Category: Issue 1

“Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.” –E.B. White “That explains it!” one student exclaimed while looking under rocks on the banks of the Mill River.  It was a sunny afternoon in Northampton, Massachusetts, and Jan Szymaszek’s third grade class was rapt.  Autumn leaves drifted from branches, landing atop craggy boulders, or else becoming subsumed in the downward rush of water.  Cameras in hand, students hopped their way through gravel and sand to capture moments that might generate questions or theories about rivers: how they move; where they lead; how they change.  The launch of this year-long science unit invited…

Smith College senior and student teacher in Tiphareth Ananda’s fourth grade, Hannah Searles spent her fall semester in the classrooms of the Campus School.  In an interview excerpted below, she spoke of her experiences learning to teach, and teaching to learn, at SCCS. “What do plants need?” Hannah Searles asked while sitting in the middle of Ms. Ananda’s classroom, eye-level with her students.  It was the start of her lesson on plant adaptations, and students were full of ideas.  “They need space to grow!” one student shared while leafing through his notes– speaking, unwittingly, of the student experience as much as of…

At the Campus School, lunchtime and literature go hand-in-hand.  Rather than amass in one cafeteria, students stay in their classrooms for read-alouds– a tradition that spans generations at Gill Hall. The transition to lunch sounds of metal lockers; lunchbox zippers; children on Milk Duty giggling in the halls.  Then there is hush.  The Campus School falls quiet.  Teachers and college students take hold of each room, settling kids into worlds fictive or realistic.  First graders might study the picture books of a local author while sixth graders discuss race relations in To Kill a Mockingbird.  No matter their age, students tune in–…

Now a senior at Harvard College, Maddy Stern studies American History and Literature.  She graduated from SCCS in 2008 before attending the Williston Northampton School.  Currently, she is writing a thesis on the intersection of legal and cultural development in 19th century Alabama.  She plans on taking a few years after graduating to work at a law firm or non-for-profit before going to law school.  She remains very grateful to her time at the Campus School for giving her the foundations to be self-confident and critical.  Below, she shares her memories of playing football during recess at SCCS. My strongest memory of…

Elizabeth Scheer graduated from the Campus School in 2002.  She is now a PhD student in English literature at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.  She received her BA from Haverford College and her MA from Oxford University, UK.  Below, she recounts her study of the Medieval World in Ms. Cooney’s fifth grade class.   As my parents like to say, I am “a pure product” of the Smith College Campus School.  Having arrived at the infant care center at the tender age of 3 months, I passed through a succession of classrooms, all led by wonderful teachers, until my sixth grade graduation…

A native of the Pioneer Valley, Brittany Collins graduated from the Campus School in 2008 before attending the Williston Northampton School and Smith College. She has published writing with English Journal and Literacy & NCTE, of the National Council of Teachers of English; Insight, of Dana Farber Cancer Institute; The Mighty; and Voices & Visions. The editor-in-chief of the latter, her editorial work was profiled by Ms. magazine and shared by the National Museum of Women in the Arts, as well as Gloria Steinem. She spent a morning wandering the halls of her alma mater and writes, below, of her return.  …