The Dream

I have a fantasy about what our schools might be like.

In my world, each town or neighborhood might have a central campus which has at its center a large, beautiful completely equipped and technologically up to date Library.  This library can serve as both the main public library and the schools’  library. It has both traditional reading and storytelling spaces and up to date technology resources, but also houses community meeting rooms, including some that can serve for town meetings and committee meetings. It is architecturally beautiful and distinctive. Outside it are gardens and seating for those who enjoy the outdoors.

Around this Library on a spacious and beautiful campus is a set of public schools, playgrounds, playing fields, and park-picnic grounds.  The schools are divided K-3, 4-6, 7-9, and 10-12; each level with their own building and age level outdoor facilities surrounding it.  There are art studios, labs, an auditorium-theatre, performance, and maker spaces for each level of student needs, including a general outdoor amphitheatre.  

The entire campus is circled by an avenue which houses shops and services, such as doctors and dentists, pre-school child care, cafes and other vendors the families of the community need in connection with the life the campus represents.

Off shooting from the Main avenue nearest the 10-12 School is a community college at which 10th-12th level students can split their time between High School and College courses in a configuration which fits their strengths best. Indeed, each campus from K through 12 is configured to enable students to reach up on a course by course basis without abandoning their common-age friends or feeling limited by the inability to move forward.  The various schools are connected, not only by bike and walking paths, but by a trolley or shuttle system which enables intergrade level activities and provides students with the chance to vary their course levels as needed.

Courses at these schools are based  either on trimester or quarterly credits so that students are never trapped spending a year on a course that they have to repeat, and they will have a mix and match combination of quarterly units that can be consolidated into a full year credit, providing maximum flexibility for course choice.

This campus represents the heart and soul of the community.  Here is where holiday festivities can be celebrated, conversations about how to conduct the business of the community can be had, and settled.

This Library and these Schools belong to everyone, and here all the community are welcome to participate in the life of the neighborhood or town.

This is but one possible dream for our communities, but one for all of them from the poorest to the richest.

True Believer

Learning, Imagination, and Empathy

I have to admit that I come to this piece as a true believer.  I believe fervently in 3 things which to me are the trinity of a healthy world and life. In my life, the greatest pleasures and senses of communion and achievement have come from these three intertwined values.

I believe in Learning, in the power of continued discovery and curiosity.  The power of humans’ desire to learn was and is the driving characteristic behind our successes as a species, and as  individuals. The continuing desire to learn is the one thing that keeps life interesting, exciting,  and vibrant.  Even if we do not have the usual measures of wealth and success, if we continue to learn and want to understand more, our lives can be deeply meaningful. Discovery leads us to walk and talk and explore our environments, to learn to read and write, and to find new ideas. I have complained in the past that my mother introduces me, even at my deepening age, as her daughter, the perpetual student.  But in reality, I am secretly pleased that she recognizes, no matter how old I am, or how much I have studied, I continue to believe with devotion in the power and positive impact of learning.  

I believe in Imagination.  Daydreams and imagining all manner of inventions, creations, and stories was my greatest pastime during childhood, and it has followed me through the rest of my life.  I have often known that my reputation as a dreamer, and imagineer has been seen as too much, as irrational fantasy, but it is integral to who I am and will remain so I suspect. Imagination is the foundation of creation and design that enables us to make the world in a more palatable image than came before.  Imagination is what leads us to new horizons, and positive change.

I believe in Empathy and empathy’s resulting action-- Kindness.  Without empathy our lives would be harsh indeed, and much as I love Learning and Imagination as lifelong endeavors, they would be shallow without the caring connections empathy creates.  By being able to put ourselves in others’ experiences and conditions, we are able to care, love, and find psychological and spiritual wholeness.  As Learning anchors us to the world, and imagination projects us into the possible, empathy threads us to one another.  

These three provide an ever spiraling center for me as a teacher and a person.  I may not always be fully empowered in all three, but they remain the touchstones to which I return over and over, even when tired, even when broke, even when rushed, even when bereft-- these can refresh and sustain me, and I believe they also sustain and refresh the lives of others and our communities.

Through communal learning, imagining, and person to person understanding, we have great power as human beings, great potential, great possibility.  And those three values are ones on which we can base the next iteration of our schools.