S2 Ep.2: IF YOU VISIT MY HOME YOU WILL KNOW ME | The Home Visit | Sarah Leibowits | Educator

Apr 3

Imagine a radical school curriculum where 4 and 5 year old children are required to visit the homes of every student in the class. I speak with Sarah Leibowits, a lower school educator at the Manhattan Country School in New York, who has taken her class on these very home visits for 20 years. Established as a 'private school with a public mission’, lessons at the school from kindergarten through 8th grade, are built on the celebration of unique difference.

Sarah Leibowits, a veteran lower school educator, has been teaching at the Manhattan Country School in New York City for more than 20 years. Previously a teacher of four and five year olds, she is currently a teacher of the 7 and 8 year olds. She received her Bachelors degree from Denison University and her M.S.Ed. from the Bank Street College of Education.

For information on the ‘home visit’ curriculum, Sarah can be reached at sleibowits@manhattancountryschool.org

Website: https://www.manhattancountryschool.org
Articles: For Lessons About Class, a Field Trip Takes Students Home NY Times 05.31.2014
Visiting Each Others Homes

TRANSCRIPT EXCERPT

“The home visits began, I don't have an exact year, but I would say in the late seventies…..a student who was from India said, my friends don't understand what it means that I'm Indian. They hear Indian, and they think of me as American Indian, someone having feathers. They don't understand. I want them to know who I am. I want them to come to my house and I want them to hear Indian music playing. And I want them to see my mom in her sari, and to eat Indian food. So….the whole class went to this boy's house and his mother greeted them wearing her sari. And, the Indian music was playing in the home and they ate Indian snacks……Everyone has something about their home, their family to share, that is different. Also, at the same time as we all have these differences, there are also threads of commonalities between us. And so, it started at that point….and it has been going on in the four -fives since that time.”