A recent Friday morning found the Cliff Island School busier than usual. The seven students, grades first through fifth, buzzed with nerves and excitement as they prepared for a special visitor. In the back of the one-room schoolhouse, an anthropology class from Bowdoin College looked on. When the guest, a local lobsterman, walked in the door, the teacher ushered him to a special chair. The students settled down to focus on their task. One at a time, each rose to ask the lobsterman questions, beginning with this formal request: “would you mind if we tape you with a recorder or a video camera?”
The lobsterman did not mind, as he had volunteered to come in and talk about his job. Students asked about the name of his boat, the tools he uses, and when he was most scared on a boat. As the lobsterman continued to talk, students relaxed more, being caught up in the stories they were hearing. Judy MacVane, the classroom teacher, asked the last question. “How did the interview go?” she wanted to know. “What should we do differently next time?”
Although this particular morning did not look like a typical class lesson, students were learning how to conduct interviews, a skill not usually developed before high school. However, the Cliff Island students need to learn how to conduct interviews. As part of a coordinated project with a Bowdoin College course and the Island Institute, Cliff Island students are researching and electronically documenting their island community. Linked with Lobster Tales, an Island Institute-supported program that tracks lobsters from fishermen to consumers, students are developing a community website for the island. Over the next month, Cliff Island students will work in teams with Bowdoin students to interview local lobstermen, collect oral histories, and research the island’s history, geography, economy, community and people. With technological support from the Bowdoin students, the resulting research will be shaped into a Cliff Island web page.
Anne Henshaw, Director of the Coastal Studies Center on Orr’s Island and the supervising Bowdoin College professor, defined the value of this collaboration. “Students are learning what is unique about their island. They build confidence when they know more about where they come from.” Instead of considering the local community a small and limited topic of study, Henshaw believes it enhances students’ understanding of the broader world. “Knowledge of your community is a window to the larger world. What you know from personal experiences about your home can be extended to apply to the world at large. If you can be an expert in where you are from, other things aren’t so intimidating.”
The experiential, community-centered learning that Henshaw describes is not highly traditional. Rather, it is a method known as place-based education. “Place-based education occurs when kids do things in school that are based in their community, and is meaningful in some way to that community,” said Mike Felton, Education Outreach Programs Director at the Island Institute.
There are no set types of projects: students may document their town through photography, or they may monitor a local environmental site. Regardless of the project type, the key to place-based education is that it uses the local community as a teaching tool for students. “By reconnecting rather than separating children from the world, place-based education serves both individuals and communities, helping individuals to experience the value they hold for others and allowing communities to benefit from the commitment and contributions of their members,” writes national educational researcher Gregory Smith.
Place-based education is valuable in any school, but it is often found in smaller rural areas. Typically, this is because the school has a valuable role in rural communities. “The school is the heart of the community” is a phrase often repeated by island residents. Philip Conkling, founder of the Island Institute, wrote in his book Islands in Time that “Island schools are the best place to begin to ask about the future of the islands.” When a school is central to the identity and survival of a community, it is only logical that the school should extend into that community.
Island schools, in fact, have utilized place-based educational methods for many years. In his 1978 book about the North Haven Community School, Schooling in Isolated Communities, Tom Gjelten stated, “A good school uses its community both as a resource for teaching and as the subject of the curriculum itself.” At that time, North Haven employed place-based education through a variety of projects. On example noted by Gjelten was the development of a town-wide newspaper by students at the school. Students developed critical writing skills while learning about current events in their community. The community benefited by having a local source for news about North Haven. (A former teacher on North Haven, Gjelten is now a reporter for National Public Radio.)
Today, many other island schools are integrating their local culture with academic curriculum. This fall, Monhegan students studied a field in the center of town for a science unit. They learned about the ecology of their island through direct observations and hand-on experiences. Likewise, students on Peaks Island learned about the geography of their island through a recently completed mapping project. Using a wide variety of local resources, students thoroughly examined their island while developing critical knowledge and skills.
Developing students’ knowledge and understanding is central to place-based education. Children do not stop learning when they leave the school building. In fact, by bringing them out into the surrounding community, students are more likely to succeed academically. A recent study by educational researchers Lieberman and Hoody examined 40 U.S. schools using place-based education. They found that that these students “act more independently and responsibly, display pride in and ownership of their accomplishments, exhibit improved discipline and self-control, and academically outperform their traditionally instructed peers.” This evidence is also apparent closer to home. Three of the island schools that employ place-based education – Islesboro Central School, North Haven Community School and Peaks Island School – have been recognized by the state as high-performing schools. Simply put, students excel academically when learning extends beyond the school walls.
Community members also benefit when place-based education takes place in their area. When students extend into the local community academically, they are able to contribute to the local culture. At times, place-based learning can directly support the needs of a town. Islesboro students, for example, carried out a ground water analysis project to support the town’s Groundwater Protection Committee. The Cliff Island students will develop a web page for the community as part of their work with Bowdoin College. Local residents directly benefit from the work of students engaged in place-based education.
In addition to creating resources for the community, students can learn skills that are valuable to residents for social, economic or historical reasons. Several island schools, including North Haven and Vinalhaven, have incorporated wooden boatbuilding into their curriculum. Lobsterman Billy O’Reilly from Cliff Island best stated the value of learning such skills. “Nobody really knows how to build wooden boats anymore. We used to build them here on Cliff, but now there’s not really anybody left. It’s a dying skill, and that’s a shame.”
Although there is not currently a boatbuilding program on Cliff Island, students are still learning valuable knowledge and skills from their surrounding community. At the conclusion of their interview, students knew a bit more about how to conduct formal interviews. Furthermore, they learned what it means to be an active member of the Cliff Island community. This is the greatest value of place-based education: teaching island children what it means to be an island resident. As Swan’s Island resident Sonny Sprague comments in Islands in Time, “A lot of our children go away. I guess the ones that get the most education do not come back. I wish it were different than that. I wish everybody would go and get an education, and those that wanted to go, fine, but those that wanted to come back could… and then come home and be part of the community.”
By taking part in place-based education, island students are learning the value of their own communities. Hopefully, their experiences in these earlier years will help bring them back to the islands in the future.