What is the Bank Street approach to education?

Located in New York, Bank Street is a higher education institution as well as a school for children. In addition to the school for students as young as nursery-aged to as old as eighth graders, Bank Street also operates a graduate school to prepare adults for work in education and a Head Start program based on family income and residency.

Educator Lucy Sprague Mitchell, who was influenced by revolutionary educator John Dewey, founded Bank Street in 1916. The School for Children was later created in 1954.

Mitchell’s original credo still guides Bank Street education today: “What potentialities in human beings—children, teachers, and ourselves—do we want to see develop?” According to this, teachers strive to develop a zest for life, intellectual curiosity, flexibility, the courage to work, gentleness, sensitivity, and a desire to live democratically within Bank Street students.

The Bank Street Lower School

The Bank Street School for Children Lower School educates children from nursery to kindergarten. Parents of attending children can expect:

• Curriculum that includes social studies, emergent literacy, mathematics, science, Spanish, art, music, libraries, movement, and physical education.
• An emphasis on hands-on experience (e.g., block construction, cooking, trips).
• Well-educated teachers—65 percent hold a Master’s degree from the Bank Street Graduate School.
• An environment that “reflects the diversity of our multicultural society.”

In addition to the Graduate School, School For Children, and Head Start, Bank Street also offers Family Center Services & Childcare, Liberty LEADS, after school, and summer camp programs.