Trinity School for Children

Trinity School for Children is a charter school in Tampa, Florida, USA. The school is based on the philosophy of the Bank Street College of Education, which is in New York City, New York, and was established in 1916 by Lucy Sprague Mitchell, who helped found the City & Country School in New York with Caroline Pratt (educator). The school's principal is Dr. Madeline O'Dea.

History

Trinity School for Children was established in 1999 with 211 children aged 3 to 9 years old. Today, Trinity educates over 700 students 7 weeks old to 14 years old.

The founding members of Trinity are Jim Castillo , Brian Erickson , Reggie Earl, Celeste Greco, Irma Hernandez, Gloria Marchese, Rene Martinez, Madeline O'Dea, Jessica Perez, Jennifer Solar, Heather Wolf-Erickson, Jim Weiskircher, and MJ Weiskircher

Credo

This is the school credo:

What potentialities in human beings – children, teachers and ourselves – do we want to see develop?
A zest for living that comes from taking in the world with all five senses alert
Lively intellectual curiosities that turn the world into an exciting laboratory and keep one ever a learner
Flexibility when confronted with change and ability to relinquish patterns that no longer fit the present
The courage to work, unafraid and efficiently, in a world of new needs, new problems and new ideas
Gentleness combined with justice in passing judgments on other human beings
Sensitivity, not only to the external formal rights of the “other fellow” but to him as another human being seeking a good life through his own standards
A striving to live democratically, in and out of schools, as the best way to advance our concept of democracy
Our credo demands ethical standards as well as scientific attitudes. Our work is based on the faith that human beings can improve the society they have created.^[1]

Curriculum

Trinity offers a Family Center for infants - 2 year olds. The Early Childhood curriculum begins with an EC 2/3's class, and continues through Kindergarten (EC 5/6). Middle School curriculum is taught to 6/7's through 10/11's(1st-5th grades). The oldest students are 11/12's, 12/13's, 13/14's (6th-8th grade) and attend Trinity's Upper School.

Notability

The school is the only one in the United States to fully incorporate the Bank Street College of Education's Bank Street method of education as an entire school rather than selectively for a class or two. Because of this, it is widely known in the national primary education community and is the subject of several studies in early childhood education and is used by University of South Florida and University of Tampa college of Education students for field-study course work and internships

Sources

• Education in an Era of Accountability: Do you have to Sacrifice Wise Practices? - Early Childhood Education Journal, Volume 34, Number 2, October 2006, pp. 117–123(7)
• Students learn outside charter school - By John Petrimoulx, St. Petersburg Times published December 23, 2001
• TLC Resources

References

External links