This year, we’re going to run a competition for students with learning style differences and learning disabilities from around the world. We’re going to ask them to design their ideal school.
Why?
First and selfishly, we think that over the past decade or so, we’ve built a superb small urban high school for students with learning style differences and learning disabilities. While we’re not looking for pats on the back, we’re always looking to improve and refine our school. Why not seek advice from our clients?
But, more importantly, we think that for a student who, because of learning issues, has experienced a lot more failure than success in school, this exercise can be therapeutic. By designing the school they wish they could attend, they can help make it possible for others to one day attend a school that looks like theirs.
How?
Well, we’re going to share the ideas, not keep them to ourselves. We’ll tell school design firms what the students in our contest came up with. We’ll circulate the results to school boards and principals and education ministries. We’ll help spread the word that a huge piece of meaningful school reform should come from the students themselves.
Stay tuned. More on this coming in the fall.
Don Adams, Head of School