What Should School Really Be?

Author - Eva lilith

Written on - Monday 2nd May 2005 (06:18pm)

School should really be’
A place where I can learn what I want to learn- as much of it as I want, as fast as I want.
What would I learn? Everything about writing. My classes would mostly have to do with English. There would be a lot of reading and looking at how books are written, and there would be only a little grammar work. Grammar practice would be creative writing practice, too. There would be only a few other people in my classes, people who really like and are good at the same things as I am, and are not just taking a class because they need it to graduate. One of the classes would be a writer’s forum where we would talk about what we are writing and things we have found helpful, or ideas for someone else. Another would be time on the computer to type and find cool writing sites with exercises and ideas, like the ones this document is devoted to. There would also be other languages, especially Latin and Greek, but a smattering of now-spoken languages as well, particularly German. The now-spoken courses would be kind of like immersion- you would learn actual sentences and grammar and important, commonly used vocabulary, not random words like ’banana’ or ’suitcase.’ Other arts would also be a major part of the curriculum- drawing, painting, sculpting, acting, singing, playing an instrument, and so on. There would be some sort of physical activity, but it could be as simple as playing an intense game of keep up with a balloon. This time would probably involve a lot of that, plus floor hockey and chair soccer, and maybe some trench-type games. Or, when the weather is nice, a two-hour field trip for a hike to Quarry Hill, or something of the sort. Badminton and Tennis might also occasionally occur. Sometimes we would build things, like trebuchets or crystal radios, or little boxes or clocks. We would plant gardens. We would have riding lessons once a week, outdoors if the weather was nice. We would learn how to work with programs and how to write them- how to make computers hum. We could systematically work our way through the library fairly quickly and move on to the public library. There would be more published than just the CLAM of students’ literary work- I mean, more frequently, like multiple issues. In the arts, there would be a specific manga class, and just a people drawing class, too (semi-cartoonish) There would be sewing and cooking, but the sewing would be less complex to start with than that bag, and the cooking would allow for Celiacs as well. Maybe we would make our own lunches everyday. The vegetables could come from the gardens, at least in the spring. The sewing would probably be clothes, and bags. We would sing many different kinds of music- there would be a lot of songs from musicals, and some traditional songs. Hmmm’ maybe we could have fencing and archery as part of the phy-ed too. That would be fun! Maybe some quarter-staff stuff as well.