Sounds like we spent our time in school similarly, Mana.
I'm in early stages yet, brainstorming and mobilizing contacts and financial info. The concept is a school that runs to 8th grade, as there are good gifted options in town for 9-12, but which can service students up to an early undergraduate level of study in the upper years.
Key features:
-I'd like a partnership with our nearby university with professor mentors in STEM subjects to provide project oversight for upper year students and to provide field trip opportunities. All classes taught by subject majors, preferably with graduate degrees for material conventionally covered in middle school or later.
- Heavily project and experiment based classes, with a preference on student-led topics. Think: turning your classroom into a mini TED talk within a broader topic.
- Socratic/precept model of instruction for initial subject introduction, with implicit and explicit coaching in rhetoric.
- music partnership with performers/instructors at our national conservatory, and other arts instruction with artists.
- Rotational student involvement in preparing lunches/snacks at the school restaurant, with training from an instructor at the local culinary institute. If space permits, I'd love to have a school garden so students could be involved in food preparation from farm-to-table. I need to think through what this would mean for insurance and student allergies.
- Minimal class blocking, possibly with a morning/afternoon split or full-day classes with extensive free time to allow students to learn what it means to operate in a self-directed flow state.
- Foreign language instruction in a minimum of 1 additional language with native speakers.
- Quiet spaces with natural light, cots and comfortable chairs for solitary reflection, naps, and reading.
PE I need to think about. It's a tricky subject to deliver in an urban setting if you don't have an enormous capital fund.
I love DS. I love being around him and being his teacher, but I know the time will come sooner than I want (and expect) when he'll need resourcing beyond my capabilities, be they intellectual or energy. I'm hopeful that I can create a partnership of educators who "get" the HG+ and can be an extended intellectual and emotional family for DS. That's my dream.
