Alternative Schools, Kino Included, have been working with kids for the past 30 years in the USA and much longer in other countries. Although the specific techniques vary depending on the educational philosophy, there are a few guiding principles that seem to have withstood the test of time. Kino has been in existence since the mid 70 s and some of the staff today, including our administrator, have been here since the very beginning. There is a long track record that tells us that the principles that have guided Kino, work.
When you first walk in the door at Kino the first thing you see is what looks like utter chaos. Once past the front office and around the corner, you are likely to see a group of older kids sitting in circle, deep in conversation. You see other kids milling around. Some are glued to computer screens. There are no adults directing anything. What could they all be doing? Not school work. Nobody seems to be doing anything constructive. As you continue walking, you see a small group of kids huddled around a table with some Spanish looking posters on the wall behind a woman doing something. It looks a little more like teaching, but still&& Across the room is an older woman with a table playing some kind of card games with two kids, but one looks to be about 5, and the other looks to be about 15. What is going on? Further on, you might see an odd looking castle-like thing with little kids playing in it. There are blocks strewn around the floor, some books lying around and kids peering down from the top. You might notice a small woman in a wheelchair at a table with some kids gathered around. She is reading, or maybe drawing pictures with them. If it is warm, the back door might be open and you might hear the sounds of hysterical laughter and running water.
As you round the corner, you see another large linoleum area with tables. There are pieces of paper, cloth, clay, old magazines, paint brushes, buttons, beads, on the tables with different kids doing all sorts of unrelated stuff. You might hear an adult voice say, Go look for it in the closet. It s open! Through the window you see some kids, but they are too far away to know what they are dong.
Kino doesn t look at all like a school should.
Kino looks so different because what we traditionally think of as learning does not reflect the natural pattern of how kids really do learn, simply the developmental processes that drive learning. This is not to say that kids can t and don t learn in what we call a traditional classroom environment. Obviously they do, but ironically, when you read what professional educators write about the perfect classroom, or natural learning , neurological development, speech development or just about anything having to do with kids, what we see practiced in schools really has little similarity to what we as a society actually do.
If we back up and look at how kids learn when they are in charge of their own world we see very distinct patterns that reflect quite closely the developmental patterns, that have been observed by academic educators since adults first became interested in the natural patterns of how kids acquire knowledge about the world, and develop new behaviors for effectively interacting and thriving in it.
Let us look at how this might play out based on what we have seen in our thirty years of watching and helping kids learn to navigate their world.
Please come on Tuesday night, September 22, at 700 pm to learn more about Kino and your role in helping your child get the most out of his/her education at Kino.
Jack Prohaska
