Illustration by a Penny Harvester

by Teddy Gross

Every week around lunchtime on Wednesdays, I hop on my bicycle and pedal across Central park to PS6 for a much-need shot of the Penny Harvest in action.  It began because I had fallen in love (platonically) with the Penny Harvest Coach at the school, a devoted lifelong classroom teacher named Kate Gutwillig.  I had met Kate years earlier when she was teaching at a school for emotionally and cognitively troubled children, for whom she had chosen to adapt the Penny Harvest as their social studies curriculum for the year.  I didn’t know about Kate or her experiment, until she called the office one day and invited herself and the class over to interview me as one of their neighborhood projects.  The experience of standing before a class of children is always complex for me emotionally, because, in addition to my own reactions to them a individuals and as a group, I am aware of the interaction from the other side – how they are viewing me – which may explain why I remember these moments so vividly, even years later.

This particular experience is still clear in my mind, because it was obvious from the start what a creative and daring leap into teaching this real-world interview was.  There were behavioral considerations.  Many of these children were more self-absorbed than most their age, and some were more impulsive.  Others were easily distracted by the papers on the desk or their chairs.  Kate had to oversee them all, and pick her battles.  Then there were the learning opportunities.  The class had prepared for weeks for this interview, refining and divvying up their questions, and preparing themselves to take down the answers.  Here, too, Kate had to manage the process so that the interview had the expected shape and result they had works for.   The whole thing greatly impressed me.

I lost track of Kate for a couple years after that.  This happens, I’ve learned, as teachers come and go – usually it’s only go.  And usually it’s to graduate school, to raise a family or both.  Even when teachers combine teaching with raising a family, they often change schools pr their workload, so we get used to losing our Penny Harvest Coaches from time to time.  It’s  much less of a problem for us than for many programs, because (I’m proud to say) our coaches love the Penny Harvest so much, but still it happens, and it happened with Kate.

That’s why I was so delighted that all of a sudden Kate reappeared at PS6 about six years ago, and ever since then we have been partners innovating all kinds of little doodads and thingamajigs to add to the Penny Harvest.  This column will report on the year we have just launched.

I’m so happy for the chance to do this, because it turns out to be an electrifyingly fun group.  Kate and I have been puzzling to explain why the Roundtable Leadership group this year is so sensational.  (They know it, too.)  Kate thinks it’s the year they were born – the first year of the new millennium.  I won’t rule it out.  Maybe we’ll fund the answer by the time the year is out.

Teddy Gross is the co-founder and executive director of Common Cents