Schooling in an Age of Anxiety
We live in an amazing, yet difficult time that comes with a confusing mix of technological advancement, material wealth, and at the same time deep anxiety, and uncertainty — and our children are not immune.
With everything at our fingertips — from information to instant consumption — so much feels within reach, and yet somehow still out of grasp. We climb endless ladders, chase other's highlight reels, never ever reaching a goalpost that feels quite good enough.
I have a middle schooler who constantly compares herself to other students, thinking that she isn't popular or have friends in our small school. No matter how many conversations we had, my words never reached through her defenses. So I took some time to hand-write her a sweet note, letting her know that her self worth is her very own! And that only she can restore it when she doubts it. I reminded her that she has so much more power that she thinks — that her self-belief creates her whole world.
That's what we do at Springwell — we hold unto innocence. We build and restore a strong healthy self-concept, so we can feel balance, wholeness, safety to be ourselves, make terrible mistakes — and still move on with our unique curiosities, unique ideas, unique expressions, gifts, and personalities. Only with this beautiful foundation, can we make space for others to do the same — without comparing.
At Springwell, we hold the space for these moments of doubt and anxiety, but also fundamentally transform what success means.
My 10 year old son once said, "Mom, the point of life is to be yourself and share it with others."
That's exactly what we teach. From the earliest grades, our students learn kindness, thoughtfulness, and the power of community. Our classrooms bubble with curiosity and messy creativity, where teachers cultivate an atmosphere always charged with the possibility of real learning—a breakthrough, a new connection—rather than rote memorization and testing for testing's sake.
Surreptitiously, we weave these spontaneous moments with Common Core standards — keeping up with our material world and easing parent anxieties about learning standards. But at Springwell, we do it our own inquiry-based and hands-on way. We assess student knowledge through their own modes of communication, incorporating visual arts, comic illustration, script writing, putting Thomas Jefferson on trial for owning slaves (including written and oral arguments for both prosecution and defense), the production of a satirical short horror film about a possessed chair, and coding games about space exploration.
But like my son shared, fulfillment doesn’t come from self-expression alone—it comes from sharing that expression with a community.
At Springwell, community looks like friends playing at recess, climbing our beloved tree, middle schoolers humming songs they wrote together, and parents visiting to cook and celebrate Nowruz, the Persian New Year, with our students. It looks like an all-school ice-skating party for our 5th anniversary, the unscripted, unprescribed art and writing that fills our campus, and our weekly school-wide circles where fidgety children wait patiently to share their thoughts—both serious and silly—with everyone.
If you want this kind of rich, meaningful education for your child, I welcome you to explore Springwell. Inquiry now and come experience the magic for yourself at our next Open House.
