The Age of Discovery

It’s a bright morning in early February, and a new semester at Discovery Programs is underway. In the gym, a group of tots bounces on a trampoline as the teacher sings and plays the guitar. Down the hall, 2-yearolds play with blocks and dolls as soft music permeates the air. In another class, a group of children is focused intently on the morning’s art project— color-based collages. There are new classes, new faces and excitement in the air, but after 37 years, it’s still the tried-and-true programs, returning students and dedicated teachers that form the core of this Upper West Side early childhood institution.

Located on the lower level of Congregation Ansche Chesed on West 100th Street, Discovery offers a broad array of classes for babies through teens, from favorites like ballet and gymnastics to the unconventional Action Hero Dance for 3- and 4-year-old boys.

Discovery Programs began in 1973 as a much smaller venture. As a newly single mother, executive director Lisa Stark needed to find work to support herself and her two daughters. She decided to combine her theater background with her experience as a mother, and launched a dance program with nine students. The program blossomed, and Stark saw other opportunities to meet the needs of families looking for quality classes in art, music and movement. As time went on, the program evolved into the Walden School Continuing Education Program, finally becoming Discovery Programs in 1982. Today, Discovery Programs has over 800 children enrolled in its various classes each semester.

A different path led early childhood education expert Elaine Winter to become program director at Discovery Programs. She had served as Lower School principal at Little Red School House in Greenwich Village for many years, and later directed The Parent Center at Henry Street Settlement. For Winter, child development has been a lifelong passion. “I think it’s the most important thing in the world,” she says. “If you had to choose one thing, what’s going to make a better world than healthy, sturdy, respectful, empathic children?” One of the highest priorities at Discovery is procuring talented and dedicated teachers. “We work very hard at finding the best teachers, and they stay for five, 10, 15 years,” Stark says. They also
provide ongoing training, often with outside experts, to help teachers
grow.

Quality and
commitment are evident in the strong connection Discovery teachers
maintain with their students. This is essential to the success of an
early childhood program like On My Own, where children are separated
from their caregivers for the first time. The class is designed to
provide children with a forum for creative expression and socialization.
Separation is a particularly critical event in a child’s life, Winter
explains: “If they feel good about it that first time through, that’s
their reference point, that’s their understanding. So we work to make
that a success and not a wrenching event—ever.”

On My Own is just one of
four early childhood programs that Discovery offers; others include
Almost On My Own, On My Own Plus and Practically Preschool. Each
provides a structured learning environment to prepare children for
elementary school by introducing rituals like attendance and classroom
elements like job charts.

It’s clear that children enjoy their time at Discovery. Former students now bring
their own children to participate in the programs they loved, and
current students return each semester to try new classes. A child might
start out in a tots class like Gym For Tots or Art For Tots, then move
on to On My Own, and then begin taking gymnastics (Discovery has even
trained a few state gymnastics champs!).

Tiny dancers can grow up at Discovery Programs,
too. From Music,
Dance and Storytime to Ballet and Jazz/Hip Hop, classes span a wide age
range, and all ballet classes with at least five students have a live
accompanist. The highlight of the dance classes is the end-of-semester
recitals, when children take the stage to demonstrate what they’ve
learned.

And kids
can even celebrate their birthdays at Discovery—party options include
Discovery Loves Babies, Happily Ever After, Broadway Bound, and more.

But Discovery Programs
isn’t just about kids, Stark and Winter point out—it’s about families.
Babies and toddlers are accompanied by parents and caregivers, and the
programs boast a high number of class-going dads. Discovery also
recently launched a New Moms Support Group to provide a place for new
mothers to socialize and discuss topics that matter to them.

Discovery Programs has come
a long way from one dance teacher and nine students, but Stark—along
with Winter and the rest of the Discovery faculty—has worked hard to
maintain the core values that have made it so special to city kids over
the years. The focus remains on providing children with a welcoming,
stimulating environment in which they can learn, socialize and express
themselves. “Parents come up to me and tell me that they’ll never forget
Discovery because of the foundation that they had here, and how it set
their child up for all their future experiences,” Stark says. G

251 West 100th Street at
West End Avenue, 212-749-8717, discoveryprograms.com.