Professional Essays

...Here’s the dream that I have. Schools should be the center of every community because the more people who are invested in its success, the more successful our schools will be. When possible, schools should be surrounded by gardens that grow vegetables and fruit tended and eaten by students and community members. Outdoor classrooms could be nestled among the garden paths sheltered by greenhouses or spread at the feet of green spun pergolas. Members of the community could rent spaces on weekends and holidays: schools should never be empty of learners.

It is of equal importance that no room should be without outdoor light. In many cases, this might be skylights or windows high up on walls that face corridors: anything that is cost effective and safe. Cafeterias should have restaurant quality food and service which is free to every student and staff member. Table manners and politeness should be expected with staff and students eating together.

Current classroom spaces should be repurposed, opened and expanded when possible. Let students fill the spaces with their own artwork. Students who are excelling and finish curriculum requirements early should have the newest technologies in grade relevant spaces where they can go: woodworking shops, tech labs, art rooms, theater and dance spaces, weight rooms, a snack shop with fresh food, recording studios, botany and animal husbandry labs. Schools should be such positive and beautiful spaces: a place people would never think of damaging. We don’t need more funds or different staff to start making these changes. Yes, we would have to rethink curriculum and discipline, and schools deserve and will need more funding, but we start small and we start today. Other countries do these things: nothing here is without precedence.

Do not misunderstand me: we have come far from the days when schools were barren and school marms treated children like empty vessels. But like Hansel and Gretel, we have lost our way. Except now, the witch with the candy house is a government suggesting privatization and charter schools won’t get our children’s futures eaten....