On September 26, Dr. Jaime Grinberg, Professor, and Chairperson of Educational Foundations at Montclair State University, spoke on “Lessons Learned: The Early Years of Bank Street and Contemporary Teacher Preparation,” to a filled auditorium. Through his own personal stories and archival presentations, Dr. Grinberg illustrated how much Bank Street, from its very beginnings, helped teachers “think outside the box, outside of what was thought to be possible in the classroom.”
Grinberg’s research and writings, under the large umbrella of studying power and social “agency” in formal and informal education, cover topics such as progressivism and teacher preparation. He is the author of Teaching Like That: The Beginnings of Teacher Education at Bank Street and the forthcoming book, Successful Teaching: What Every Novice Teacher Needs to Know.
Grinberg’s stressed how much Bank Street’s early philosophy helped shape so much of what we now think of as teaching and learning—such as the bridging of false dichotomies between mind and body and the intellectual and emotional sides of students. “As we are teaching students, they are teaching us too,” said Grinberg.
The John H. Niemeyer Series comprises lectures and symposia focused on urgent matters of educational interest. The Series is dedicated to the memory of John H. Niemeyer for his leadership in helping Bank Street College become a national voice for children beyond practice and into policy.