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Sally Smith, Lab School Founder and Director, Selected for Recognition By NBC's Today Show

Posted on: Tuesday, 9 May 2006, 18:04 CDT

Sally Smith, founder and director of The Lab School of Washington, will be among four extraordinary moms honored this week by NBC's Today Show as part of the program's Mother's Day Celebrations.

Smith, who founded The Lab School in 1967 to provide ground-breaking innovative programs for students with learning difficulties in grades K-12, was nominated and chosen as a remarkable mother inspired by her child to create new and effective ways of teaching for students whose lives were on the line.

"Sally Smith first figured out how learning disabled children learned differently, then figured out how to teach them. In the process, she changed -- and saved the lives of a generation of special children," said Marguerite Kelly, The Washington Post columnist and author of The Mothers Almanac.

Professor Smith, who is Head of the Graduate Program in Special Education: Learning Disabilities at American University, designed The Lab School's Integrated Arts and Academic Club Methodology which utilizes all art forms to teach specific academic skills and content. The curriculum includes a dramatic framework for teaching history, geography, literature and civics while building storehouses of knowledge, vocabulary, language fluency and critical thinking.

Smith believes creative quality education can drastically reduce the drop-out rate in the United States. "At Lab School, more than 90% of our students -- with severe learning disabilities -- go on to college. They could have been 'the drop-out children.' We have nearly 40 years of proof that our research-based integrated arts and academic club model works by building on strengths to enable student success," noted Smith.

Today, Smith serves as the Executive Director of both the Washington and Baltimore Lab Schools, and is working closely with a group who will soon open a school in Philadelphia using her methodology. She is the author of ten books and numerous articles on learning disabilities and for twelve years was a Member of the Professional Advisory Board of the Learning Disabilities Association of America.

Sally Smith's story will air on NBC's Today Show on Wednesday, May 10 during the 8 a.m. EDT half-hour of programming. The program will include a taped interview of Sally and her son, Gary, as well as students from The Lab School of Washington. Also on Wednesday's show, Sally and students at the School will talk with Today Show hosts live via satellite from The Lab School.

On Friday, May 12, Sally will join the other moms in New York for a special celebration in their honor, which will air during the 8 a.m. EDT half-hour on Today and include surprise guests and entertainment.

About The Lab School

The Lab School of Washington is an internationally recognized school for intelligent children and adults with learning disabilities and ADHD. The Academic Club Method, developed by Professor Smith, immerses a student in a particular time and place and produces a classical education, but with material presented in original, visual ways, without the traditional reliance on textbooks and lectures. The Day School in Washington, which will celebrate its 40th Anniversary in September 2006, offers individualized instruction to 330 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, while the Baltimore Lab (in its 6th year) currently has 123 students in the 1st through 10th grades, with an expansion to 11th grade next year. A third school using the Lab School methods is opening soon in Philadelphia.

Additional information can be found at www.labschool.org.

Source: Business Wire

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