“Once you help kids feel safe and cared for in any situation, learning naturally occurs.”
That’s what Dr. Heather Gill says. And she should know! As both a parent and a professional child counselor, Dr. Gill had high standards in mind when she and her husband, a spine surgeon in the Upstate, began looking for an independent school for their daughter. After they attended a CCES tour and talked to the faculty, they knew they’d found a school that met those criteria.
The Doctor -- And Mom -- Know Best!
In her profession, Dr. Gill knows how important it is for kids to learn how to interact both in community and independently. It was after seeing how the CCES model of education prioritized both that she chose the school for her own children.
“At 5 or 6, learning really needs to be fun,” she said. “The human brain wants to learn, but when kids can’t sit still and you haven’t set the foundation for a successful learning environment, the kids can’t learn.”
CCES has found that balance between fun and learning for each age group and each child so that learning is a great experience, every day.
Making Education Fun Leads to Success
“Every week [at CCES], my children tell me about going out into the Primer gardens to learn about Monarch butterfly migrations, or using various media with art to learn about the ecosystem or biology. In 4th grade, the projects that the kids did were absolutely mind blowing--and fun under it all. [It’s] life-long learning. It was truly impressive how hard they worked at projects because they were fun and creative.”
But even beyond the impressive education, the students at CCES are learning important values such as how to interact in their community, make good choices, and solve their own problems. In fact, these traits of independence are some of the main reasons Dr. Gill and her husband chose CCES over other schools. “CCES builds on that community to encourage honesty, helping others, and critical thinking--both academic and social/emotional.”