A New Definition of Schoolhouses

School Logo and Ideals

By: Emma Rayburn
        Small schoolhouses are near and dear to my heart. In my senior year of high school, I did a year-long internship in a small schoolhouse located on a small-scale farm in my hometown. The school consisted of about 25 kids of all different ages, ranging from 5 to 13 years old. It was started by a handful of mothers that weren't sold on the idea of sending their children into the public school system. So they started with small-scale homeschooling and built up into the institution that it is today, Woodland Community School. 

        Woodland has many beliefs and ideals, such as all learning styles deserve respect, children are naturally curious, children love to learn, children learn best through play, children have great ideas, and children are capable of sound decisions, among many others. These beliefs are what drew me to want to work at the school. I went through public school my entire life and knew that when I would become a teacher after college I would most likely be in the public school system as well. So, I wanted to experience and learn from a completely different environment, and that is exactly what I did. 

The Entire School outside the Schoolhouse

        This school was completely nontraditional and unique. The students worked and learned almost entirely through play and free time. The day usually consisted of morning meetings and share, free time, snack, more free time, lunch, and the quarter project time for the rest of the day. Now I know this sounds crazy, and most people would not initially understand how any learning gets done, but you would be surprised what students chose to do with their free time when given the choice. During free time all the teachers in the school offered lessons that students can choose to do or not. But they also chose to do things like investigate the flower gardens, work with the animals on the farm, perform science experiments, and so much more. I remember on one occasion a kindergartener came up to me during free time and asked me to write math problems for her to do. She chose to do this with her free time. How many kindergarteners would do that?

        

        Now I know what most educators are thinking, with this format, how is it possible to give them a well-rounded education? Well, that is what the quarter projects are for. There are four projects each year. The students collectively brainstorm and choose a whole school topic. Then, they can choose to gather and represent information in any way they like. One student had a fascination with cheetahs, so they chose to do some research about them and make a physical representation of a cheetah. This idea, although shows some understanding, is not in-depth. This is where the teachers come in to help encompass multiple subjects and deepen the students' understanding. The student was interested in how fast the cheetah could run, so I asked, how fast do you think you could run, or other animals can run? So, the student timed themselves running, did research about other animals, and compared all the times in a graph. Now we are bringing in ELA, writing, math, science, and technology. 

        

        I loved my experience at Woodland Community School and use the things I learned all the time in my education and in my teaching experiences. I think the ideas and beliefs the school goes by are important and are something that schools should adopt. Although I understand that is a tall order, and it is very different from the structure of public schools right now, I think it would benefit schools greatly and show some interesting results. 

Woodland Community School Website