Page 252 - Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company

Dream, Believe, Dare, Do 233

years of operation, the Downtown School logged 3,492 parent visits. This
figure does not include visits before or after school. Parent visits continue at
an average of three visits per family per month or about 10,000 a year.
“To enable children to mature into responsible and respectful citizens capable
of independent problem solving, teamwork, and leadership.” To test this aspect
of the mission, all one has to do is walk into any Downtown School class-
room. Mary Lou Daley explains, “It is very difficult to find the teacher, but
she’s there. She is so intertwined, perhaps on the floor or bending over a table.
There is no teacher’s desk. What is happening is that the children are always
working on projects in groups together, and there’s a wonderful hum in the
room. No matter what age group you see, they are all very productive. It is
not pin-drop quiet because this is the time the teacher is reading and everyone
must not talk. I used to tell my class (Mary Lou spent 14 years as a traditional
classroom teacher.) ‘You can only interrupt Mrs. Daley during reading group,
if the building is on fire, or if you are going to throw up.’” The “hum” of the
learning and cooperative environment at the Downtown School compared to
the “pin-drop” quiet traditional classroom that Mary Lou described reminded
us of what Art Linkletter once said on “Larry King Live.” Years ago, Art created
and hosted the television show “Kids Say the Darndest Things,” on which he
would interview young children. When Larry asked Art how he dreamed up
the idea for the show, Art said the seed had been planted many years before
when his son started school. Art had asked his son how he liked his first day
of first grade. The rest of the conversation reportedly went as follows: His
son said, “I’m not going back!” Art asked him, “Why not?” His son replied,
“Teacher asked me to read, and I can’t read. Teacher asked me to write, and
I can’t write. I can talk, but every time I talked to the boy next to me, teacher
told me to be quiet.”
Are there any problem solvers at the Downtown School? We met a five-
year-old student named Nathan, who was just beginning his second year. In
response to our question about the meaning of “logical thinking,” Nathan
replied, “Logical thinking is like, for instance, if I used a little thin string on
this chair to try to lift it up and a pulley, logical thinking is like this string
won’t work. It’ll break under the weight of this chair.” These were his exact
words! Sure, Nathan is a bright little boy, but he is not the exception at the
Downtown School. Every five-year-old is making presentations, solving prob-
lems, and can both apply and articulate the meaning of logical thinking.
“Committed to a world-class educational opportunity for the benefit of all
students of the Downtown School, their parents, and the community.” Does the