I understood from watching my little ones that my job is to learn who they are, pay attention, and provide provocations and stimuli that allow them to take the reins. I am there to support them to make their own connections and let the learning unfold.
Coi Morrison, Founder and Director of The Lab School
Emily sat down with Coi Morrison, Founder Director of The Lab School of Memphis to learn more about her work to center identity, land, community, and learners at the school.
Q: What led you to create The Lab School of Memphis?
Coi: The story starts with my own children. I have twins. I actually have two sets of twins. The thing about having two children born to the same parents, at the exact same time, is that you become keenly aware of a couple of things.
First, you notice just how different children are. Every child develops at their own pace and in their own way. I was able to see that up close because there was nothing different about the way these two angel babies were born. You often hear the home or the parents are the cause of why kids are the way they are. But, with twins, that is so clearly false; they are being raised in the same way but are two entirely different human beings.
The other thing that I noticed is how much they learned without me. We, as adults, give ourselves way too much credit for the learning and development of young minds. Our egos need us to be and lead us to think we are far more significant than we are. I understood from watching my little ones that my job is to learn who they are, pay attention, and provide provocations and stimuli that allow them to take the reins. I am there to support them to make their own connections and let the learning unfold.
I understood all of this and lived it in my own house, watching two-year-old twin boys. When I went to find a school for them, I was looking for a progressive program that would allow them to grow and learn in their own way and explore the things that are of interest to them. I wanted my one four-year-old son’s obsession with learning about the human body to be encouraged; he already knows all the bones and with the help of the giant torso model he got for Christmas, is working on learning the organs. My other child isn’t interested in reading, but has this incredible vocabulary for his age. I wanted him to be seen for his strengths and gifts and supported to develop at his own pace.
When they were first in school, they were being kind of forced into, or onto, this track. It was a private school, but to me, it felt like a really expensive public school or, in other words, a public school with small classes. That’s basically what I was paying for—a decent student-to-teacher ratio. I wasn’t paying for the progressive approach that I wanted.
And, there was more to it than that. While I had the access and privilege to send my children to private school, I have Black children, and I am a Black woman. Whether public or private, it is not lost on me how early criminalization of behavior begins in schools and how early African-American children who are not necessarily built for the sit-and-get model are labeled. It’s like, “Here comes the diagnoses and the referrals and all of this, right?”
I was so afraid that my children’s spirits would be broken, that their lights would dim. That I would look up one day and the light that they have would be gone. That was terrifying for me.
I thought that there has to be something different. There must be something else. There’s gotta be something better. It turns out there were some better models, some better approaches, but they did not exist in our city.
That’s where The Lab School came from. A determination to not let their lights fade and to bring some of the beautiful, innovative approaches I saw available in other cities to Memphis. I knew I wasn’t the only parent wanting something different, and I can assure you based on our current and next year’s enrollment, I was right. The Lab School started out for my babies, and it is now for our city, for our community. That’s what this work has become for me.
Q: The Lab School of Memphis is an Acton Academy. How has that model and your own experiences influenced The Lab School of Memphis’ vision?
Coi: We are a learner-driven micro-school, serving learners ages 3-9. As an Acton Affiliate, a lot of how we think about learning and children is influenced by Montessori and Acton models but we are our own unique expression of their philosophies.
At the simplest level, we spend our mornings doing core skills and our afternoons doing project-based learning, which is highly learner-driven.
We also have a farm school that plays a key part in our program. One day a week, every Thursday, we spend six hours out of the day at the farm school, four and a half to five of which are actually outdoors. We get to be outside, breathing the fresh air, doing work, and learning; it is an opportunity to collaborate and cultivate community on the land.
We connect our work on the farm to essentially everything we do. It’s naturally interdisciplinary; there is literacy, science, and math present. When you’re outdoors and you’re spending time connecting with the earth and land, it covers everything. So, the farm is just simply an extension of what we do.
And, as we do this work on and with the land, it is not lost on me that many of our learners’ ancestors worked as enslaved peoples, or even as holders of enslaved people. But, we are doing identity-affirming work, so we’re not shying away from any of it. We’re holding space for it all.
Having the opportunity to create and hold that space, there’s such beauty in it. To be able to do this kind of deep work, just 30 minutes outside of Memphis, it’s really incredible. It’s actually like magic, a spiritual experience. Just talking about it now, I’m gonna cry.
What joy it brings me, and I believe should bring all of us, to see the descendants of our Indigenous peoples and of formerly enslaved people here, laughing, running, and playing in the same spaces and on this same soil where their ancestors stood. For our country, that is healing for our collective history. That should make all of us excited.
When you are confident and love yourself, you know you can work through hard things as a whole person. You have a level of compassion that you just move through life with, and it simply extends to everyone you come in contact with.
Coi Morrison, Founder and Director of The Lab School
Q: Tell us more about the idea of identity developed within community and how that shows up at The Lab School?
Coi: We call ourselves an identity-affirming environment, which means we spend a lot of time getting to know our learners, affirming them, and then designing learning experiences aligned with that.
We believe each one of us individually—who we are innately at our core, who we were born to be—is absolutely exceptional. We believe who we are will impact the world and is essential for our community.
Who you are is so important. It’s so important you’re here. It is so important that you walk your path; it makes our community better that you specifically are here with us. This is what we share with our learners and what I share with anyone reading this.
Part of the way we do that is really in cultivating self-love and confidence. I believe that when you love yourself, when you can show yourself compassion, grace, and respect, treating other people that way is simply a byproduct.
You cannot show me people who hate, feel disdain for, mistreat, or have a lack of compassion for others who don’t also have that existing with them for themselves. When you are confident and love yourself, you know you can work through hard things as a whole person. You have a level of compassion that you just move through life with, and it extends to everyone you come in contact with.
For me, this is social justice work. This is equity work. And, at The Lab School, we start that work from the inside out. Learning to read, write, or do math is important, but it won’t happen if a child doesn’t feel good about who they are. They have to first feel capable, loved, and affirmed, or else they are constantly seeking outside validation. So, for me and for The Lab School’s model, it all starts with that identity affirmation and builds from there.
Q: Can you give us an example of what it feels like or sounds like to be in an identity-affirming environment?
Coi: Here is a simple example. When learners come to us and say, “Look at this. Look what I did. Do you like it?”
We say, ‘Do you like it? That’s what matters. What do you think of it?”
We do this all time and every time. Because they need to understand from 3, 4, 5, or 6 years old, it’s not about what I think. It’s about what you think. You don’t need anyone else on board with that. If you feel good about it, great.
We say you should be so proud of yourself. Instead of centering ourselves, you should be really proud of yourself. Simple, simple words that make a big difference. When we affirm and see them for who they are, it’s powerful.
So, my advice is that your child, your children, will reflect back to you what you are—not who and what you say you are. Be open to that. Listen to that. Take your cue from them. As parents and families, this is a journey we’re on; we have to be prepared for that.
Coi Morrison, Founder and Director of The Lab School
Q: Coming to this with the mindset of a parent first has clearly had such an influence on your work and school. Do you have advice for families seeking more purposeful, self-affirming learning experiences for their children?
Coi: I love this question. I will say first of all, as a parent, as a family, you need to understand this is a journey for all of us, and you have to commit to doing the work. God bless you for putting your children in an environment where they can fully embody who they are and live the truth of their journey; but also understand, their journey is not yours.
Your journey is alongside them. There will be tests and challenges to overcome along the way. My advice is to be prepared to do the work. My advice is: you will feel prepared and revolutionary, experience excitement and empowerment, and be terrified and full of self-doubt—all at the same time. And, that is okay.
There was a day a few weeks ago when my son said that he didn’t want to go to school. Of course, you know, I have to check myself because it’s my school. My knee-jerk reaction was that my feelings were hurt. Right? But, I’m trying to be a conscious parent. I believe in conscious parenting (a topic that could take a whole article unto itself).
So, what I did was remove myself. This means I de-centered myself and, instead, focused on him and tried to learn more. I said, “Why, what is it?” He said, “I don’t want to work.”
That was a moment for me to reflect and check myself as a leader and as a person who can actually shape a lot of the environment he’s experiencing. I considered what structures we have in place, what freedoms exist, and all that could have his experience feel like work, just labor versus an experience of joy, autonomy, curiosity, and excitement. I had to do some work myself.
So, my advice is that your child, your children, will reflect back to you what you are—not who and what you say you are. Be open to that. Listen to that. Take your cue from them. As parents and families, this is a journey we’re on; we have to be prepared for that.
Finally, we have to remember in a lot of ways, many parents are essentially having to unlearn what they think school is all about. We are essentially asking some parents to unlearn everything. Families often ask, why isn’t my child reading on grade level? But, we have to remember, grade level is some arbitrary metric that was made up somewhere along the way. Of course, I want every child to have the skills and know-how to pursue their goals, provide for themselves, and lead fulfilling lives. And, this includes reading and writing. But, that isn’t about grade level; grade level comes from us, the adults.
So, we have to ask ourselves: What does being “on grade level” mean to us? What does it mean to do “well” in school? We might say it means they’ll be able to get a job and be successful. And, even that, what does that mean for you? You’ll notice, in many ways, it is all still about you and how you see the world.
Again, the invitation I’d offer is to decenter yourself—your hopes, dreams, and assumptions—and see what there is to notice and learn from the child standing in front of you.
