Ladies Home Journal Spotlights "America's Most Amazing Schools"
As the authors of "America's Most Amazing Schools" in August's Ladies Home Journal acknowledge from the get-go, "We've all heard the bad news: Our public schools are in a sorry state." But from there, they go on to describe 10 public schools with wildly differing curricula and approaches that are all getting great results.
Green Schools Initiative's Deborah Moore was on the Advisory Panel for the authors as they whittled the list of intriguing schools down to the 10 in the article. From greening, to inclusion, to one-on-one instruction, you really will be amazed at what these schools are doing!
A few examples:
- The Odyssey School in Denver, CO. A charter school, Odyssey embraces "expeditionary learning," based on the ideas of Outward Bound founder Kurt Hahn. Expeditionary learning blends "adventure and content," as kids study on hiking trails, campsites, Native American reservations, using the local community and Colorado's great outdoors as their classroom.
- The Minnesota New Country School in Henderson, MN. Led not by a principal, but by a faculty team, New Country's 109 students don't spend their days in classrooms, hurrying through hallways when the bell rings. There are no classrooms, hallways, or bells at New Country, just a huge 8,500 square-foot atrium. Teacher advisers lead the school, and serve as guides as students create their own curriculum for independent learning.
- Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, PA. A joint project of the Philadelphia School Districtand the Franklin Institute (a renowned science museum), this magnet school helps students create their own learning resources using course management software. With only a few traditional textbooks in use, students learn by doing using a method called "inquiry."
To read more about these extraordinary schools and 7 others like them, read Lisa Guernsey and Sonia Harmon's short article, "America's Most Amazing Schools" in the Ladies Home Journal online.