My dream school sits at the headwaters to the Tennessee River. It’s called the Downstream Academy.
Or better yet...my dream school sits on the seventh story of a building in the middle of downtown Atlanta. Perhaps above a restaurant or an auto mechanics shop.
The "school" on top of the "restaurant."
When your child leaves "school," she’ll know how to grow tomatoes on top of a building that uses solar energy to power the restaurant's kitchens. She’ll know math, science, chemistry, and botany because she’ll use them the entire time that she’s in "school."
He’ll learn to cook using vegetables that he grew.
Or if we make this the "school" above the garage, she’ll learn the history of engines in her free time because during the day she’ll be fixing, making, and designing new ones.
Both "teacher" and "student" will learn patience, compassion, teamwork, competition, resiliency, diligence, creativity, and humility. They’ll learn that what they do affects others, and that each of them has something to offer others.
For physical education we might have a rock wall and yoga classes, or kung fu if you are so inclined.
Scratch that...yoga is a requirement.
Assessment will not be rigorous. Rigor is for the dead. See yoga. Learning is about growth and development, and we’ll listen to each child explain her growth and development, asking her to respond to three central questions.
Who are you?
Where are you going?
What can we do to help?
Let’s ask all children to answer those questions to the best of their abilities before cutting the world up into math, science, history, and reading. Or, thanks to NCLB, math and reading...reading, not literacy.
Let’s ask them to read the world first, to be active participants in their communities, and to cure cancer at "school."
If you have a child, or you care about the education of children, I'll stick around and talk to you about individualized educational plans for all children.