Issue 6 | The Lab School

At the Campus School, learning has always been more than the transmission of knowledge. It is relational, reflective, and deeply human—shaped by teachers who take children seriously, students who are trusted with complexity, and a community willing to experiment, question, and grow together.

As we relaunch The Lab School in advance of our centennial year, this issue invites readers to reflect on the people, practices, and relationships that have defined the Campus School across generations. It is an issue about memory and method, about storytelling as pedagogy, and about the enduring power of a school that understands education as both intellectual and moral work.

In these pages, we honor teaching as craft and care. A conversation with former teacher Elizabeth Cooney reminds us what it looks like when rigor and imagination are held together—when students are invited to make serious commitments to their learning, to one another, and to themselves. Her reflections, rooted in meticulous preparation and deep respect for children’s inner lives, offer a window into a tradition of teaching that remains foundational to who we are.

We also turn to alumni memory and continuity. Ruth Griggs ’63 returns to campus carrying both personal reflection and public leadership, embodying the way Campus School graduates carry the school’s values into the wider world. Her story sits alongside reflections from current Smith College students, for whom Campus School is not an adjunct to the college but an integral part of the Smith experience—a place of belonging, mentorship, and professional formation.

Student work, archival images, and centennial highlights throughout the issue remind us that the Campus School is, and has always been, a living laboratory: one that documents its thinking, preserves its artifacts, and treats reflection as essential to progress.

As we approach one hundred years of Campus School, The Lab School serves as both record and invitation—an archive of where we have been, and a space to imagine where we are going. We hope this issue encourages you to linger, to remember, and to re-enter conversation with a school that continues to believe deeply in inquiry, voice, and community.

Welcome back. We are glad you’re here.