior to the schooling of children in classrooms, knowledge and skills were conveyed through a relationship between a master, someone who knew their trade well, and an apprentice, someone who knew little of the trade, but had an interest and reason for learning.
The master could be a baker, a metal worker, a farmer, or a university scholar. The master would take an eager and industrious student under his skilled wings and create a comprehensive learning environment which not only taught the craft to the student, but took into consideration the student’s aptitude, pace of learning, the sequencing of skills, and even the apprentice’s individuality. Furthermore, the master would teach his apprentice the psychological tools embedded in the trade, things like, commitment, perseverance, hard work, self-discipline, or how to manage success and failures.
The great masters produced students who could exceed their own prowess and achievement. In fact, for many great artists, inventors, mathematicians, or writers, this was their goal.
The Master-Apprentice Model Provides a Framework
The learning environment in schools is different. It cannot be one-on-one. By their economic and social design, schools are organized around classrooms of children. This does not mean that the master-apprentice model is irrelevant, but it is aspirational. It is an ideal. But being an ideal does not mean that it should not inform how we teach children. The ideal should enlighten classroom practices, and each teacher in every classroom should do his or her best to approximate the ideal. In this way, the master-apprentice model of education provides a framework from which to organize, adjust, and improve teaching strategies that are most effective in every classroom, in every subject.
A good example of this teaching model occurs in the training of young musicians or young athletes. For instance, a good piano teacher will begin instruction based upon the child’s initial aptitude and interest – a point from which a student can experience success. Subsequently, pacing continues according to progress. If the teacher recognizes her student has significant aptitude, she will accelerate learning. If the student lacks aptitude or drive, she will slow the process making sure instruction was commensurate with ability and effort. Instruction would not be limited to the content and pace of a piano textbook. Her student will be permitted to progress according to his or her talent. In fact, if it appeared to the music teacher that her student’s ability far exceeded the teacher’s ability to meet the student’s need, the music teacher might recommend a more talented teacher or a more accomplished musician.
The training of young athletes is similar. A good tennis coach, for example, trains her pupil according to the athlete’s aptitude, attitude, and commitment. Although the tennis curriculum will be similar for any aspiring tennis player, the good coach exercises a keen eye toward the needs of the individual player. The coach asks herself: What should be taught? When should I teach it? How should I teach? Each player is different. One needs more practice on her serve, another focus on her backhand. The best coaching occurs at the intersection of the coach’s knowledge of the sport and the student’s readiness, ability, and desire. Good coaches place no limits on how far a child can develop her talents, nor do they ignore inferior players who, despite ability, still love the game and hope to improve.
In these two examples, imagine how unfair it would be to tell either a young pianist or tennis player to limit the development of their talents to the average performance level of other children their age. We would not tolerate holding these children back from advancement. At the same time, however, it would not be fair to limit the training and education of the mediocre athlete or pianist simply because they will not excel. This completely misses the point of education. Music and athletics are valuable and enjoyable lifelong activities in and of themselves. They enrich our lives no matter our level of competency.
Birchwood's Talent Development Model
In the Talent Development Model at Birchwood, we reason similarly about academic education regardless of the subject. If each child is given the opportunity to develop his or her talents to the highest level of ability, some will reach extraordinary levels of achievement. We have seen some Birchwood students matriculate to our country’s greatest universities. But others will, at the very least, find that reading, writing, mathematics, history, geography, and science can provide meaningful leisure activities lifelong.
In the Talent Development Model at Birchwood, we reason similarly about academic education regardless of the subject. If each child is given the opportunity to develop his or her talents to the highest level of ability, some will reach extraordinary levels of achievement. We have seen some Birchwood students matriculate to our country’s greatest universities. But others will, at the very least, find that reading, writing, mathematics, history, geography, and science can provide meaningful leisure activities lifelong.
A school setting, by design, does not and cannot exclusively provide a one-on-one relationship between a teacher and his or her students. Nevertheless, a school can approximate the ideal through institutional structures and practices. By firmly holding to the principles of the most effective educational model, a school can continually strive to make classroom and schoolwide accommodations that allow it to approach the ideal.
