Howard Gardner School for Discovery

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The History of Our School

 

 

 

Howard Gardner School for Discovery began in 1975 as The Children's Learning Workshop in a small red schoolhouse on Albright Avenue in Scranton. Through the years the school took on many of the educational reforms, first as a Montessori-based program, then, later as a Laboratory School. As our programs evolved, we began to embrace the educational philosophy of Howard Gardner. Today, HGSD is a private, academic school that focuses on our learners and their strengths. Well-trained faculty and small class sizes help us enable our students to truly discover learning through inquiry and their own unique experiences.

When the school was reorganizing in 2005, the school community began searching for a new name and framework that would demonstrate the school's unique niche in the community as a private, non-sectarian laboratory school. That search led to Howard Gardner, the esteemed Harvard professor who in 1983 authored the now groundbreaking work on Multiple Intelligence Theory, Frames of Mind. Gardner is a Scranton native whose work in school reform with Harvard's Project Zero, is world renowned.  He has authored more than 20 books on education and cognition and has also penned several hundred articles on a variety of subjects that impact learning.  In 2005 he was selected by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines as one of the 100 most influential public intellectuals in the world.  That same year, the HGSD faculty got to meet Dr. Gardner when they made a presentation at the 2005 NALS Conference in New York.  The conference was hosted by Columbia University and Bank Street School and Gardner was one of the Keynote speakers.  Gardner also delivered the Keynote address for the 2006 NALS Symposium that was hosted in Scranton by HGSD.  More about Gardner can be found at his website http://www.howardgardner.com .

Part of our mission is to improve the practice of teaching.  On any given day, preservice teachers from local colleges and universities visit our classrooms to observe and work with our teachers.  As a member of  NALS, the International Association of Laboratory & University Affiliated Schools,  our faculty and staff do research, write and implement innovative curriculum, and disseminate our findings at regional and national conferences. Our connection to Howard Gardner and his theories has served as a framework for our school vision. We are one of a small group of so-called Multiple Intelligence (MI) schools in the United States, and one of only two that bear his name.

Our focus on every child's innate intelligence and potential exemplifies the MI approach to teaching and learning.  Our students come to us  filled with experiences and understandings of their world.  It is our job to broaden their understanding and challenge their potential with a curriculum that is both exciting and rigorous.