Sterling Elementary School principal Michele Freeman has been developing her philosophy of education since she was a child.
The school’s newest principal believes in teaching the whole child and involving the community in the school and in the education of children. Growing up in New York, Freeman said she never had a sheltered life in what she calls a diverse area. Her parents, or her heroes as she says, aimed to provide opportunities and experiences for her and her two older brothers. For instance, her parents took her and her brothers on summer vacations every year, requiring them to keep a journal of their travels and discuss their observations.
“I always felt I could be open and honest with my family. As a result, that’s how I tend to be with people,” said Freeman, a Fairfax County educator for about 20 years and a Reston resident for the past 12 years. “Good communication is being open and honest.”
Freeman plans to open up Sterling Elementary School to the community to involve parents, teachers, businesses and others in what she calls “a community of learners.”
In that community, parents can be educated about the programs at the school and given tips and strategies that could help their children in the main curriculum areas. Parents are asked to get involved by volunteering at the school or doing other things that do not require them to be physically in the building, such as making sure their children do their homework and are at school on time. Businesses also can get involved by providing programs, resources and mentors, often exchanged by the school for choir visits at the businesses or in other ways.
“Schools for so long have been operating within the four walls of the buildings,” Freeman said. “Breaking down the walls really means letting folks know this is a welcoming place for them. … It’s their school.”
FOR FREEMAN, all children can learn if they are given the opportunity. They need to feel safe in a warm nurturing environment, along with having a support system, she said. A nurturing environment caters to the whole child, or to the child’s emotional, social and academic needs, and addresses individual learning styles, motivation sources and approaches to making mistakes. “You can’t develop the academics without developing the whole child. … You can’t say we’re an academic organization, and that’s all,” Freeman said.
Since she was a child, Freeman sought a career working with children. She originally focused on pediatrics and attended Howard University in the early 1970s with that intention. But in her first year of college, she realized she could not face losing a child to illness and considered teaching. As a college student, she was tutoring elementary school students and teaching Sunday school at her church. “I felt I really made a difference,” she said, adding that she was able to work with even the most difficult children.
Freeman graduated in 1974 with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, later earning a master’s degree in 1986 from the University of Virginia, where she now is working on her doctorate.
In 1975, she accepted a teaching position at a Washington, D.C. Catholic School, where she taught until 1979. That year, she took another teaching job with Fairfax County Public Schools, teaching until 1985. She took a year off to work on her doctorate degree before she became an assistant principal at two Fairfax County elementary schools, first in Vienna, then in Herndon. In 1988, she moved up to a principalship position at Lake Anne Elementary School, two years later relocating to Herndon Elementary School.
Donna Borrelli, a special education teacher at Herndon Elementary School, saw that Freeman showed her caring for both students and teachers when she was a principal there. “She found out something about teachers and students, so she could go up to them [to give] positive reinforcement,” she said.
FREEMAN stayed at Herndon Elementary School until 1999, when she became a minority student achievement specialist at the Dunn Loring Administration Center in Fairfax County.
“I missed the children,” Freeman said. So, on Jan. 22, Freeman started with Loudoun County Public Schools. “Loudoun County’s an up-and-coming school system, and I felt like I had a lot of things to offer. … I’ve had a lot of experiences to help me identify needs in students and initiated programs to meet those needs.”
Freeman’s personal interests point to her variety of experiences. She sings for the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church choir in Herndon, loves sports and writes poetry. She refurnishes old furniture and deejays, having her own mixing board. And she plans to write a children’s book one day.