Why are students given so much responsibility over how they use their time?

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 can’t just skip it. A student can’t choose not to put away toys, or clean up the darkroom. A student who hasn't written a Sandwich Club book report can't go on a Sandwich Club picnic. 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).