We believe that people, children, should be treated as the unique individuals they are. We also believe in the importance of community: you cannot be fully human if you are not part of a community, working together, shouldering responsibilities, sharing decision making, learning from each other, caring about each other. These seem like separate, inconsistent ideals. But they visibly come together when you have a small community where each member is important.
Kino itself is such a community, but even more so is the homeroom. The homeroom is like a student’s family within Kino. It’s the basic building block of our community.
Homerooms are made up of about twelve to fifteen students of all ages, plus the homeroom teacher. They meet for half an hour at the beginning and the end of every school day. In the morning students ‘say their goals,’ that is, tell the homeroom teacher what they plan to do that day. At the end of the day they share what they’ve accomplished. During homeroom there is also time to play games, do activities, discuss, and celebrate.
Students at Kino work with many teachers, but it is the homeroom teacher who guides and monitors the student throughout the year, has regular conferences with parents, and is the first person for the student or parent to turn to when there’s a question or problem. Students can choose a new homeroom teacher every year, or, as some do, stay with the same homeroom teacher for years.
Homeroom members get to know each other very well. The consequences of one member’s participation or lack of participation is obvious; a student’s importance to the group is unmistakeable. A primary age student may hesitate to speak up at a school-wide meeting (but not always); in homeroom, his or her voice is definitely audible. A high school student has nearly adult responsibilities-- to team up with the littlest kids when the homeroom plays outside so they’ll have a chance to win; to take the trash to the dumpster when the homeroom has lunch duty.
