I have a few things on my wish list for a perfect school:
You touched on this with the no age based classes, but in my perfect school, each specific subject would be scheduled at the same time for all levels, ex. Math instruction would be at 8:00am for everyone in the school. That way each student could go to the class that matches their interest and ability regardless of age or grade. The next class might be science, where again the child woud attend the class that matched their ability. After that Language Arts, and so on. Each child's stranghts and weaknesses could be accomodated for that way.
Also I would schedule large blocks of time for each subject - 2 to 3 hours instead of 55 minutes, so each topic could be studied in more depth. It might be more of a college like experience where you don't have every class every day.
And I may be alone in this, but I want my children to have a full, exciting day of learning and then come home and be able to play. I am not a beleiver in homework, even if this means a longer school day. I always hated it when I had to bring work home from the office and I don't want my children to have to do so either.
You are not alone, CFK. The school has them for 7 hours a day. That should be enough time to get everything done. Down with homework! Up with free time!
What CFK describes is pretty much my ideal scenario for academics. If the school has teachers who are skilled at both challenging kids and encouraging them to live their values--whatever the kids' values happened to be--so much the better. Really, I think the teachers matter more than anything else in a school. The bureacracy and the administrators only work as well as every classroom teacher does.
If the place had extracurricular sports and music opportunities, too, then it would be just about perfect. Oh, and school dances at the middle and high school levels. Give them the full school experience!
Sounds good. Where do I sign up?!
