What started off as the End of the Year Celebration for the Multi Age Group Program at Beecher Road School in Woodbridge, CT ended up becoming a forum on national educational reform.

The Multi Age Group, or M.A.G. program at Beecher Road School is a special educational opportunity where students in grades one through four participate in learning events together. While the name focuses on the age grouping, there is much more to the program. Key highlights include an integrated curriculum where a topic is explored throughout the year in all disciplines. For example, this year, the students focused on bluebirds and invasive species. Last year, the focus was on water. The integrated curriculum also provides many opportunities for hands on learning.

Other aspects include a strong focus on respecting all people. Instead of the dichotomy between teachers and students, education is focused on learners helping other learners, whether they be adult learners, fourth year learners or first year learners. To facilitate this, there is a strong effort to make the learning environment as democratic as possible. Students hold meetings to discuss important issues that they face.

The End of Year Celebration started off like so many other end of year ceremonies. The students filed in as friends and family sat in the auditorium. They sang a few song; songs that the students chose. This was followed by individual performances. In introducing the first performance, Elizabeth said that she learned how to express herself in MAG. She then did an interpretive dance to the music of Alice and Wonderland. She received a hug from a classmate after her performance. The opening comment, the dance and the hug provide a good insight into the MAG program.

Abby recited a poem by Shel Silverstein which brought forth another aspect of MAG:

No teacher, preacher, parent, friend
Or wise man can decide
What's right for you--just listen to
The voice that speaks inside.

Other students expressed sadness about leaving MAG. Yet the penultimate individual performance tied it altogether into the discussion of national educational reform. Daniela read a piece about MAG, Twenty Years Later. The twentieth reunion takes place as a pot luck dinner in the Beecher Road Cafeteria. It reflected a sense of sharing that both pot luck dinners and MAG exemplify.

The MAG program has grown in such popularity that they have their own building. The students have gone on to great things as ball players, dancers, veterinarians, artists, and teachers. The underlying theme is that all of them are using their skills to make the world a better place. They have worked hard to help children with a Children’s Imagination Center. They have seen great success in addressing environmental issues. One of the students has gone on to become the first woman president of the United States. In that role she has worked to make sure that programs like MAG are available to students in every school in the nation.

The students in MAG have been brought up in a trying time. They were born under the shadow of 9/11. Their country has been involved in wars during their whole life. There has been a crippling recession and an ecological disaster. Yet through all of it, Daniela’s words reflect a common belief of many MAG students summarized in a quote on the back of the program. “It will be what we make it.”

The MAG program is a phenomenal success. It has helped students learn to express themselves, to dream, to work towards fulfilling their dreams, to help things become what they can be, if they make it. Will the dream of national educational reform based on ideas from MAG become a reality? If these students are any indication and hold fast to their dreams, it will.

(Cross posted at the WOodbridge Citizen.)