The Progressive Education Network (PEN) is a network of teachers and faculty from all over the United States that work together to promote the vision of progressive pedagogy through the works of their conferences, and their institute, and at the head of it all since 2013 has stood Parker’s very own Upper School Co-Chair of the English department, Theresa Collins.

During 2011 Parker hosted a National Conference for PEN, for which Principal Dan Frank approached Collins about being a part of the planning committee, since everyone else on the committee was from different schools and other parts of the country, such as California or Winnetka.

A year after a successful conference in 2012, the board of PEN asked Collins to join. Collins became president after being elected by the people on the board. Her jobs as president include everything from setting the agendas for the board meetings to working alongside the network’s director of advancement, Charles Stanton.

PEN holds national conferences every other year in different cities, with different themes chosen by the committee. When the conference was held in Chicago in 2011, the theme was “The Power of Progressive Practice.”  Once a theme is set, the board then finds a location, and they send out a call for proposals related to the theme. Teaching professionals from elementary school to college can send in proposals.

Parker has played a part of this network ever since Frank held the conference at Parker. Head of the Middle and Intermediate School John Novick has sent Middle School teachers to the National Institute of Progressive Education, including Seventh Grade Science teacher Kara Schupp, Eighth Grade Math teacher Tim O’Connor, and Eighth Grade History teacher Stephanie Lorenzo.

A number of Parker teachers and faculty have attended PEN, and some have presented at conferences. Presenters include Director of Civic Engagement Shanti Elliott, Director of TIDES and Cross-Curricular Pedagogy Marty Moran, and Co-Chair of the Language and Cultural Studies Lorin Pritikin. Those who have attended in recent years include Upper School English teacher Stacey Gibson, and Assistant Principal and Interim Head of Upper School Ruth Jurgensen.

PEN conferences are anchored by Keynote speakers, including the likes of Olympic swimmer Debbie Meyers. Conferences also include panels and have added school site visits so teachers can come in a day early and observe progressive schools in a different part of the country.

The next PEN conference, in Boston in 2017, will have one board member on the committee planning it.

In addition to the conference, PEN holds a six-day professional development program, called the National Institute for Progressive Education, for teachers to come and learn about progressive education. Anyone can apply. Chosen teachers spend three days in one city immersed in a school, and then three days in another city immersed in another school. The network chooses one public and one private school for these immersions in which 24 people get together to learn about progressive education.

One of the ways that PEN is progressing out of its toddler phase into its teenager faze, is through the building of regional networks. Currently, PEN has one in Seattle, one emerging in Southern California, one in Atlanta, and one coming online in New York, with hopes of another emerging in Minnesota.

All of these ways of learning about progressive education are expensive, however. This came to the network’s attention when there was a group of mostly public school teachers who noted that though it was a great conference, it was expensive, and so, hard to access.

In response to this, the network hired Stanton as Director of Advancement. Stanton’s job is to build the regional networks, and create a newsletter that can go out to more people and provide information.

Collins is most proud of the recent revision of PEN’s Principles of Progressive Education. The PEN Board also released a statement on Progressive Education and Racial Justice.

“The heart of progressive education is attending to the whole child,” Collins said. “These two writings, I think, name explicitly the ways that we think progressive education and educators can and should do just that. Our organization is about promoting a vision of education that “promotes diversity, equity and justice in our schools and society, and helping educators find ways to network so that they can share their pedagogy, their ideas, their work, their passion with one another.”

Parker and PEN fit well together, according to Collins. “In a small, progressive school like Parker, with the flexibility that teachers have within their curriculum,” Collins said, “it is easier to attend to the vision of educating the whole child– to ask kids to think about the work of the class and how it applies to their own experience and connects to the outside world.”