FFT Fellow Receives EL Education’s Highest Honor

Lindsay Slabich

Congratulations to Lindsay Slabich, founding teacher at the Springfield Renaissance School in Springfield, MA, who just received EL Education’s 2017 Klingenstein Teacher Award and its $5,000 cash prize.

Voted on by peers within EL Education’s national network of schools, the Klingenstein Award is given to the teacher who most successfully transmitted to students the essence of EL Education culture, building exemplary character, driving outstanding academic achievement, and instilling an ethic of “citizen scholarship.”

In 2008, Lindsay, along with two peers, designed a Fund for Teachers fellowship to research the Ladakhi society in India concerning their efforts to balance globalization with preservation of culture and resources. The teaching team’s insight into their experiences align beautifully with the award’s criterion:

“As we experienced a fascinating cultural exchange, and grew individually, we also expanded our thinking about development. We began to ask more and more questions. What makes development sustainable? Whose responsibility is development? What role should local Ladakhis play in deciding how their society develops in the context of a globalized world? What about local, state and national government, what role should they play? And what about us, citizens of a powerful and developed country, what responsibilities do we have for development in places like Ladakh? Our visit to Ladakh and other parts of India are helping us to make sense of these important questions.”

For more information about Lindsay’s honor, click here. An FFT Fellow also won this prestigious award last year; click here to view Chris Dolgos’ acceptance speech and enjoy the blog he kept researching Hadrian’s Wall here.