I Would Definitely Send My Kids There
If I were the headmaster of Hogwarts, I would make the first day of class in potions consist of learning how to smelt iron from iron ore, and cast it into the shape of a cauldron.
I had an idea for a new kind of school today. There are many kinds of schools out there. Public schools tend to be pretty similar, but there's a fair bit of variety among private schools. I should know; I went to 5 of them. For example, Popper-Kaiser placed a huge emphasis on math and science with limited arts -- a purely left-brained school you might say, while Waldorf, where I went next, was the opposite. Then I went to a couple of "college prep" schools where the emphasis was basically: everything that you need for college.
It's taken for granted that being prepared to go to college, whether you go or not, is an appropriate goal for everyone. The ends justify the means; college is necissary for financial success, preparation is necissary for college, therefore all high schools, even if they are not "prep schools," prepare you for college whether you want it or not. The proof is in the fact that colleges look at your success in high school as an indicator for whether or not they want you. The same mentality trickes backwards into elementary school.
However, college is basically a whole lot of academia and a few sports stars, and success has a lot more to do with ambition, connections, personal skills, and luck for those who believe in it. College doesn't prepare you for any of that, and neither does high school. High school would be a good place for that sort of thing if they weren't so busy making you prepare for college.
The point I'm trying to make is that the whole thing is based on notions that don't hold up under scrutiny. Some careers really do require years of academic study. But most of the people who go through college, graduate, and get good paying jobs as a result, aren't in jobs that really necessitated 16 years of math, science, writing, history, and some arts to make sure they're well rounded.
This is really besides the point. The point was to write about the cool ideas I have for a revolutionary kind of school. So without further ado:
A School of Renaissance Children
The school would be set up as a K-12 program. There would be no real division between elementary school, junior high, and high school. This is partly because the curriculum I'm about to describe would be difficult to transfer into or out of, and partly because junior high is an evil invention. I have a feeling that to be feasible, the school would also have to be a boarding school.
But that's not the fun part. The fun part is the curriculum.
The curriculum is based on the idea that if you make something yourself with your own two hands you appreciate its use and its value much more. And on the idea that making things with your hands is a good way to learn concepts in a way that makes them stick. From kindergarten through senior year, students would be making progressively more and more complicated things, as they simultaneously learned more and more complicated topics that either allowed them to make what they were making, understand their importance, or both. The best part of it is that the skills and knowledge would be largely linearly connected. The skills learned in one year would tend to build on the skills of the year before.
All the hands on stuff is worked into a ethos that places an emphasis on personal cultivation, meditation, physical discipline, and a preference for old-world skills. This is why it would probably have to be a boarding school.
I haven't thought of which grade levels do what yet, but here is a general idea of what I'm talking about. The first class of the morning is not algebra. The first class of the morning is Tai Ji, or Yoga, or some kind of calesthenics. After that, there is Qi Gong, meditation, or quiet contemplation. Following this, music, art, dancing, or drama. By now it's 10:00, and everyone gets a short break to have a snack or something.
After a mid morning break, it's time for the hard stuff. And by "hard" I mean "hard science." Math and science according to grade level are taught on a theortical level for an hour and a half, until lunch time.
After lunch, it's time to get to work. You've learned the theory, now put it to work. Projects come and go like chapters. The projects are not necissarily personal, take home objects, but in most cases would be put to use on the school ground. For example, the younger grades might put their arithmatic to use in the school garden, figuring out how many of what to plant, how much dirt is needed for the new bed, and so on. Older grades might might put their physics and chemistry to use making new ceramics for the school cafeteria. Repairs to the buildings would be done by those students who had had sufficient training in wood-working and carpentry (under supervision of course). This hands on stuff would be the biggest single chunk of the day -- a theory might be learned quickly, but making things happen in reality takes time. Less for the younger kids, as with everything else, but a good three hours of work would be expected of the older students.
For the "boring" tasks, an emphasis would be placed on what is now always described as "finding the zen" in them. The repetition would be used as a teaching point to encourage personal cultivation.
After working up a good sweat in the workshop or the gardens, it's time for another snack, a breather, and then it's time for the last portion of the day: history, philosophy and language, and critical thinking. The three would be taught together; I don't really understand why they are considered separate topics anyway. Because the students would no doubt be a bit tired after the previous hours of physical work, those who are predisposed to be disruptive would be less ansty, but for the benefit of everyone's clear thinking, snacking or drinks would be allowed in class.
Finally, the day would end with another briefer round of calesthenics, followed by another briefer period of quite mediation or contemplation.
Homework would be fairly light, because the schoolday would be fairly long. Writing assignments would be given starting about midway through (7th grade-ish).
After graduating from my school, a student would be expected to know how to build and use a simple drill, use a blacksmiths forge, make things out of glass, plant crops at the correct time of year and tend to them, perform simple carpentry, clean and butcher an animal, tan leather, sew clothing, create fabrics, and so on. Older students would be given leeway to focus on areas of special interest, both academically and in the shop, so to speak. Those taking advanced mathamatics would be required to build advanced things: telescopes, bridges, and so on, while those focusing in art would have to make things: painters would have to learn how to actually make paint, musicians would have to build their own instrument, and so on.
The ultimate goal of the school is twofold: First, graduates should be equipped with knowledge and skills such that if our modern society collapsed, they would only survive but thrive, and second, graduates would know how to control their bodies and minds, and be capable of thinking critically about philosophical issues and have a context to place their own philosophies into. In short, they would all have to be renaissance men.
Their preparedness for college would not be seen as an issue, because it would not be seen as a given that college would be a good fit for them. Starting in 10th grade, those who wanted to go to college could opt for a college track, but it would be at the expense of much of the hands on stuff. The college counselor would have the added responsibilty of keeping an eye out for likely candidates. Additional subjects would include The Standard Canon (basically English literature), as well as additional writing assignments, and a reprieve of american history according taught in a more standard manner. It would be very important that the college track would not be treated as a superior track, but rather as an equivalent to a special focus, such as all older students are allowed to pursue.
A school like this would have to be private. Our government would never sponser a school like this as a charter school. And it would probably be very expensive. However, there is a market for expensive schools, and in my experience the fact that they're expensive doesn't necessarily shut out poor students. After all, the rich students attend so that the school can afford to give scholarhips to the good ones. That's the way it was at York anyway.
So that's my school.
I had an idea for a new kind of school today. There are many kinds of schools out there. Public schools tend to be pretty similar, but there's a fair bit of variety among private schools. I should know; I went to 5 of them. For example, Popper-Kaiser placed a huge emphasis on math and science with limited arts -- a purely left-brained school you might say, while Waldorf, where I went next, was the opposite. Then I went to a couple of "college prep" schools where the emphasis was basically: everything that you need for college.
It's taken for granted that being prepared to go to college, whether you go or not, is an appropriate goal for everyone. The ends justify the means; college is necissary for financial success, preparation is necissary for college, therefore all high schools, even if they are not "prep schools," prepare you for college whether you want it or not. The proof is in the fact that colleges look at your success in high school as an indicator for whether or not they want you. The same mentality trickes backwards into elementary school.
However, college is basically a whole lot of academia and a few sports stars, and success has a lot more to do with ambition, connections, personal skills, and luck for those who believe in it. College doesn't prepare you for any of that, and neither does high school. High school would be a good place for that sort of thing if they weren't so busy making you prepare for college.
The point I'm trying to make is that the whole thing is based on notions that don't hold up under scrutiny. Some careers really do require years of academic study. But most of the people who go through college, graduate, and get good paying jobs as a result, aren't in jobs that really necessitated 16 years of math, science, writing, history, and some arts to make sure they're well rounded.
This is really besides the point. The point was to write about the cool ideas I have for a revolutionary kind of school. So without further ado:
A School of Renaissance Children
The school would be set up as a K-12 program. There would be no real division between elementary school, junior high, and high school. This is partly because the curriculum I'm about to describe would be difficult to transfer into or out of, and partly because junior high is an evil invention. I have a feeling that to be feasible, the school would also have to be a boarding school.
But that's not the fun part. The fun part is the curriculum.
The curriculum is based on the idea that if you make something yourself with your own two hands you appreciate its use and its value much more. And on the idea that making things with your hands is a good way to learn concepts in a way that makes them stick. From kindergarten through senior year, students would be making progressively more and more complicated things, as they simultaneously learned more and more complicated topics that either allowed them to make what they were making, understand their importance, or both. The best part of it is that the skills and knowledge would be largely linearly connected. The skills learned in one year would tend to build on the skills of the year before.
All the hands on stuff is worked into a ethos that places an emphasis on personal cultivation, meditation, physical discipline, and a preference for old-world skills. This is why it would probably have to be a boarding school.
I haven't thought of which grade levels do what yet, but here is a general idea of what I'm talking about. The first class of the morning is not algebra. The first class of the morning is Tai Ji, or Yoga, or some kind of calesthenics. After that, there is Qi Gong, meditation, or quiet contemplation. Following this, music, art, dancing, or drama. By now it's 10:00, and everyone gets a short break to have a snack or something.
After a mid morning break, it's time for the hard stuff. And by "hard" I mean "hard science." Math and science according to grade level are taught on a theortical level for an hour and a half, until lunch time.
After lunch, it's time to get to work. You've learned the theory, now put it to work. Projects come and go like chapters. The projects are not necissarily personal, take home objects, but in most cases would be put to use on the school ground. For example, the younger grades might put their arithmatic to use in the school garden, figuring out how many of what to plant, how much dirt is needed for the new bed, and so on. Older grades might might put their physics and chemistry to use making new ceramics for the school cafeteria. Repairs to the buildings would be done by those students who had had sufficient training in wood-working and carpentry (under supervision of course). This hands on stuff would be the biggest single chunk of the day -- a theory might be learned quickly, but making things happen in reality takes time. Less for the younger kids, as with everything else, but a good three hours of work would be expected of the older students.
For the "boring" tasks, an emphasis would be placed on what is now always described as "finding the zen" in them. The repetition would be used as a teaching point to encourage personal cultivation.
After working up a good sweat in the workshop or the gardens, it's time for another snack, a breather, and then it's time for the last portion of the day: history, philosophy and language, and critical thinking. The three would be taught together; I don't really understand why they are considered separate topics anyway. Because the students would no doubt be a bit tired after the previous hours of physical work, those who are predisposed to be disruptive would be less ansty, but for the benefit of everyone's clear thinking, snacking or drinks would be allowed in class.
Finally, the day would end with another briefer round of calesthenics, followed by another briefer period of quite mediation or contemplation.
Homework would be fairly light, because the schoolday would be fairly long. Writing assignments would be given starting about midway through (7th grade-ish).
After graduating from my school, a student would be expected to know how to build and use a simple drill, use a blacksmiths forge, make things out of glass, plant crops at the correct time of year and tend to them, perform simple carpentry, clean and butcher an animal, tan leather, sew clothing, create fabrics, and so on. Older students would be given leeway to focus on areas of special interest, both academically and in the shop, so to speak. Those taking advanced mathamatics would be required to build advanced things: telescopes, bridges, and so on, while those focusing in art would have to make things: painters would have to learn how to actually make paint, musicians would have to build their own instrument, and so on.
The ultimate goal of the school is twofold: First, graduates should be equipped with knowledge and skills such that if our modern society collapsed, they would only survive but thrive, and second, graduates would know how to control their bodies and minds, and be capable of thinking critically about philosophical issues and have a context to place their own philosophies into. In short, they would all have to be renaissance men.
Their preparedness for college would not be seen as an issue, because it would not be seen as a given that college would be a good fit for them. Starting in 10th grade, those who wanted to go to college could opt for a college track, but it would be at the expense of much of the hands on stuff. The college counselor would have the added responsibilty of keeping an eye out for likely candidates. Additional subjects would include The Standard Canon (basically English literature), as well as additional writing assignments, and a reprieve of american history according taught in a more standard manner. It would be very important that the college track would not be treated as a superior track, but rather as an equivalent to a special focus, such as all older students are allowed to pursue.
A school like this would have to be private. Our government would never sponser a school like this as a charter school. And it would probably be very expensive. However, there is a market for expensive schools, and in my experience the fact that they're expensive doesn't necessarily shut out poor students. After all, the rich students attend so that the school can afford to give scholarhips to the good ones. That's the way it was at York anyway.
So that's my school.