My daughter just spent the week at a summer camp being held in a local school district's elementary school. It was called "Camp Invention" and is part of a national chain of camps.
My daughter was really excited about her experience there: they worked in collaborative groups, they brainstormed and built, they took apart dead appliances to scavenge for parts, they learned about Newton's first and second laws and built a roller coaster for marbles, they learned about landfills and recycling... all in all, it was an exciting week for her.
In school (first grade) she was drilled on phonics, practiced math facts on worksheets (with bubbles to fill in no less), was given a Junie B. Jones book because it's "challenging" (she can read one of those in about 30-40 minutes)...
So, has anyone seen a school that's more like her camp and less like her school? Do these even exist at the elementary level? Or is everything about butts-in-seats?
