Developmental Learning for All!

As both Matthew and I have said before, one of the most important and least talked about educational discoveries in recent years is that much of the achievement gap between rich and poor kids can be attributed to the cultural experiences that middle and upper middle class kids get outside of school. This is clearly not a secret to upper-middle class and wealthy parents, as can be seen in Alison Cowan's article in the New York Times (Schools Deep Pocketed Partners). This article discusses the role played by wealthy parents in school districts across the country who are forming private foundations to raise money to bring among other things theatre, sports, greenhouses, music, dance, mountain bikes etc into the schools in their towns.

Unscripted Learning is our attempt to open that secret up to everyone, rich and poor, urban and suburban--real learning, developmental learning, requires that children be involved in and exposed to human creativity and culture. The well-off have always known this, but if we are to do anything about the achievement gap between rich and poor then we need to bring that kind of learning to all children. While the article discussed ways in which these foundations are working to serve all the children in their suburban districts--both the well off and the not quite so well off, our goal is to bring creativity into even the poorest school in the poorest district in the country.