Spain

Innovation at the edges

Granada’s old city is a spectacular walled fortress. Inside, the Alhambra stands with acres of manicured gardens and picturesque fountains. It’s perfectly orderly and regal, perhaps reflecting aspirations if not the realities, of the Nasrid dynasty. Just outside the city walls, a different world exists. Starting in the 1400’s, Romani people carved caves into the limestone and effectively squatted on the land, evolving their own art forms and ways of life. These caves became the birthplaces of flamenco dance, an artform that originated, literally, underground. While it was once shunned, flamenco is now celebrated as a hallmark of Spanish culture. 

We spent much of May living in one of these caves, rented from a flamenco dancer. From our perch overlooking the Alhambra, we would drift off to sleep with classical guitar in the air and the occasional thunder of a flamenco dancer’s stomping. 

We were originally drawn to Granada by a school called the “Es-cuevita,” a sort of guerilla school hidden within the caves on the edge of town. They had no web site, no address, and it later turned out no school (in our standard conception of the term) – it was more of a daycare for younger kids. However, they were affiliated with another unmarked school, Escuela Activa, hidden in a village on the outskirts of town between acres of olive orchards. 

On the first day of school, we drove through the olive orchards looking for the town the teacher had mentioned, because there was no official address. The whole town was just a few buildings, with no sign and no one around. We parked the car and a teacher came out from what looked like a residential building across from a tractor parts store. Just behind the front door of the building, the entire student body was waiting for us. All seven of them.

The sole teacher for this group, ranging in age from 5-12, explained that he really wasn’t a teacher at all, but rather a guide. Instead of a preset curriculum, students came to school with questions to ask, and then used the resources within the school building to try to answer them. They asked how cities come to be, and then built a miniature scale city from cardboard, and elected a mayor. They asked whether metal feels colder than wood at a given temperature, and then tested their hypotheses in the kitchen freezer. They asked how chickens make eggs, and then observed the chicken coop for answers. In each case, the kids all worked together, despite their large age range, and the teacher guided their inquiry when they got stuck. 

Rio and Luca were immediately smitten with the model. They raved about what they learned each day, and Luca announced that he was learning more than he had learned in any other school, despite there never being inside of what felt like “class.” Rio was stunned to learn that participation in any given section of the day was entirely optional. Students who were not interested were free to wander off and explore other topics – or scale the climbing wall - and some did.

Tuition was roughly $10 per kid per day ($1,800/yr), a mere tenth of UWC Thailand.

In light of the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of the model, perhaps the most surprising aspect was how clandestine it seemed.  Like the flamenco artists before them, these innovators were flourishing at the edges of Granada, hidden in an underground institution that with luck and perseverance could someday be the pride of Spain. We were grateful to have been able to join them. 

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