EDUCATION What Every Student Needs to Know


ESSENTIAL COMPETENCIES HOLD KEY TO LIVING A SATISFYING, PRODUCTIVE LIFE Story by Tom Berridge, design and EC logo by Anne Marie Snyder


T WWW.OES.EDU


These are the essential competencies that we expect and hope students will carry with them out into the world for the rest of their lives, that will allow them to be personally and professionally successful and happy, and that will allow them to contribute to the common good.


—Cindy McEnroe, MS counselor


he first-graders are on an insect safari. They explore the athletic field, the marsh, and the forest.


They look under rocks and logs to see who’s there. “I found one,” shouts a boy peering into the grass. As all the other children crowd around, he adds “Quiet, he’s trying to go to sleep!” The children capture bugs (later they


will release them) and take them back to the classroom to compare to pictures of insects in books. They see that insects have three main body parts and six legs. Then they create a giant model and label the parts. “We talk about what is similar among


bugs, about their habitat, about how the bugs are connected, about food chains,” teacher Chris Thompson said. “Then we talk about the interconnectedness of nature, how all creatures rely on each other.” When the children


lifted a rock to look for a bug, they replaced it carefully because it might be an insect’s home. Later they commit to helping the bugs and protecting insects’ habitat. They put up signs saying “Don’t smush the bugs,” and they put together a guide to insects on the OES campus


to share with others. As the school year progresses, they learn about other creatures and their habitats and how to protect them. “As we continue exploring habitats,


they start thinking about ways they can help protect the planet,” Chris said. In their study of insects, the first-


graders explored their environment, created a model, connected bugs


to their habitats, and committed to protecting bugs. Although the topics may be different, those same themes permeate the activities of all students, from prekindergarten to their senior year, and also the lives of their teachers and parents. The better we are at exploring, creating, connecting, and committing, the more successful we are as human beings. These are essential competencies that help us thrive. These competencies do not take the


place of skills such as reading, writing, and arithmetic. Rather, they encompass those skills. For example, writing about what we observe is part of exploring. It’s also a way of creating something and it can be a way to connect with others. Through writing, students can promote the ideas and causes they commit themselves to.


TEACHING TO THE COMPETENCIES Teachers at OES


teach better when they think about how their lessons involve students in exploring, creating, connecting, and committing. Bettina Gregg teaches math in the Upper School, and she has found that her lessons that touch on most of those areas are more successful.


WINTER 2012 OES MAGAZINE 5 5


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