The Ideal School
26 Jan
I thought I might write about the troubles I had this morning while teaching my Digital Tools class, you know, about how suddenly the lab had new computers and no software I needed, but… I don’t want to be a downer. I also thought about writing about the film we watched in my first class, Kansas vs. Darwin, but I fear it’s a bit too divisive an issue, and I’m still sorting out my new ideas about “science.”
So, that leaves me with my last class, Educational Philosophy, where I am feeling more and more like a freak every week. This is especially true when I bring up things like the possibility that we might not be as autonomous as we thought or we might consider disallowing the state from regulating education (read: I hate you state-testing!). We were discussing “A Theory of Justice” by John Rawls, who tried to determine what a just society would look like, given ideal conditions. Then someone asked who John Rawls was writing for and my professor said that this book was a sort of “thought experiment.” It’s helpful to imagine possibilities, even in the face of less than ideal conditions. So, I thought I might my blog might be a “thought experiment” tonight and I wanted to think about the ideal school, since I’ve been trying to imagine this for awhile. Here goes:
The Ideal School
1) The ideal school would be a small community of students and teachers (maybe 30 total). No principals need apply.
2) The students would live near enough to the school so that they could walk/ride their bike and go home for emergencies.
3) The school would be located in a diverse community.
4) The students would not meet at the school every day. At least once a week, students would be out in the “field” interning at places that interest them, observing different types of “work” and volunteering in their community (this would be facilitated with parent involvement).
5) Each student would have their own macbook pro (okay, I guess it could be any laptop, but I said IDEAL. 
) One room in the school would be dedicated to lots of technology (cameras, video cameras, projectors, iPhones, etc.) for creative sorts of production.
6) Students would be encouraged to find networks online to explore, engage in dialogue, and experience authentic “other” voices.
7) Teachers would organize courses of interest to the students, some full of basic content (especially for the younger students) and some full of critical ideas and thought experiments (heyo!). These courses wouldn’t necessarily meet everyday, and would begin and end when the group decided (rather than on a quarter system for example).
8 ) The school day is from 9-4. The only set part of the schedule is lunch and any courses that are going on at the time, the rest is choice time.
9) Daily writing time is encouraged as well as different sorts of puzzles, challenges, experimentation, and teachers take part in these too.
10) There would be no standardized testing. Students would be “evaluated” as part of a collaboration between student, teacher, parents and internship mentors, where the student has been documenting their thinking and learning on a blog or other type of e-portfolio.
11) The school would look like an old Victorian house (my dream, remember). It’s set in a neighborhood in walking distance to both a small downtown with shops, restaurants and other businesses as well as within walking distance to a park.
12) Students are encouraged to play outside or take walks each day.
13) Students and teachers make lunch together in the communal (all vegetarian, of course) kitchen. Students learn about healthy eating habits, as well as the larger environmental effects of what they consume. And, we recycle and compost!
14) Each teacher is engaged in a book club with a group of students at any given time. One room in the school is stocked with bookshelves full of books, couches and comfy chairs.
15) Students are encouraged to express themselves in all ways, but especially through art (including the decoration of the school itself). One room in the school is dedicated to arts and crafts.
16) The students and teachers both help to keep the school clean, as well as maintaining the yard and the giant vegetable garden in the back.
17) Relaxing on the front porch swings is also encouraged, especially since this school will definitely be some place warm!
18) Each year, the school takes a camping trip (somewhere in the US) and an international trip.
Yay! I feel so relaxed thinking about this environment. I wonder if they do PhDs? Sign me up!
Thoughts? What ifs? Lay ‘em on me!
Will there be a preschool? If so, I want the job of lead teacher!
of course and yes!
Not that it’s overly warm here, but it’s never overly cold… that sounds like it could totally take place in Portland. I’m so in.
yay!
Hmm… it wouldn’t be called a school. It needs another name. There would be no grades. There would be no age-based grade levels. We would all learn together. Teachers would be community members who ALSO lived within walking distance. Teachers would not be called teachers. They would be facilitators or something as such. We all take care of the school. We all have a plant in the school. The school is a green Victorian house. It has “hidden” solar panels and a windmill outside that produce all the necessary electricity for the school. It is truly democratic. You learn a foreign language from jump street.
what’s jump street?
I could play this happy school game forever. I am never going to be able to sleep tonight. I think I might ask my teachers to play this game.
The key to a happy sharp student is the nap. It may be brief but the results are fabulous.
i could google this, but i’ll just ask–how different is this from a waldorf school? i lived with a family for a summer in oregon and their kids went to one of those, and it seemed like they did similar-ish things like no formal grades (as in scores), camping trips, etc.
yeah, i don’t really know. it is a bit montessori-ish.