Conform
The last 2 days my kids have been out of school because it is goal setting conference time (like parent teacher conferences but student led). I’m fortunate to have a job that allows me to work at home on such days, so I worked, and they ran around. We’re having our normal gorgeous fall weather for Denver so the kids took to the street with sidewalk chalk.
These are my 14 year old son’s creations:
I suspect this might mean he’s not so excited about living in suburbia. It also meant he was kept occupied today cutting stencils and chalking the road. I think it’s wonderful suburban art and I love that he is questioning his surroundings.
My kids attend an expeditionary learning school. It’s a fabulous (public) school that teaches to the whole person instead of just focusing on academics.
Design principles express the philosophy of education and core values of Expeditionary Learning. Drawn from the work of Outward Bound’s founder Kurt Hahn, and other educational leaders, they shape school culture and provide a foundation for the moral purpose of schools.
The 10 principles are (see above link for more details):
- The Primacy of Self-Discovery
- The Having of Wonderful Ideas
- The Responsibility for Learning
- Empathy and Caring
- Success and Failure
- Collaboration and Competition
- Diversity and Inclusion
- The Natural World
- Solitude and Reflection
- Service and Compassion
It’s an amazing school and I’m actually quite jealous of the opportunities they have. The in-classroom education is stimulating and interesting. They go on almost weekly field trips: museums, hikes, libraries, etc. In addition they have a few major trips each year, from camping to backpacking to rafting to amazing out of state (and country) trips.
One of my favorite things about this school is that the kids are challenged to question their world instead of just accepting spoon fed textbook content.
And I’m sure at one time I had a point to this post but the electricity went out so we went to Target and spent money like the good suburbanites that we are. It was a grand adventure because our Target is closing in a few days so a bigger and better Super Target can open instead. Right next door to our huge Walmart.
Conform…
Posted by Lisa in: Musings
Omega said,
September 30, 2006 @ 4:48 am
It fills my heart with joy when I hear that real education does exist in some pockets of the world. It is my belief that it’s a fundamental responsibilty which each human has - to educate in whatever way possible.
Kathie said,
September 30, 2006 @ 8:20 am
This school sounds wonderful. Your kids are fortunate to be taught to think, and to think critically. Lucky them. That seems to be missing in many educational institutions.
Lori Witzel said,
September 30, 2006 @ 8:39 am
Love love love what your son did — not only for the mordant wit (does he know “mordant” yet?) but for the fine design eye evidenced.
I’m living in a tract home ‘burb, not a bad place actually — lots of young families whose kids play together in the street with parents on lawn chairs watching, people starting out and looking like they’re putting family first — but one of the reasons i moved here (most was affordability) was few landscape restrictions.
And so my crazy native plant tangles and overflows tell folks we’re not quite conforming…
:-)
Deanna said,
September 30, 2006 @ 9:00 am
That school sounds great. I wish I could send my son to a school like that. It’s funny - our Target, too is soon closing and moving to a SuperTarger, which is also next to our Super WalMart. I bet we could hardly tell our towns apart…
Lisa Call said,
October 1, 2006 @ 10:54 am
Deanna - that is pretty funny. But truly sad - every where in America seems to look exactly the same these days. I’m sure you have a Chile’s and Applebee’s right near by also!
Lori - he didn’t know mordant so I had him come look in up in the dictionary. Although we cheat and use the online one. He felt it was an appropriate word.
Kathie and Omega - thanks for the comments. I’m with you - there is hope for the world when we know at least some of the kids out there are being taught to actually think and not just act on blind faith with what they are told.
Felicity said,
October 3, 2006 @ 1:55 am
I think this is really exciting - that a school like this exists. I wish I could have gone to one like this. Those priciples are so important but so little recognised today. It fills my heart with hope too - imagine if most schools taught these things! Your children are very fortunate.
Rex Crockett said,
November 24, 2006 @ 12:23 pm
Very cool, succinct, and powerful. Congratulations to Alex.
I know you’ve said that your kids like their school and are involved and interested in learning, but I have to ask the necessary question. What happens when they get out and into college? Will their skills in Readin’ ‘Riting ‘Rithmatic measure up? How do the kids do on standardized tests?
My guess is that they’d be out the top on a lot of stuff but probably middling in other areas. I don’t happen to think that the way they measure math skills is very well designed, but as a former educator, I know that the students have to be prepared for unfair criteria. We live in a world where the educational legacy we’ve inherited comes from the turn of the century industrial age. It was carefully and calculatedly designed to weed out the workers from the managers. And there was a certain type of manager wanted — one who was good abstract symbolic reasoning but did not question the rules.
I’m glad to see this — love it in fact — but I want the kids to win the game, fair or not. So what happens on the national tests?
Lisa Call said,
November 24, 2006 @ 1:46 pm
Rex you ask good questions.
For the long answer see this website for studies on the success of this program: http://www.elob.org/results/evaluation.html
I wish I could tell you how our specific school does on the CSAP (our statewide standardized test) but I can’t remember as it is of little concern to me. My concern is of course my specific children - and they are doing well.
Kids from these schools seem to be very successful in college (based on talking to parents and teachers at their school) because it takes more than just the ability to take tests to succeed in college.
You do make a good point about how little “questioning the rules” is a valuable skill (and is in fact viewed as an undesirable skill) in some segments of our society, which is probably why most schools discourage this behavior.
Rex Crockett said,
November 24, 2006 @ 5:17 pm
This is good news.
I asked my school teacher sister, Michele, about this program, and she knew about it. She said that from what she’s heard, it’s been successful due to one key thing: they’ve been able to continue to get funding.
So they’ve been able to continue to refine their approach; furthermore, since the long term results are starting to come in, the approach is gaining adherents nationwide.
Excellent!