Inside Riverfield: A Conversation on Innovation, Leadership, and the Future of Education

In this blog post, we're sharing an insightful excerpt from a recent conversation that took place at Riverfield Country Day School. Emily Garman of Gryphon House sat down with key leaders of the school—Jerry Bates, Jennifer Kesselring, Ashley Stewart, and Whitney Dickinson—to discuss their roles, the unique approach of the school, and how their educational philosophy has evolved over the years. This is just a snippet of the rich dialogue that unfolded. Stay tuned for the full video to hear more about how Riverfield is shaping the future of education.

Emily Garman- Gryphon House: Can you start off first, just introducing yourselves and what role you have here at Riverfield? 

Jerry Bates: I'm Jerry Bates. I'm the head of the school here. I've been here, well since 2001, so 23 years. I started as a parent and worked my way up to become the head of the school.

Jennifer Kesselring: I'm Jen Kesselring and I have been at Riverfield for 28 years now. I am the head of the preschool and head of innovation and learning for the whole school. 

Ashley Stewart: And I'm Ashley Stewart, and I am an assistant division head of the preschool, and I have been at Riverfield also for 23 years, starting just as part time associate, and then moving into a teacher role before stepping out into administration.

Whitney Dickinson: And I'm Whitney Dickinson, this is my 16th year at Riverfield. I started as a classroom teacher, then became a coordinator and now I'm an assistant division head as well. 

Emily Garman: Jen can you share more about your role and how innovation intersects at Riverfield? 

Jennifer Kesselring: So that's a good question!  I think, the best way to explain that is Riverfield has always been a school that was progressive, that was on the edge of the very best of educational practice. And my role is to ensure that we continue to be on that edge. That we are aware of what's happening in the world, in the nation with research, with best practices. And the ways in which, theory and practice can reciprocally reinforce each other, in ways that keep education relevant to what the students need now. Every time the world evolves, our educational practice also needs to evolve alongside it.

And so, what I do is keep my eyes and ears open for what is happening and ensure that students at Riverfield are getting what they need to be able to be successful in life.

Emily Garman: Thank you! So, we're here, we're at Riverfield Country Day School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This is the place where all the ideas and the photographs in the book, your book, Curated Moments, were made. So, tell me about Riverfield a little bit. It’s my understanding that Riverfield is inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach to education. As I walked in here, I can see that it's different than most schools.

Jerry Bates:  I think that, as Riverfield started, it was founded as always being innovative, right? And I think that one of the main goals of the school starting out, (we're in our 40th year right now), was that hands on, minds on education is something that's crucial to the way children learn.

And that's not just children, it's people. And I think that's something that makes us distinctive. When we became more and more inspired by the Reggio approach, it was that kind of involvement. How do we become; how do we learn about the Reggio approach? And then how do we apply that to what we do with young children?

And then I think as we've continued to evolve, it hasn't just been about young children, right? It's all of us. Jen, myself and Katie Musick, the head of our lower school, and Kacey Davenport, who was a preschool division head at the time, also presented at Reggio. We represented North America and during that presentation, it was about the continuity of education, it was Reggio from zero to ninety-nine.

We're all lifelong learners. And I think that when you take that approach you're constantly evolving in your practice and as Jen said, it’s looking at what's out there, and how we can best prepare our young people and our students from zero through 12th grade, for the world that they're going to live in.

Jennifer Kesselring: I think one of the things that's really important about the approach coming out of Reggio Emilia is that it is a philosophy of education. So, it's not a box curriculum. It's not something that you can take from the schools of Reggio Emilia and drop into a school here. What it does is require that there are some basic beliefs and values that are inherent.

And then those values will look and sound different in the different contexts with which you move that approach. Right? So, every time we read a book, even if we're rereading it for the 10th or 12th time, based on where we are with our understanding and the work that we're doing here at our school and the identity that we hold, it takes on a little bit of a different twist. It wouldn't look the same everywhere, right? And it shouldn't look the same here as it does in Reggio Emilia. It should hold our identity and our context and the work that we do with the children that are here. What has made it so valuable to us over time is that it is not something that is fixed, but something that demands evolution.

Because if you look at school as a place of research, which is one of the tenets, that they hold so dear, then you are looking at a place that by design is always under growth and evolution. and I think that's unique to education. I think there's a lot of places that don't evolve and this idea is these values that they hold, hold childhood as a space for really being childhood, while they value the incredible competency that children hold innately.

And that this school is not a place where there's a barrier between the outside world and school, but a place where the outside world and school blend but also, it is a place where children lean in, they tune in instead of tuning out. And we want that to last for 18 years. if we can create a space in which these kinds of beliefs and styles are what the children experience as they move through the school, then they leave here very empowered, to encounter anything they encounter after they leave the halls here. It's a huge responsibility and the Reggio approach has been very fundamental in helping us frame, that thread of continuity that would move through the school, within our own identity and our own context.

Stay tuned for our full interview on youtube!