Ideas. . .

Here is an interesting link on Green Schools: http://www.greenschools.net/report/index.html

Although American in origin, the premise could be adopted for the proposed school.

Ideas for building material could incorporate straw bale construction, insulated concrete forms, living roof . . . This would not only give jobs to our area, but also branch out and be a "the school" that other's look to for inspriation. Just maybe it would trickle down as someone mentioned tonight to the public highschools in the area?

I mentioned at the meeting about Malcolm Gladwell and his book "The Outliers". I think that it would be apropos to post a podcast from CBC radio: http://www.cbc.ca/thenextchapter/ . If you scroll down on the page, please click on the podcast of Malcolm Gladwell, it barely scratches the surface, but is worth listening to. In his book The Outliers, he delves into the concept of genius. Now if this modus operandi, treating every child as a genius (regardless of socio-economic, or perceived capacity), has the benefit of success to each child (to really reduce and minimize this theory), could this school be a venue for this method? If this proposed school could give more to children, a light to every child, would it not be wonderful, if we had this opportunity? I would recommend all of Gladwell's books to anyone, but this book especially hits home, especially given that we may be able to start with a clean slate. Value needs to be given to every child and value is not only instilled at home, but in a school setting.

One issue of separation anxiety was brought up at tonight's meeting. I think that all children will most likely go through a period of adjustment, some may take longer. One tactic that could be brought forth is the idea of a "peer buddy" system, for riding the bus or even during school hours to help make the transition, especially for the younger children. This would add to "community" within the school atmosphere.

Two days ago, I was not sold on the idea of a larger school model, now I think that it might be one of the best decisions we as parents and guardians could ever make.

As mentioned before, please feel free to comment, disagree, or send me something to post, we all want input. The only stupid question is the one that is not asked. It is not my intent to just post my ideas on this blog (I have my own soapbox for that), so please feel free to send ideas, the more the better :)