June 18-24, 2009, Westtown, Pennsylvania
About the Westtown Seminar
The "Westtown Seminar on Teaching," is a week-long experience which brings together people who are "in education" in many different ways. These people may be working with three-year olds or senior citizens or any ages between. They may be subject-matter specialists or free-wheelers from public and independent institutions, they may be from innovating or traditional places, and they may be at many different stages of their own careers and explorations in education and outside of it. They are invited to the seminar because of some special kinds of distinction in their own work in teaching and because of the richness they might bring to the seminar and take away from it. The seminar is perhaps a gamble or, better, an act of faith on the part of those coming to it and those designing its framework and activities.
Central to the seminar is the exploration of some new and old ways of teaching and learning, experiencing and reflecting. There will be people, materials, books, films, outdoor partnership activities, and experiences in bringing together ideas and issues, research and hopes, the arts, activities we hope are congenial and useful to people concerned with education. The seminar has had each year a range of participants from many different religious and secular and national backgrounds, as well as from different kinds of institutions or non-institutions It does not claim to advance anyone professionally, to save anyone's soul, or to jack up anyone's status. It can be, we hope, an enjoyable experience for those who find themselves drawn to it.
The participants live on the Westtown campus, and the experience of the seminar develops each year according to the styles and interests of the people who make up the group. Thus we hold to participation in the full span of the seminar, each member sharing in the creation of the total experience. (Those invited to the seminar who have schedule conflicts that would make them have to come late, leave early or miss a piece of the week are urged to postpone until the next year. The invitation will remain good) Those invited to the seminar are urged to respond immediately, yes, no or maybe. There are now some 3,000 past participants, a great many of whom are proposing people for the next of the seminars.
The Forty-Fifth of these seminars will be held at Westtown School, outside of Philadelphia, PA., from 4:30 P.M. on Thursday, June 18 through noon on Wednesday. June 24, 2009. Participation in the seminar is by invitation to the participant and is usually based on special recommendation by someone from one of the previous seminars.
To give something of the seminar's approach and style, you may view a draft of the program and a list of staff on this Web site. Program activities, topics and leaders vary from year to year, and no participant takes part more than once. A crucial reminder: the seminar's real richness is not in program or activities but in the participants themselves. They are the center of the experience even as they are the creators of it.
A recent edition of Shipley Schools professional development newsletter included an article on the 2004 Westtown Seminar.
Cost to the school or college: $2,500.00 per participant. This includes the tuition and room and board at Westtown School and all during-and-after hours events. Checks should be made payable to: David Mallery Seminars and mailed to him at the 9006 Crefeld St., Philadelphia, PA 19118.
Note on applying for the seminar: Participation in the Westtown Seminar is by invitation. We are always looking for excellent school people to invite! If you have had a look at the rationale and draft of the program for the Westtown Seminar and like the sound of it, please contact me and let me know of your interest. I will respond to your message, and we will take it from there. For more information, e-mail me at mallery@davidseminars.com
