Gordon was founded in 1910 by Dr. Helen West Cooke, one of a handful of practicing female pediatricians in Rhode Island. Dr. Cooke opened the school inside her living room on the East Side of Providence. There were two students at first, Dr. Cooke’s son Gordon and a neighbor’s daughter Margaret Arthur, making Gordon the only co-educational school in Rhode Island at the time.
For the first few years of its existence, Gordon operated as an open air school. The windows were kept open all year round and the students were issued sheepskin boots and gloves as part of their school equipment. The open air movement was fairly common in progressive schools in the early twentieth century, reflecting a belief that fresh air kept children healthy and alert.
The school’s educational practice was centered on the philosophy of John Dewey. Indeed throughout its history, the school has been committed to an inquiry-based, constructivist pedagogy. Within the framework of a planned curriculum, a Gordon teacher builds his or her instruction from the baseline of a child’s understanding. He or she gently
pursues the underpinnings of each child’s knowledge and, in so doing, ignites and sustains the learner’s curiosity.
As the school grew, it occupied several Victorian houses off of Medway and Angell Street. Early photographs reveal students actively involved in their learning. Dramatic productions related to an historical period under study were staged. Student newspapers and compilations of poetry and fiction were frequently published. Everywhere, there was evidence of the faculty’s efforts to foster confident learners whose work was honored and respected by the full community of Gordon.
Equally evident was the high degree of parent involvement in the school. This was not surprising, given the school’s beginnings in a parent’s home. The school operated as a parent cooperative at first. Although the more typical governance structure of an independent school was put in place by the late 1940’s, parent engagement in the day-to-day life of the school has a headline-like quality in the school’s history. Today, through the active work of the Gordon Community Association, the school’s parent association, the parent community remains a central feature of the school’s culture.
By the late 1950’s the school’s aging facilities were an increasing cause of concern, and Gordon’s Board and administration began to actively pursue a new site. As the story goes, Otto Hoffer, the school’s Board chair from 1960 to 1963, had a penchant for hunting for mushrooms. One of his familiar mushroom walks was on a wooded piece of property in East Providence. Once the search for a new location began in earnest, Mr. Hoffer suggested that the school consider this spot. Before too long the land had been purchased and William Warner, a local architect, had been hired to design the school’s new facilities.
The result, an award-winning design that included significant input from the students, emerged as the new Gordon School in January of 1963 at 45 Maxfield Avenue in East Providence. Indeed, the school’s unique architectural signature—pyramid-shaped roofs and 3/4 scale features—revealed the school’s culture in a physical way: an intimate community whose full attention is on the children. With the move completed, the school prospered with enrollment peaking in the early 1970’s at 375 students.
During the 1980’s, the school joined the Coalition of Essential Schools, an educational reform movement led by Theodore Sizer. The choice stemmed from the fact that the Coalition’s core principles mirrored Gordon’s educational philosophy: integrated curricula, active, student-centered instruction, and inclusive decision-making. Although formal engagement with the Coalition ended in the late 1990’s, the values that inspired this partnership remain imbedded in the school’s work today.
Since the mid-1990s, the Gordon Board and professional community has initiated and sustained two key thrusts under the umbrella theme of diversity. First, it has pursued a vision for a racially diverse school. Strategic initiatives in this area have resulted in a changed demographic in the student body, the professional staff, and Board of Trustees. In 2004, Gordon was recognized for this work with a Leading Edge Award from the National Association of Independent Schools. This work continues today with the pursuit of the Board-approved Strategic Plan for Building and Sustaining a Racially Diverse Community.
Concurrent with this initiative, the Board set strategic goals to advance an institutional commitment to multicultural practice in all areas of its academic work. This effort included the introduction of a lead administrative position, Director of Diversity and Multicultural Practice, and the allocation of resources to advance the faculty’s professional development.
In addition, Dr. Enid Lee, a nationally recogized educational consultant on multicultural practice, was hired to work with Gordon’s faculty for three consecutive years (2001 to 2004).
In 2004, the Board advanced this focus with the approval of the Strategic Plan for Evaluating and Enhancing Multicultural Practice. Recently, the administration and faculty has further defined its pedagogic intention with the formulation of the Guiding Principles of Multicultural Practice.
As Gordon School approaches its 100th birthday in 2010, it continues to confidently pursue its constructivist, child-centered practice. Its focus remains on providing children with the necessary academic and personal foundation from which to pursue their future education actively and thoughtfully.
Ultimately, a Gordon education aims to inspire children to emerge as adults who choose to engage as socially conscious citizens in their communities and the wider world.