The Miquon School to celebrate its 90th Anniversary

Progressive School’s methods lead the way since 1932

Posted 10/27/21

Miquon will celebrate its 90th anniversary throughout 2022 with events ranging from shared meal gatherings, community-led campus improvements, special events during its traditional Spring Fair, and the publication of a keepsake of historical memories.

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The Miquon School to celebrate its 90th Anniversary

Progressive School’s methods lead the way since 1932

Posted

Next year, The Miquon School will celebrate its 90th anniversary as a quiet leader in the local educational landscape, with thousands of alumni having used its nearly 11-acre wooded campus as their laboratory for learning. As one of the few local schools to practice the Progressive method of education, Miquon has a long and storied tradition in the Philadelphia region’s rich academic history.

Miquon was founded in 1932 by two mothers who were disillusioned by traditional education and believed that the newfound Progressive model better harnessed the creativity and curiosity of children for effective learning and skills development. The model places each child at the center of the educational process, allowing their interests to guide the learning experience.

The school still follows that tradition today, with a focus on preserving the joy of childhood while developing independence, agency, and social responsibility. Its campus serves as the touchstone for learning. Complete with a creek, bamboo forest, koi pond, and fields, it is not surprising that nature serves as the basis for learning.

This year, students in the first and second grade groups are using the creek to study the power and nature of water, collecting samples and recording physical characteristics to understand its underlying scientific principles. It’s a way of learning that can only happen with access to the kind of campus Miquon offers, and with teachers who believe in and have the flexibility for the power of experiential learning.

“We believe that children learn by doing,” says teacher Marisa Campbell, “and one of the main reasons we decided to investigate water was because of the close relationship we can develop with the creek. When children have the opportunity to see, touch, interact with and wonder about something, the understandings they develop are deeper and more meaningful.”

Though it’s grown over the years, Miquon intentionally remains small, only enrolling about 150 students each year in nursery through sixth grade, in order to foster the close relationships that promote effective learning and teaching. Thanks to its flexibility and careful planning during COVID, their campus has remained open with full enrollment since September 2020.

Miquon’s reputation as a leader in the Progressive education movement was built over time by an extraordinary group of visionary educators. It was a founding member of the Network of Progressive Educators, and continues to participate in the successor organization, Progressive Education Network. Over the years, the school has hosted conferences with Progressive educators from around the country and, though no longer used at Miquon, the Miquon Math curriculum was developed at the school and published in the 1960s. It remains popular and successful especially among home-schooling parents.

Miquon will celebrate its 90th anniversary throughout 2022 with events ranging from shared meal gatherings, community-led campus improvements, special events during its traditional Spring Fair, and the publication of a keepsake of historical memories. In the coming weeks, there will be a planting ceremony in which the community will gather to plant an array of purple spring bulbs so that the campus is covered in the vibrant flowers come springtime.

The Miquon School provides a Progressive educational program for children ages 3-12.