Multi-Age Studios

What do multi-age studios and a one-room schoolhouse vibe really contribute to our learners? There is the obvious and the more subtle. As a guide, I am privileged to witness all kinds of amazing interactions on a daily basis. If you have more than one child you may know some of what I am referring to. I fear the beauty of all these ages working together is more complex than I may be able to express here, but I am going to try. 

There is the obvious: a younger learner will be inspired to strive towards what they see an older learner doing. This is the motivation for our primary learners to move to elementary for example. They begin to desire that which they see elementary doing and being, as elementary starts to become motivated by middle school, and the middle school strives towards high school. One of our primary learners witnessed an elementary learner writing in cursive and became curious. What were these mesmerizing, unrecognizable squiggles? He was intrigued and cannot wait to move into the elementary studio where he can crack this code on his own and learn cursive. What about the more subtle examples? It is relatively easy to point to an academic “success” from an older child to a younger one.

Think of a child in a regular school environment who is struggling. Maybe they are a little “behind” the rest of their peers in reading, or they have trouble keeping their hands to themselves and end up regularly in trouble. This child more often than not will start to feel defeated. They may begin to internalize inadequacy and it can unfortunately become a self-perpetuating cycle. Now imagine this same child in a multi-age environment. This child has the opportunity to be a hero and an example to the younger learners in ways that they would not in a room with all peers of the same age. An eight year old who offers to help change the water bottle in the school water cooler is showcasing responsibility and kindness to a five year old. To that five year old the older learner is a hero and may as well have hung the moon. When a six year old is not sure how to operate the microwave for their lunch and a nine year old can step in (without being asked) it makes that nine year old more confident in their abilities, which translates to other areas of their life. Everyone needs someone to admire them at some point for their abilities and boosting that self esteem is much easier when there are younger peers to help and lead.

I speak here as a parent who watched my son struggle in traditional school, not academically but behaviorally. He was a five year old who could not sit still or keep his hands to himself. His school was big on positive reinforcement, which is nice in theory but it was not working for him because the reinforcement was never coming. He could not walk down the hall without touching the person in front of him. I explained in a meeting with the counselor that maybe he needed a reward and recognition for walking halfway down the hall with his hands to himself. The response was, “Well, the expectation is to walk the whole hall without touching anyone.” They could not envision meeting my son where he was at and rewarding him for any small step of progress. His peers started to view him as trouble because he was never recognized or praised for anything he did. Now imagine he was in a place where he could use his strengths (he was incredibly brave at five years old) to inspire others around him. He may have stepped up to help an older learner who was hesitant with the hot glue gun (as I have witnessed happen this week). Maybe he would not have hated school at a mere five years old. Maybe he would not have felt discouraged and as if he could not do anything right. I am not excusing his behavior. Obviously, he needed to learn to keep his hands to himself, but he also needed to inspire someone. 

One of our youngest learners, a four year old, recently became inspired by watching an elementary learner come read to the primary studio, read a book aloud to the studio. Now this four year old cannot yet read, but expressed a desire to also read a book to the group. He selected a book he loves, sat up tall, and promptly made up a story that worked with the pictures in the book to tell the studio. Not only was he inspired but he ended up inspiring other peers who were older and had previously been too shy to try to read to the group. They looked at this four year old being brave and thought, “If he can do it, so can I!” Soon everyone in the studio from the other four year olds to the oldest seven year olds were clamoring to read to the studio. 

I suppose what I hope to express is that learners benefit from the multi-age environment in a multitude of ways, from being younger and being older. They are continually inspired by the older learners and strive to match their examples, but inspiration can also come from those younger. Older learners take on more responsibility over all and younger learners begin to take on responsibility earlier as they are exposed to this example. Everyone has the opportunity to shine in some way, even if at first it is not “academically.” Gaining the confidence that you can make a positive difference is the first step to adopting a hero mindset, that will eventually lead to tackling harder challenges. This is a large part of some learners' “detox” that happens when coming from a more traditional learning environment. 

Learners have many more opportunities to shine and be heroes when they are around a mixed-age group in a non-traditional school setting. I could give endless examples but hopefully, I have made my point. Especially for learners who are only children, or are the youngest or oldest sibling in their family the one-room schoolhouse model of school offers unique ways to inspire and be inspired that they may not have elsewhere. Perhaps you remember as a child getting together with all your cousins of mixed ages, admiring your super cool older cousin and helping your younger cousins. I remember not wanting the cousin group time to end, begging my parents to let my older cousin come home with us to extend the joy. That is the closest I can imagine to what it feels like for our learners to come to school each day and interact in such a mixed-age group. I know my own children never want to stay home from school and to me as a parent that speaks volumes.

Renee Weed
Primary Studio Guide