Dear Curious, 

Independence is a journey, and guides and staff aim to help children grow in their independence during their time at Cascadia. One way to look at independence is to think of it as managing oneself in a manner which leads to being able to help others.

For Lower Elementary, the journey of independence means learning to take care of individual needs for food, water, and the bathroom, self-managing work by regularly using work journals, and keeping their voices at an appropriate level and remembering at least some of the (student-established) classroom rules. For older children in Lower El, it’s being able to model exemplary behavior for younger children. 

For Upper Elementary, independence includes the self-management areas of writing a plan/updating their work journal, managing time in order to complete work by due dates, and making seating choices that allow for these things to be done. It also includes awareness of the environment and others: checking the board for announcements or changes to the day and checking with peers about a question.

At the adolescent level, independence looks like being able to work as a group, solving some conflicts that arise, to research, prepare, and present information to the class. Independence in their work would be looking at weekly work expectations and breaking it down into daily work plans, reading an article/story and writing questions for Socratic Seminar. It is also having awareness of and respecting the needs of others and giving and receiving feedback when conflicts arise, and using social organization to decide what to play at recess, how to handle classroom projects, make jobs equitable, and more!

All these goals for the path to independence are developmentally appropriate and are tied to freedom & responsibility. Sometimes they involve risk as they may mean failing to learn!