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		The Difference Saklan Makes By Jonathan E. Martin

I am quite commonly asked “What is different about a Saklan education?” Too often the answer comes in structural terms: smaller classes, higher standards, more enrichment, better test scores.

All these things are true, and they do make a big difference. But let me share with you some additional answers about how different the actual educational experience is for our students, ranging from Pre-School all the way to Eighth Grade.

Pre-School families frequently take note of how fun, inviting, and spacious the playgrounds are, and what a wonderful natural setting they provide. When they go inside our PS and PK classrooms, they are impressed by how focused the children are on their learning tasks, and how scholastic the environment is, unlike the daycare-preschools they had visited. The specialist enrichment that is provided by the elementary French, PE, Science and Music teachers also sharply differs from what other pre-school programs offer.

Guests touring Saklan often remark on the creativity of the colorful art on the classroom walls and tell me they don’t see this much art displayed elsewhere. Although our specialist art program, taught by Miss Amy, is wonderful, often what the visitors are pointing to are the classroom art projects in grades 1-5: watercolors of whales, paper sculptures of Indian villages, bats hanging upside down: all of them extending and reinforcing the thematic lesson occurring that month in class.

At Saklan, the students in each class know each other so very well, and have developed such a bond, that they kindly and generously support each other. While watching our fourth grade students, Lower School Director Carolyn Bybee observed and reported to me that they are patient with each other when a child is speaking, and that when they make mistakes there is rarely laughing or teasing. In the same vein, middle school students told me that when you make a mistake elsewhere, the other kids mock you mercilessly for months, whereas here they don’t and instead try to help you out and support you.

“At my previous [private] school,” a sixth grade student told me, “the classes were too big, and I was so easily distracted. There was not anybody there really demanding of me that I focus, concentrate, and master the material—it was a bit of a free for all, and nobody held me accountable. At Saklan, it is much more organized, the classroom is much more structured for learning, and the teachers really make sure you learn what you need to learn.”

A seventh grade mother told me recently that she found that at her daughter's previous private middle school, the students learned a great deal of material, but they did not learn to think for themselves. What was required was they regurgitate daily a vast quantity of information. At Saklan, what she found most impressive is that the students must learn the material and also think about it, analyze it, and form a critical or interpretive opinion about it. “They really learn to think for themselves here.”

Another student told me that “at my former [private] school, they just told you to do a report: ‘Write three pages on the Vikings.’ Instead, here at Saklan, we are really guided through the project: the teacher is right there, she gives us advice and answers our questions and really helps us.”

A sixth grader new to Saklan explained to me that at Saklan he has to work a lot harder, but that it is better here because before, “I wasn’t learning enough, and it wasn’t as interesting. Also, here the students really cooperate and work together, and everyone is really interested in learning, instead of complaining about how boring school is.”

A new eighth grader who came from a Danville school explained that the education at Saklan is a lot more hands-on; for example, in science there are many more experiments than at his former school. At Saklan also, he said, there is a lot more attention given to you and the teachers are better because they are much more enthusiastic and passionate in their teaching.

An eighth grader who switched to Saklan from a local school last year explained that “this is a much more experiential education. You like learning a lot more because the teachers make it more interesting. Instead of lecturing all of the time and teaching you just what they think, there is much more discussion and they ask you a lot of questions and get you to say what you think. You get to feel like you know the teachers much better and you get more input on things—you feel like your opinion really counts because you get to participate more.”

Jonathan E. Martin
Head of School