A Kino student has considerable control over what he or she chooses to do, when to do it, and with whom.
That children need to be able to make their own decisions about the use of their time is implicit in Kino’s assumptions and convictions about learning: Students are the principal agents of their own education. Only when a child is given genuine freedom to choose can he or she genuinely choose to learn.
A day at Kino is not unstructured, but the structure is provided by the choices that the students make. Even the youngest children have the choices of playing by themselves or in a group, being involved in other centers around the school, or exploring the rotation of activities provided by their teachers. As children get older, they make increasingly longer range plans and projects; we help them learn to structure their time so they can achieve their goals.
Restrictions on choices are imposed by real life responsibilities and respect for other people. For example, if a teacher has set aside a regular time to meet with a student, the student has an obligation to respect it. A student can’t choose not to put away toys, or clean up the darkroom. Students are expected to follow through on commitments.
By the time students are in high school, they are making the most amazing choices – like choosing to learn Latin or advanced Physics. They have learned that choice does not mean choosing what seems like fun right then, but means figuring out long term goals and working towards them.
We pay attention to helping students learn how to make such choices well. We ask that they set long term goals. We help them plan out the steps to achieve their goals. We show them how to schedule their weeks and their days, and we teach them to reflect on what they’ve done. We do this through daily homerooms, regular meetings with homerooms teachers, and parent-teacher-student conferences. Older students write weekly summaries and self-evaluations.
But probably the most important thing is that, through giving students control over how they spend their time, they learn that setting and achieving their goals is ultimately their own responsibility.
If we want to allow students to find their own tasks or to construct their own meanings, then we need to give them unstructured time to invent and discover.
— Katherine Schultz, “On the Elimination of Recess,” Education Week (June 10, 1998).
From Ariel’s graduation speech, May, 2006:
When I wanted to go outside with Leta and Maya and build fairy houses all day, I did. When I wanted to read 10 books a day and not socialize with people at all, I did. When Leta, Maya, Casey, Tana, and I decided to paint the girls’ bathroom bright pink and purple, the teachers let us, and didn’t get mad when the pink paint only stuck to parts of the icky yellow stalls. (And I apologize for that; we’re working on fixing it.) When I wanted to build a car that would run purely off water . . . I was at least able to explore the idea.
Kino is all about supporting you to learn, fight for, and do what you believe in, and learn about what you’re interested in. The teachers trust you to know what is right for you and by doing so it builds this whole mentality of trusting yourself to make the right choices. And I can really see that now, and I am so thankful that I made the choice that I did, to stay at Kino.
