In this video educator Bede Roughton speaks about the Village schools, both as teacher & parent.
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The Village as Campus: Primary and secondary education
For many parents their primary concern today is securing a good education for their children. Families will move home to enrol their children in a good school district; they will seek out communities that protect and inspire the young.
Schools face many problems, but perhaps the largest is the loss of support structures that prepare students for learning. Where once there was an extended family and supportive community, today's society isolates families into parents (or solo parent) and then look to teachers to fill the gaps. Due to tight funding, it is not uncommon for a teacher to face 30 children in which class control becomes a significant part of the job. The village changes this.
By its very nature, the village becomes a supportive community. As soon as people get out of their cars and slow down, they begin to recognise each other:
- Children live in an adult world, not an artificial world of children
- Adults become role models... at work or relaxing on the plaza.
- Students witness the relevance of their studies, as they see adults applying knowledge and learning on a day-to-day basis.
- Boredom is replaced by an enriched social and cultural environment.
- The plaza and the pedestrian streets are safe for young children to play.
- Predators do not find opportunities in such a community, there are too many people watching.
- Parents don't hire babysitters, they buy an extra bed for the neighbours kid.
- Daycare comes to mean something very different.
- Elders form natural bonds with young people - as humans did since the beginning of time until we invented retirement homes
- Teens have space, but not too much space to hurt themselves or other (such as no cars means fewer crashes)
These attributes come with the territory in the village. Can we then do things different to make education even better?
Yes. A core principle of the village is presence, being there.
To these natural characteristics, the village proposes a slightly different structure to formal education. Instead of carving off large parcels of land for walled-in primary & secondary school campuses:
- place about five classrooms on each plaza, some as store-front and others in the Guild Halls. Design these to be multipurpose so when class is over for the day, the room may be used for community purposes.
- use the sports fields and village gymnasia & pools for school sports during the school day
- use the gardens, the equestrian area and other outdoor space for specialised education
- incorporate apprentice learning in the industrial park and with selected businesses in work places
- contract with the Village Corporation to manage the "administrivia", the paperwork that the state demands
- use Telepresence extensively
If education consists of time, place, subject matter and social relationship, the element proposed to be realigned is "place". Do not segregate students, include them in the life of the community, but as students. This has numerous educational benefits and it saves millions in investing in a separate campus infrastructure that is then used less than 15% of the year.
