Monday, December 5, 2011

School Tours

I did one on Friday and TWO today.

We've looked at two religious schools because, though private, their tuition is somewhat affordable.  They make me uncomfortable.

Today I looked at a Sudbury school, which I found thrilling.  They "unschool": no curriculum, no class schedule.  Just students with access to teachers and supplies.  On the car ride home I sang "I'm such a hippy yes I am, yes I am, yes I am.  I'm such a hippy, yes I am.  Whooooooo knew??"

And yet: how is a five year old to discover she loves ancient Greek if no one shows it to her in the first place?  Or to find that math has patterns?

I stumble on this. 

My main requirement of elementary school is that it not teach my children to zone out and stare quietly at walls.

However, perhaps no structured effort to impart knowledge goes too far the other way, given that human society has on the whole moved beyond hunter-gathering.

I think my ideal school would offer a 6-7 hour day in which 5 of those hours are at a Sudbury school and 2 of them introduce: Greek, Poetry, Math for Practical Sums and Engineering, Piano, Ecology and a Sport of the children's choice.

Where is that school?

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