What is school for?

We are pleased to share that we have started considering admissions for families of older children who are interested in a learner-driven environment.
For this year and the next, we are considering students up to 13 years of age.

We are currently right in the middle of our “Flourish Athens” quest where our young Eagles become heroes living in Ancient Greece. Using their imaginations, they enter into Flourish Athens as their chosen avatars (Greek mythological characters) and explore the city by completing challenges in different areas.

For Writer’s Workshop, “An Idea worth Sharing”, we are learning how to create and give engaging presentations.

The Flourish Athens is a slight departure from the science-based quests that we have conducted in the past (forensics, entomology, marine science, etc.)

This one is a fun quest full of history, art and philosophy.

Some of the goals of this quest are:

• To ignite a curiosity about the world and civilizations that came before us.
• To inspire real debate about philosophical concepts.
• To find joy in combining artistic creativity with Core Skills.

This writer’s workshop is heavily inspired by the TED talks and challenges our Eagles to come up with their own presentation of an idea that is dear to them – which more people should know about.

They are spending time creating rubrics of what makes a presentation great, watching some great TED talks and discussing what works well and what does not.

At the same time, they are learning how to create slideshows and best practices on how to structure each slide. Lots of presentations were given, and warm-cool feedback was shared on their mini-presentations.

They are currently researching their ideas and creating storyboards, outlines and scripts for their presentations.

For each of the six weeks of this session, we are exploring the works of famous artists and trying to create art in their unique styles.

The Eagles will be exploring “Pop Art” by Andy Warhol, “Paper Cut Outs” by Henri Matisse, “Symbolism and Self Portraits” by Frida Kahlo, the art style of Vincent Van Gogh, “Abstract Art” by Sayed Haider Raza and finally, “Impressionism” by Claude Monet.

The Eagles are super excited, and so are we. This will culminate in an art exhibition during the Exhibition of Learning, and we can’t wait to see what they create!

Whether you are a parent looking for admission to Flourish or someone just curious to know what a learner-driven environment looks like, you are most welcome to come to our monthly open house.

Join us these cold winter mornings with a cup of hot tea or coffee, and spend an hour with us (the founders) learning more about the environment we are building for our children.

The next two open house dates are:

1. Sunday, 27th of Nov 2022, from 11 AM to 12 PM
2. Sunday, 18th of Dec 2022, from 11 AM to 12 PM

Some years ago, Seth Godin wrote a brilliant manifesto called: Stop Stealing Dreams (illustrated version) which questions what schools are supposed to stand for. (versus what we get nowadays in traditional schools).

One of the things that really hit me while listening to his talk (linked below) is an example he cites.

He says: If you were to turn a person into a baseball fan, you would not have them first study the history of baseball and then memorize statistics and other information about players. (And then make this said person give a test). If we were to do this, we would kill whatever little enthusiasm this person had for baseball.

And yet, that is what schools do. Every single day.

Instead, schools should be places where students learn new things, discover their passions, make friends and have fun exploring their world. At their age, children are natural explorers, and schools should encourage this behaviour. (See: Explore vs Exploit in childhood).

Essentially he argues (and we agree) that if you make learning “work”, anyone would want to do less of it. Instead, if we make it like art (or play), they would want to do even more of it.

If you have not already read this one, the “Gardener and the Carpenter” by Alison Gopnik is an excellent book on parenting based on scientific studies and takes an anthropological view of child rearing (versus the self-help genres that we often see with parenting books).

The audible version is narrated quite well, and you could go down that route as well.