We recently connected with Sarah Besse and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Sarah thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
Shela Sinelien and I met in 2016, while in graduate school for Early Childhood Education at Wheelock College. As educators in the public schools, we noticed that our preschool children felt most alive when engaging with the natural world and their local community. So we wanted to expand opportunities for nature-based education. Around the same time, Sara Murray began taking her first grade students outside to learn and play. Happily, I joined forces with Sara and Shela to open the first Boston Outdoor Preschool Network class outdoors at the beautiful Arnold Arboretum in September 2019. Boston Outdoor Preschool Network (BOPN) arose out of our mutual desire to provide a joyfully muddy childhood fostering curiosity, movement, music, art, science, and connection with nature and one another.
Sarah, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I believe that nature and play are essential for young children and my passion is to turn ideas into reality. Thus, I founded BOPN with the intention of bringing families together in community and giving children a joyfully muddy childhood under the loving guidance of dedicated teachers. Our programs in Boston, Malden, Milton, Sherborn, Natick, and Sudbury combine early childhood and environmental education. Our goals are to promote children’s physical and mental health, encourage environmental stewardship, and to develop habits of mind such as curiosity, initiative, persistence, creativity, problem-solving, and responsibility.
My work at BOPN is driven by research showing the benefits of extended time in nature for young children: deep appreciation for our environment; stress reduction; better agility, balance, and coordination; more imaginative forms of play; and improvements in confidence, social skills, language, motivation, concentration, resiliency, and critical thinking.
We are committed to expanding access to nature-based early education. Currently 39% of families receive full or partial financial aid. This fall we are opening Boston’s first free nature preschool at the Franklin Park Zoo through universal pre-k! In addition, our Forest Days program provides outdoor education to 75 Boston public school children.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
I am currently reading “From Teaching to Thinking” by Ann Pelo and Margie Carter. This book raises questions that are at the heart of education: What kind of people do we want to be? What kind of world do we want to live in? What is the purpose of education? The authors’ reflections on the concept and meaning of pedagogical leadership are particularly valuable.
The following quote reaffirms my commitment to BOPN’s spirit:
“Our work is rooted in the immediacy of what is unfolding, rather than narrowly focused on the achievement of learning goals, or the eventuality of assessments, or the replication of routines. The immediacy of what’s unfolding–leaves bright in the autumn sun, then dead on the winter ground, then budding into spring’s brightness–and the questions that these leaves spark, the thinking that they stimulate, the sense of living in a particular place in a particular season that they strengthen. Weigh all that against a list of learning outcomes and the assessments meant to measure children’s knowledge: Where will we find the richer insights into how and what children think and wonder and communicate and imagine?”
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
The first step is to hire great people. One of my favorite quotes is: “You don’t hire for skills, you hire for attitude. You can always teach skills.” At BOPN we hire educators who respect children as resourceful and resilient, who are intellectually curious, and who think deeply about the kind of world we want to live in. The second step is to build a culture where educators exchange ideas and learn from one another. Teacher “exchanges,” social events, and professional development opportunities help to bring people together.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bopn.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bostonoutdoorpreschoolnetwork/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BostonOutdoorPreschoolNetwork
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/65359740/admin/dashboard/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@bostonoutdoorpreschoolnetwork
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/boston-outdoor-preschool-network-sudbury
