In December 1991, Newsweek magazine ran a cover story entitled, “The 10 Best Schools in the World.” Featured prominently amongst them were the preschools in the previously unheralded Italian municipality of Reggio Emilia and directed by Loris Malaguzzi. It was Malaguzzi, one of the architects of what has become known today as the Reggio approach, who first referred to the environment in which children learn – the physical space in which they explore and grow – as the “Third Teacher.” He maintained that without ever speaking a word, the spaces we inhabit send us messages, convey values, and evoke emotions all of which enrich or inhibit our ability to learn.

A third-grade student transferred to Luria from a more traditional environment. On the first day, he approached the teacher and said, “Where is my desk?” The teacher explained that we don’t have assigned desks at Luria, but there will be opportunities for him to sit in lots of different places. He asked again with some anxiety in his voice, “but how will I know where to sit, how will I decide?”

Unlike a high school classroom dedicated to a single subject, elementary school classrooms transition between several functions within the course of a single school day. The space hosts a series of constants which can be rearranged in different permutations, and students understand it as a backdrop – something that sets context – for their engagement within; space and time unfold around them at first as a writer’s workshop, then a science lab, lunch spot, art gallery, mock Parliament, or lecture hall.  Creating multiple, complex opportunities for learning within a single space requires as much flexibility as it does rigor.

Innovation and change in any school can be difficult to accomplish and in the many small Jewish communities across North America, where day schools are struggling to keep their doors open, it can feel insurmountable. A diminishing and/or aging Jewish population along with limited financial resources can make change feel downright impossible. Yet, we have been able to do just that in our small community day school in Connecticut. In a school that once housed 230 students, we now serve about 60 families, about 80 students K-8th grade, and a preschool of about 20 children. We have made extraordinary change that has transformed our school, the quality of the learning experiences we offer our students and families, and our reputation in the community. And, it all began with a trapezoid table.