MANSFIELD — The founding of Discovery School was, in many ways, a leap of faith.
“We announced in the (Mansfield) News Journal that we were going to have a school,” co-founder Margaret Black said. “We didn’t know where we were going to have it, and we had no teachers, but we announced we were going to have a school.”
Discovery School was co-founded by Black and the late Shirley Heck in 1975. The private school, located on Millsboro Road in Mansfield, is celebrating its 50th anniversary in operation this year.
Discovery’s student body consisted of 27 learners during its first year.
For the first couple months, students attended class in the Sunday school rooms at Emanuel Jacob, a Jewish synagogue on Cook Road. Then they moved to the basement of Catalyst Life Services (then known as the Rehab Center).
After seeing enrollment climb to 60 students in its second school year, Heck and Black decided it was time for the school to have its own campus.
The fledgling school officially became “the little school in the woods.”
Today, Discovery has an enrollment of 158 students in preschool thru 6th grade.
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‘Do you want to start a school?’
Heck and Black met through a group called the Concerned Citizens for Mansfield Schools, which gathered on Sunday afternoons.
Black was a mother of two young boys. Heck was a forward-thinking professor of education at The Ohio State University’s Mansfield campus.
During one meeting, Heck began to feel frustrated and concerned the group’s advocacy wasn’t going to move the needle. So she leaned over to Black and posed a pivotal question.
“Do you want to start a school?”
In the months leading up to Discovery’s opening, Heck spent her evenings writing out a comprehensive plan by hand — detailing everything from school security measures to student discipline.
Then she’d show up at Black’s house each morning with a new set of policies, handwritten on a legal pad. Black spent her days transcribing the policies on her electric typewriter while Heck taught at Ohio State.
“I don’t know when she ever slept,” Black said.
As a college student in the Heck’s class, Lisa Cook was impressed by the visionary approach espoused by her education professor.
But she also sat at her desk and wondered, “Who I am going to get to teach like that?”
Heck believed in hands-on, experiential learning — concepts that were far from mainstream in the 1980s.
At the end of her senior year, Heck asked Cook to interview for an open teaching position at Discovery.
“I went to the school and I walked around and I fell in love,” Cook recalled.
“When I walked into the Discovery to tour it, the whole school was carpeted … But I had to step over a couple kids because they were playing with manipulative (educational tools) and doing a project on the floor.”
Cook went on to teach at Discovery School for 14 years, then serve as head of school for 12. She sent her own children there and remains involved as a board member.
One thing she appreciates about the school is the academic freedom.
“(As a private school), we had the liberties to pursue curriculums that we felt were best in our setting,” Cook said. “We had the liberty to determine how we wanted to evaluate.”
During the first few years at Discovery, students didn’t receive grades or take standardized tests.
“After seven years, Shirley decided that she really wanted standardized testing. She just wanted to make sure that everyone was doing well,” Heck recalled.
“It caused a great schism in the school, because the teachers, said, ‘We know that (the students) know. Why don’t you trust us?'”
Heck said students performed well on the exams.
“We’ve had it ever since,” she said.
A focus on independent, project-based learning
Fifty years later, there are several aspects of Discovery School that make the educational experience unique.
Enrollment is intentionally small with only one class per grade level. Head of school Simon Clark reads a story to the entire student body during a weekly assembly.
“Specials” include classics like art and music, but also Spanish and STEM. In health class, students reflect on social and emotional learning.
There’s even a woods class. Students go on hikes and nature hunts. They’ve built shelters and planted trees after a storm downed several on the property.
“I’ve been an international educator for many years. Discovery School is definitely one of the most unique places I’ve had the privilege of working,” Clark said.
“Students are encouraged to be independent learners. Once you’ve learned something, it’s important to take that further.”
Sixth grade students complete a capstone project focused on a real-world issue of their choosing, exploring topics like animal cruelty, environmental disasters and organ donation.
Heck’s influence continues to guide Discovery School
Discovery School had a 50th anniversary celebration for alumni, former staff, board members and friends of the school earlier this year.
Heck died just before the celebration at the age of 90, but her legacy lives on in Discovery’s classrooms and woodland expeditions.
In her various roles as Discovery teacher, head of school and now a board member, Cook said Heck’s educational philosophy continues to be a guiding light.
“Everything I did, I ran through that filter of, ‘Is this what Shirley would have done? Is this what Shirley would want?” she said.
Cook and board chair Jay Goyal recently raised $3 million for capital improvements and the school’s endowment fund in an effort to secure Discovery’s future for the next 50 years.
Cook said her hope is that Discovery remains the little school in the woods, while also staying true to its revolutionary roots.
“I want it to always be on the cutting edge of things that we know work, not afraid of change and just stay very current,” she said. “That’s in honor of Shirley, very up-to-date on best practices.”
