Why Research and Design?
Assistant Head of School Abby Kirchner’s Fall Letter on Stone’s Education Model and Vision of Learning:
Research and Design Practices Anchor the 25/26 Academic Year.
“The goal at which any phase of education, true to itself, should aim is more education. Other objectives may surround that goal, but it is central.” – John Dewey
Dewey’s insights lead directly into our approach at Stone: education is not simply preparation for college or a future career—it is preparation for a lifetime of learning, discernment, and growth. For us, the central goal is teaching students to learn authentically and transferably, so that they continue to grow long after their time in our classrooms. That is why we refer to ourselves as a Research and Design School: because these two practices anchor our pedagogy and define our vision of learning.
Our pedagogy is built around skills practice and acquisition, around asking Big Questions, and around coaching students through varied problem-solving methods. Didactic teaching—the simple delivery of information—has its place. But at Stone, it is only a starting point. We move quickly from the “knowledge about” stage to the “know-how” stage, where performance, practice, and refinement drive deeper understanding.
Just as an athletic coach trains athletes by guiding them through repetitions until skill becomes second nature, our faculty coach students toward intellectual proficiency. This process—practice, correction, mastery—cultivates the ability to evaluate, analyze, synthesize, and create. Without coaching, growth stalls; with it, students gain the capacity to think critically and engage authentically with the world.
Too often, schools normalize an artificial way of learning—one where the teacher provides the questions, the answers, and the audience. Students learn to “do school” rather than to pursue authentic learning. A moment with my daughter at the grocery store captures this tension. She once asked, upon seeing produce labeled “conventional” and “organic”: “Shouldn’t organic be the regular way, and then they put a sign up if they use chemicals?” Her question reminded me that what seems most natural often gets redefined as the exception. Likewise, shouldn’t learning follow the way we naturally engage with life—through curiosity, inquiry, and application—rather than through an imposed structure, ranking, and sorting?
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Why Research and Design?
We believe young minds are strengthened in three ways:
Through the acquisition of organized knowledge;
Through the development of intellectual skills;
And through the expansion of insight, creativity, and aesthetic appreciation.
Research and design give form to all three. Research equips students to ask big, open-ended questions and to follow evidence wherever it leads. Design empowers them to synthesize, communicate, and create artifacts that have purpose and audience beyond the classroom. Together, research and design transform information into knowledge, and knowledge into meaningful impact.
At Stone, this cycle of inquiry and creation is visible everywhere.
A Middle School student might research the history of water access in Lancaster and then design a public awareness campaign. An Upper Schooler might investigate the economics of food waste and then build a prototype for composting on campus. In both cases, the process begins with research and ends with design—anchoring learning in both rigor and relevance.
A Cycle of Inquiry and Creation
I am deeply honored to work alongside a team of educators who believe that learning is never finished, who hold students to high standards, and who coach them with care and persistence.
We are united in the conviction that research and design are not just academic practices, but lifelong habits of mind.
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Our Collective Vision
This approach is radically different from the schooling many of us experienced, where the teacher (or the textbook) dictated the questions and the student’s only audience was the grader. Here, students’ voices are not quiet, they are central. Their questions matter, their work has real audiences, and their growth is measured not by compliance but by creativity and critical thought.
I am deeply honored to work alongside a team of educators who believe that learning is never finished, who hold students to high standards, and who coach them with care and persistence. We are united in the conviction that research and design are not just academic practices, but lifelong habits of mind. In between the first moment of wonder that drives a research question and the distilled evidence of proficiency in an academic artifact, you’ll find our Portrait of a Graduate, our Big Questions, our Four Frameworks, and our Academic Skills.
Inquiry and creation are how students learn best, and it’s how they will learn that they have agency and voice to design the world in which they want to live.
As always, I appreciate your partnership in this educational work. Should you have any questions, please reach out.
Kindly,
Abby
>> Curious about our courses? Check out our Upper School Course Guide here.
Abby Kirchner
Assistant Head of School
Director of Education
Director of College Counseling
kirchnera@stoneindependent.org