A SCHOOL FOR THE COMMUNITY

THE SHAW SCHOOL

A proposal




Dominique Gallo
copywrite: Fall 2006


A concept created for
EDU526: Cultural Contexts/Diverse Learners
Elaine Waldon, instructor


It is our earth, not yours or mine or his. We are meant to live on it, helping each other, not destroying each other

J. Krishnamurti



From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere… If you never did, you should. These things are fun, and fun is good.”



Dr. Seuss.,, One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish




“Education is what remains when we have forgotten all that we have been taught. “

George Savile, Marquis of Halifax

A school in its most idealized setting is that place where children grow to be reasonable, thinking adults who will lead the civilization into endless millennia. What do we ask of our schools? What are parents expecting when they send their child into an educational institution? Some would say their purpose is to grow and gain the tools to be a successful adult—to “have it better than I did.” It is then, the institution, the district to decide how best to go about this. It is their job to integrate the most contemporary science and philosophic understanding of learning into the current practices of the school to enable the institution that will offer the tools for a successful student to evolve. I do not believe this is how the modern Missourian districts approach their task. I have therefore built this presentation in accordance with the modern understanding of how students would best become successful and responsible citizens. The school I have created is an institution whose purpose is to offer an institution whose aims are toward excellence in academia, an understanding of community, of civilization, breeding real understanding of concepts enabling children to grow into broad minded, critical thinking citizens. These children will find success in their future endeavors because they have been given the tools needed to be everything they choose to become.





The Practicals… Location… Location… Location
“Education is not filling a bucket but lighting a fire.”
William B Yeats
The idea of the school is to be an intrinsic aspect of the community. If this school were to become a district, the same formula would be followed by each new institution. That formula is as follows:
· Location: the students are able to attend the school only if they live in the neighborhood or walking distance to the school’s location. This is the Shaw School. That means that children from age 4 until high school graduation who live in the Shaw and South Grand neighborhoods may attend the Shaw School.
· Community Partnerships: The Shaw School being in the Shaw neighborhood includes such institutions as The Missouri Botanical Garden, Tower Grove Park, Nursing Home, Center High School, St. Margaret’s of Scotland, as well as the School for the Deaf to name a few. We will form bonds and partnerships with these organizations and institutions in a mutually beneficial relationship. For instance, the Missouri Botanical Garden could offer seminars in exchange for volunteer work in the garden.
· Professional Partnerships: There are a variety of businesses in the Shaw and South Grand Neighborhoods. As young people become a certain age, they will require the knowledge to find a job. We will work in partnership with the businesses in the neighborhood to not only integrate our students into the work environment; but the practical knowledge as well: fill out applications, succeed in the interview process and write a resume.
· The Gallery: The school will have its own retail/gallery business. We will have a student run and student art consignment shop. The items sold will be the direct products of the students. The students will make a percentage of that item while paying a commission to the gallery.
· Teaching Style: The focus of instruction for the Shaw School will be of an Arts-Integrated approach. This means that artists work with teachers to develop the lessons. (Rabkin, Redmond ) The departments will work as a unit covering compatible units if not working as a combined unit. (DeMoss) I included a sample of the types of lessons an observer might see. (See A1.)
· Diversity: Shaw and South Grand are filled with diversity: economic, racial, ethnic, creed, and family style. These are things that make it great here.
o All of our teachers will be a minimum of bilingual. Bilingual includes sign language. In fact sign language will be one language of 50 per cent of our teachers. This school will become a streamline program for deaf children.
o Language and culture will be taught from the start. This will breed an open environment for conversation and exposure as well as forming a bilingual community. Our students will engage in bilingual studies from the first year. Exposure to a bilingual
education increases the neuro-pathways for better associations and organization in all subjects. (Ormrod) Multilingual study also shows the variety of ways a thing can be said. We will; therefore, be better able to communicate.
· Health: Obesity and Mental Disorders are now rampant in our student populations. Many of these problems are directly linked to stress, general health and diet. Most people no longer know how to cook or what to eat. We will have greenhouses on top of each of our buildings. We will also have a large kitchen. The students will learn how to grow their own food, cook their own food and make healthy making their own independent choices. We will include the stress relief and increased brain activation found in Transcendental Meditation and other relaxation and physical fitness techniques.
· Money: Our teachers will earn a $40,000 starting salary. We will retain a crew of grant writers for the purpose of paying our faculty and staff. The students and our community partners will take up their own mantles. As much as we can, we will in-source our needs: web site, cleaning crew, grounds people, cooks, etc… Donations will always be accepted with deep gratitude; however, no building or bench will be dedicated to a donor.
· Schedules: The school’s operating hours are form 7 until 7. Students have individualized schedules. Some may go from 7 until 3. Some may attend from 12 until 7. Some may come in at 7 leave at 12, come back at 3 and stay until 7. Some still may be there from 7 until 7. The students schedule will depend on that student’s home life. Some parents work nights and would never see their children. The inverse is possible. Also, many cultures observe an afternoon siesta. Some children, still simply cannot concentrate in the afternoon. Our aim is the greatest education for our students; therefore, we will build the environment that will best accomplish that goal.

Members of a Community
“Education is too important to be left solely to educators.”
Francis Keppel
A neighbor is more than geographic location. A well known African proverb states: “It takes a village to raise a child.” A village has within it many of the tools a child requires to be a successful adult. It has families, businesses, parks, libraries and schools. Defining aspects of poverty include a lack of support systems, a lack of role models, and a lack of emotional resources. (Payne) Many times, these resources exist in the neighborhood; but, there is little knowledge as to how to access them. The neighborhood also includes a certain amount of diversity. Many times our fear of what is unknown creates a division which prohibits true integration. Understanding that the community is an organism, that all of it’s parts are part of it’s whole, creates an atmosphere of acceptance through experience and understanding. We have to experience each other in order to see and understand each other.

The Shaw School will create a partnership with it’s neighbors creating a vast network of support systems. Having these systems already in place offer both the students and their parents the knowledge that the resources exist as well as aid them in locating the appropriate resources as they are needed. Our goal is to be the village that raises the child. Our goal is to offer our neighbor a more broad definition of their role in ours lives.

Community Partnerships:
“You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself.”
Galileo Galilei

In order to be a part of the community, we will build partnerships with the organizations within the neighborhood. The Shaw School will be an active member of the community by building mutually beneficial relationships with it’s neighbors. The Shaw School’s neighbors include: The Missouri Botanical Garden, Tower Grove Park, St. Margaret’s of Scotland, A Nursing and Retirement Home, The School for the Blind, Center High School, The St. Louis Public Library both on Kingshighway and Grand Avenues. We will work together to explore and understand our neighborhood and our responsibilities as citizens. Our neighbors also provide a real world laboratory for our students to experience more depth in their lessons.

This can express itself in many ways. One way this concept and interdependence will manifest is within our own school. The high school students will be required to teach in the lower school two hours per week. Another example in the community would be a clean-up program where we would invite a member of the Missouri Botanical Garden to lead a group of students through the neighborhood. The students would pick up trash while the Garden’s staff member would talk and point out the plants in front of people’s homes. She would focus on plants that are indigenous to Missouri offering a definition to “indigenous”.

This concept understanding will transfer into others fields. Indigenous is that which was here such as Missouri thistle or field onion. Plants and trees that were planted by Shaw, for instance the Ginkgo Tree, are foreign. The foreign trees alter the ecosystem. There is a certain amount of change that occurs to the indigenous plant life. Foreign plants also offer new dimensions to the landscape which were impossible without the introduction. This is plant diversity mirrors human diversity. The understanding of “indigenous” allows for more intellectual discussions of human migration, animal migration as well as cultures that are the culmination of much human caused diversity and migration.

The sociologic, historic, religious, and philosophic studies of India are a great example of how the understanding of “indigenous” can greatly impact the understanding and approach of topic: India. As you can see, the transfer and association create the neuro-net that will be better able to recall information previously learned. (Ormrod) This gives way to a greater ability to understand new information and allows them a meaningful learning experience. Not only would the students be assimilating and integrating information in a meaningful way, but they are also gaining a broader understanding and appreciation of the neighborhood as well as their place in it. This leads to an interest and realization of civic duty.
“I am sure the reason such young nitwits are produced in our schools is because they have no contact with anything of any use in everyday life.”
Petronius (circa 66 CE) The Satyricon

Professional Partnerships for Professional Students
“The result of the educative process is capacity for further education.”
John Dewey

Students grow up and will need jobs. The Shaw Schools will teach the students the hidden rules of job applications and interviews. Regardless of whether they are applying for a job as a clerk in the game stop or a web designer for the parks department, the prospective employee will need to understand the hidden rules of that organization. Most of the businesses are set up using the rules of the Middle Class. The students will then have to be comfortable in those rules. They will have to have the language skills to speak in the parent voice with a Formal Discourse Pattern. (Payne) Understanding these voice and pattern differences will enable a student for any economic background to be successful in the academic and professional endeavors. Payne states that students of poverty “cannot use the formal register. The problem is that all the state tests—SAT, ACT, etc—are in formal register. It is further complicated by the fact that to get a well-paying job, it is expected that one will be able to use formal register.” (Payne, 43)

For students in the Shaw School, these concepts will be instilled early on through our education techniques and philosophy. The partnering with the businesses from early on will continue to emphasis this understanding. What we will be able to really teach once the student is ready to apply is the application and interview process. The behavior is already there. It is important to mention that Shaw School is not interested in suffocating the culture of poverty, but to understand and be able to choose when it is appropriate to use what voice and discourse. For instance there is a place for a casual-register discourse pattern. However, that place is not a job interview. Just as creative writing is different from scholarly writing. It is important to embrace the diversity in our school.

“The things taught in colleges and schools are not an education but the means of a education.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

As part of their junior year examinations, they will be required to find and apply for a part time job. They will have to successfully fill out the job application, gather all the necessary materials required for employment and go through the interview process. Once they are hired, they will open a checking account. They will begin a savings account. They will be responsible employees. This real world study of money and economy allows for more intrinsic learning. The process which includes the bank accounts teaches the rules of the middle class thus empowering them throughout their lives.

“The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as we continue to live.”
Mortimer Adler

The Gallery
“A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education he may steal the whole railroad.”
Theodore Roosevelt
The Shaw School’s campus includes a gallery open for business. The students will learn the value of their work by running a gallery filled with their projects and crafts. This is a consignment store like any other gallery in the city. We would ask for guidance from professional mentors such as the curators of I and I Gallery on Grand. Students will design the business plan and keep the books. Student, upon selling her work, will pay a commission to the gallery. This business will be totally run by the students under the guidance of teachers and community advisors.

The benefit of this Gallery is the real world application of running a business. The entrepreneur can come from any neighborhood and open a business if that entrepreneur has the how-to knowledge behind running the business. As a member of the community, that business owner has a duty to the betterment of that community. The students will become better problem solvers and strategizers which in turn will help them become more organized and successful students.

The student who sells their work sees the value of their craft. They can make money doing things they love. This endeavor teaches the value of work, creativity, vision, and community. And it is real, so there is a meaningful learning experience. The students become intentional learners “in which a learner is actively and consciously engaged in cognitive and metacognitive activities directed specifically at thinking about and learning something.” (Ormrod, 350)

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
Nelson Mandela

Arts Integrated Learning
“A master can tell you what he expects of you. A teacher, though awakens your own expectations.”
Patricia Neal
Arts-Integrated education was sited in the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 as having a “significant correlation, growing over time, between arts participation and academic performance.” (Rabkin, Redmond, 60) Students show academic progress at two times the rate of none arts integrated programs. This is particularly true in high risk students including those from lower social- economic situations.

In a controlled experiment in Chicago, the standardized tests of the test group rose as much as two times faster than youth in more traditional schools. (Rabkin, Redmond) In fact, in a separate study, the qualitative differences between the art units and the none arts integrated units were found to be a difference of 66-78%. The highest achieving students in the non-arts units retained 44% of the material. The lowest achieving students in the same unit retained 33% of the material. The highest achieving students in the Arts-Integrated units retained 78% of the material; while their lowest achieving counterparts retained 56%. (DeMoss, 11) The lowest achieving students in the art-integrated units retained more than the highest achieving students in the non-arts units.

So what is this Arts-Integrated teaching philosophy? It is a partnership in the classrooms between learning specialists (teachers) and artists. I am broadening this to a whole school collaboration of curricula. The research done by CAPE finds that students who participate in arts-integrated learning, experience more meaningful learning.

The “Intrinsic Learning Motivation” (DeMoss, 22) is shown by the student’s interest in taking more responsibility in their arts-integrated units than the non-arts-integrated units. They exhibit more of a free thinking conceptual understanding of the material and are therefore, able to engage in more expository conversation. They retain and are able to repeat facts or tidbits of information.

“Democratic access to Intellectual Knowledge” (DeMoss, 22). When the students are involved in the art-integrated units, they are more interested in figuring out solutions more readily than in the non-arts units. Also, many barriers that contribute to competition are removed and the students work together to increase their understanding and enjoyment of the material.

“Independent Learning Beyond School” (DeMoss, 23) The students are much more interested in learning more about the subject than the non-arts students. In fact, during the study, the students were asked whether or not they would read any more on the subject, some had already looked information up on the internet or became interested in the news and engaging their parents in conversation.

Arts-Integrated learning exemplifies cognitive research. Organization is paramount to the retrieval process. (Ormrod) The organizing of information is imperative to associating it with more sources creating a large body of information making retrieval, not only easier but more meaningful.

“Attention is essential for Learning.” (Ormrod 211) A variety of engaging tasks makes an easier environment for attention to occur. “Different people may attend differently to the same stimulus.” (Ormrod 212) The intrinsic understanding expressed in arts-integrated classrooms teaches the student to continually ask him or herself questions relating to their comprehension of the concept. “People can process only a limited amount of information at a time… Memory is selective…” (Ormrod 212) Because the exercises and tasks presented in the arts-integrated schema are directed toward the understanding of the concept, the information overload is less likely because there are not more facts to be put to memory; there is more gain in understanding and experience. The greater experiences allows for more association which allows for greater flow between the working and long-terms memory and greater rehearsal of tasks and strategies that will become automatic and authentic.

“Education is the transmission of civilization.” Ariel and Will Durant
Diversity
“Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education; they grow there, firm as weeds among rocks.”
Charlotte Bronte

The Shaw School will be an institution that embraces diversity. This will be shown not only in the student and faculty bodies; but experienced in a meaningful manner.
Our students will live in diversity, not just study “those people.” We will strive to approach topics of language, creed, color and ethnicity from a holistic view. We are all unique. We are all similar. We will draw from our neighbors and ourselves to experience diversity in everyday life.

Diversity is embedded in the structure of the school itself. All of the teachers will be bilingual. Many of the teachers will be fluent in sign language. Our students will be exposed to a second language from the very beginning. This exposure will breed a greater experience of communication. The exposure of signing and multi-lingual classrooms will broaden the associations of objects and names.

The anthropologic studies will be an ongoing and continual experience. For instance, we will not limit the students to learning about African Americans to Black History Month. For every Robert Frost there is a Maya Angelou. We will integrate a more complete and global education. Black History Month can be more the experience of Black people in the struggle for civil rights. The understanding of what civil rights and civil liberties are. This is the study of what is guaranteed in the Constitution of the United States. This is a current events study, a history study, and study of literature and social change. This is civic responsibility. I have written an example lesson labeled “A1” to show what this type of study may look like.

“Whenever people are well informed, they can be trusted with government.”
Thomas Jefferson

Our diversity is what makes us united and unique. Our local heroes are part of this lesson. It would be common practice for members of the community to come to the school and share who they are. Our single, working parents, our entrepreneurs, our alderman, our businesspeople, our artists, our clerks and our parents are our heroes. They show us our diversity.

Our students will be introduced to the people who make up the neighborhood support systems. This openness with the community leaders provides a basis for personal exploration. The student will be able to make contact with people of all jobs and further their own understanding of who it is they wish to become. What sorts of things are important to them as well as the opportunity to test their own strengths and weaknesses.

In this forum, the students could organize a lunch with a big shot mortgage broker. They could understand what it is they do and why. The next week, they could meet a local mortgage dealer whose mission it is to provide lost cost affordable loans to people who may not otherwise consider a loan or be approved for a loan. These are two extremes of the same business. The exposure to the many professional options which include the reasons one may choose one option over another, intensifies their individuality and offers direction for their future academic career.

“In the case of good books, the point is not how many of them you can get through, but how many can get through you.”
Mortimer Adler






HEALTH… The Science of Life
“If we value independence, if we are disturbed by the growing conformity of knowledge, of values, of attitudes, which our present system induces, then we may wish to set up conditions of learning which make for uniqueness, for self-direction, and for self-initiated learning.”
Carl Rogers

“Fundamental to the individual’s ability to remain healthy… are the maintenance of a sound diet and a stable, healthy routine. Also important are the pursuit of traditional practices such as yoga and breathing exercises…. Diet should be chosen to suit the individual constitution. If one understands the constitution and its relationship to the qualities of various foods, then it is possible to select a proper diet.” (Lad, 80)

The science of diet and use of relaxation techniques such as Transcendental Meditation increase an individual’s capacity to experience life. Many problems that plague children are diseases of excess and ignorance. Many of these diseases are manageable through diet and exercise. The Shaw School will approach this by a two fold path. First is through the practice of Transcendental Meditation and yoga. The second is understanding of food, it’s properties and how they affect us.

The practice of Transcendental Meditation (TM) is a proven tool to the decrease of anxiety and fear. What the practice of TM does is centers the individual in a neutral space fully activating the neurology of the brain. This space is free of muscular and mental anxiety and tension. This, recalibrating of the body, enables the practitioner to enter into new situations free to experience the exercise fully. By activating the neurological pathways, increase the ability to listen as the person is not anticipating directions as much as hearing them. The research in Maharishi University shows through brain scans that there are greater connections in the neural network and increase brain activation due to the practice of TM. There have been studies of this practice allowing students to reach their full potential as tests show an increase in GPA. (Dodds) TM will therefore, be taught and included in the structure of the school.

“Exercise improves the circulation system, immunity is increased, muscles are strengthened and relaxed, and the elimination of malas (waste) is assisted. It stimulates digestive fire, which increases appetite. This can be positive, if the diet is healthy and balanced… Exercise should be gentle and pleasant, and not strain or over-exert the body. It is best to choose a form of exercise appropriate to your constitution.” (Chauhan 139)
The Shaw School will instill the principles of Ayurveda into the daily understanding of the individual’s moods and needs. Ayurveda is a very individualized approach to health and diet. We will partner with an Ayurvedic doctor versed in western medicine to guide the Ayurvedic Practitioner in the education of each student’s individual constitution. We are not interested in eliminating the use of Western Medicines, we are interested in promoting total health and individual awareness among students so they may be better able to both use preventative care and provide academic and professional excellence.

The students will learn how they are unique and yet an intrinsic to the balance of the universe. The student will learn how to pay attention to their own bodies to ensure a greater understanding of their needs. The students will become the cooking staff and clean up staff for each other.
“The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.”
Anatole France
The Shaw School will be very unique as we will have green houses on the roof of each and every building. The students in tandem with science classes will in effect grow their own food. They will grow fruits and vegetables alongside herbs. They will learn the qualities of the food from seed to plant to kitchen.

The kitchen, then, is a building unto itself. The dietician will be able to teach the students a variety of recipes and techniques in preparing their food. Guest cooks will also come and teach the students. The students will teach their peers their own recipes.

The benefits of this type of program range from personal to classroom to community. The students begin with as understanding and responsibility for themselves and how they feel, their body. The laboratory classroom is filled with meaning and meaningful learning. The students are then responsible for each other at a most basic level: food. We are becoming citizens.
“Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands. Anne Frank
An Ideal Setting Comes at a Price
“Your education is worth what you are worth.”
Anon
I remember a couple of years ago, a restaurant opened in New York City. The menu did no include prices. The owners wanted to know what the patrons would pay or felt the food was worth. They kept detailed records of what each patron paid for the food. After six months, they priced the food according to the data they acquired. I feel that the same will be done with this school. I think that people will place a monetary value on what they receive through this independent school. Money is not the only currency. The parent may also pay with time, work or goods. Of course, this will not cover all of the costs; The Shaw School will have grant writers on staff trying to make all the ends meet.

All donations will be met with gratitude; however, no donation will warrant the singling out of a bench or a building. All gifts, no matter, the comparative size are any greater than any other due to each gift giver’s relative ability.

The Shaw School will in-source as much of its needs as we are able. The web site will be maintained by the graphic design and computer classrooms. The cooking and cleaning will be done by students and parents. The grounds will be kept by the students and the parents.

Our goal for the faculty is to pay a starting salary of $40,000 per year. Our faculty will be required to keep current on education topics, research and personal development. They will meet these requirements with inter-faculty papers, new classes and new certifications.

“I am not a teacher; only a fellow traveler of whom you asked the way. I pointed

ahead–ahead of myself as well as of you. “

George Bernard Shaw

As a community, we will lead be example. We, too, are members of the community. We will exemplify this in our actions and our attitudes. The Shaw School is based in the idea that we are all in this together. We are a democracy and are therefore be informed, knowledgeable and concerned citizens. This is our aim.

“The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without a teacher.”
Elbert Hubbard










Schedules
“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.”
Robert Frost

The Schools is opened from 7am until 7pm. The students and teachers are placed on individual schedules. This is because we are all unique in our manner, our family and our culture. A parent may work nights. This parent and this student may require that morning time as their quality time. This student’s day would begin at 11 or 12 and go until 7pm. Another student may have a typical 7am-3pm day. Another student, still, may have siesta with their family during he lunch hour or be unable to concentrate after lunch. This student would be in school from 7am until 12pm then again from 3pm until 7pm. There are a myriad of possibilities. Each student will be evaluated and scheduled accordingly.

It is important to know that the campus is open from 7am until 7pm. The student may, if fact remain at the campus and participate in gardening, cleaning, drawing or wondering. The campus is open and each student is instilled with respect for it’s amenities. Disrespect for art labs, gardens, kitchens will not be tolerated; discipline, however, will be just as specialized as the schedule.
Group Medtiation will be held at 7am and then again at 3pm.
“Education is not filling the Bowl with information. It is making the Bowl Bigger.”
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
CONCLUSION
The design of the Shaw School is based on a couple of basic topics. The first is that the school is the place where children become adults. This is the place where they learn how to become members of the society. With this in mind, the students are armed with the tools they need to survive in our culture.

They are offered support systems. Through community partners, teachers and the community, itself the role models and support systems and their meaning will be taught and experienced by the students of the Shaw School. The community contains role models. The community contains the systems. And if we find one that isn’t there, we can take steps to creating that system. Graduates of the Shaw School will be unable to suffer the crippling effect being without a support structure or role models. Graduates of the Shaw School will be able to find their system or create their system.

The Shaw School students will be offered an education only considered in very wealthy schools. This education will be free of a set charge. The value of the education will be expressed in the donation of money, time and goods. The education of financial institutions, entrepreneurial concepts, job search tools, and creating items for consignment, offers our students the know-how to be success in their careers. They can break they cycle of generational poverty. Those not from poverty will be equally engaged in the practices of success. The diversity of our school will breed the consciousness that will perpetuate responsible citizenship.

Emotional dysfunction is address in the structure and compassion of the Shaw School. As the students are better able to monitor their bodies, they will monitor their emotions and be better able to address their states and problems. The practice of TM and yoga will also help to increase their awareness and emotional stability. The role models are in place to help each and every student regardless of background understand and deal with their emotions.

Mental skills are acquired through an art-integrated curriculum designed to provide the greatest concept understanding. Teaching the student to organize their thoughts and introducing material in a variety of ways increases the student’s transfer ability. This increase in transfer makes the student a better student.

The attention paid to the self and world around the self offers a holistic, cosmic guidance to the students. The attention is expressed in a variety of ways but is attained primarily through the Ayurvedic health principles, meditation, gardening and physical well being. As well as the experience in civil service and the job place. This understanding is supportive to the student’s feeling of worth and importance. This is the cosmic intelligence that understands that we are all connected and we are all separate. This is spirituality anchored in science and free to anyone of any religious persuasion. This is not a religion.

Ruby Payne expressed and repeated the necessity for people to understand the hidden rules of the classes in order to move through them. Shaw School will be particularly able to accomplish this due to its intense attention to diversity. This diversity is inherent in the school’s attitudes toward the different classes as well as the cultural inclusion throughout the lessons. Each class has something of value to offer. Each situation calls for a certain group of rule to be followed. The key is to know what rules are called for and to feel comfortable in utilizing those tools.

I believe that would this school be built, the graduates would be nothing short of superb. They would be superb in their confidence, understanding and clarity of themselves and their environment.

“When asked how much educated men were superior to those uneducated, Aristotle answered, ‘As much as the living are to the dead.”
Diogenes Laertius



“Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master.”
Leonardo da Vinci


A1
Sample Lesson
Grade Level: 11th grade
Time: One month
Students: average urban public school

OBJECTIVES
Students will gain an understanding and appreciation for Shakespeare
Students will study the concept of slavery and see how it relates to them.
Students will collate two books for the library.
PLAN
1. A large piece of butcher paper will be laid out on the floor. In the center is a the word “slavery” with a circle around it. The students will be asked to do a word association with the word on the butcher paper using markers. They can draw or write other words. Then, we will reconvene and discuss our piece of butcher paper. I will engage them in a discussion on what slavery is and is not. Whether or not there is slavery today. The students will then draw a picture and write a paragraph on what slavery means to them-- Any personal stories of slavery. Because most of the children will have some knowledge of slavery in the United States, we will break into five small groups and discuss what we know about slavery. They will come up with five points on slavery which will be presented to the class. I will introduce a community journal where any students may write any question or comment to be addressed or not during the next class period.
2. I will tell them the story of the Tempest by W. Shakespeare in a story telling fashion. They can ask questions and make statements regarding the story. I will assign them to read as much of the first act as they can.
3. Today, we can discuss the language of the play. I will choose a section of each act and walk through how to read it. They will then break up into their groups again and each tackles their own act of the play.
4. Tackling the act includes rewriting it in their own words and manner. They will rewrite the play in a play format in modern times. The final quarter of each period will be another writing assignment to be completed at home. One day, we will write song lyrics inspired by the action of the play. Another day we will write a poem. Still others, paint or write a short story.
5. During this time, in our social sciences period, we will also be studying institutional and culture slavery around the world. We will look critically at the practices of cultures towards woman, and those of other races as it pertains to slavery. The students will be keeping both a personal journal and a newsprint journal of things they thought about and found in the media.
6. I will invite a representative from the United Nations, St. Louis office to come and speak on global slavery as well as regional slavery. This will be followed be a question and answer period and journal period. The students will then be given a disposable camera. Their task is to use the film to shoot photographs of things that remind them of or exemplify slavery for them.
7. At about this point, each group will be about ready to present their section of the play. We will then view Julie Taymor’s production. We will discuss the play and in what ways it relates to slavery. And in what ways it relates to us. We will then place another large piece of butcher paper on the floor and write the word “slavery” in the center. The students will do a new word and picture association on the new sheet. We will place the two sheets next to each other and discuss followed by journaling.
8. The social studies aspect will then produce a proposal or request to end an aspect of slavery. This is being delivered to or presented to the parties the students decide are appropriate.
9. The performance literature aspect will then perform their version of the Tempest. We will have a party.
10. The new Tempest inspired by W. Shakespeare will be printed and bound. The supplemental stories, drawing, song lyrics, photographs etc… will also be bound into a second book. One copy of each will be placed into the library and each student will receive a copy.
11. Each student will bind their own work: photographs, stories, journal etc.
12. We will present the play that we write along with prepared hand out material for the parents, special friends and fellow classmates.
EVALUATION
1. Evaluate each student’s conceptual understand of slavery.
2. Evaluate each student’s mastery of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
3. Evaluate a growth in each student’s civic understanding.

1. The books, performances and class participation will be used to evaluate each student’s success with the subject matter.
2. A personal session with each student will take place two weeks into the program as well as complete the program.
A2
Clarification of the Model

This is a piece of property that actually exists in the Shaw Neighborhood in the 3900 block of Magnolia in St. Louis, Missouri.

The southern border of the campus is Tower Grove Park. The western border is Lawrence Avenue.

The new buildings will be green. This means that they use solar energy for electricity and heat. The toilettes are grey water toilettes. This means that the water used in the toilettes is then flash composted and used for the plant irrigation system. Because there is a greenhouse on the roof of each building, the total energy requirement is lessened. The buildings are however hooked up to the grid and we sell excess energy to the energy company.

The preexisting buildings will be transformed green as the finances permit.

Building One: Administrative Building
This is an administrative building. This is where the grant writers and the rest of the staff is located.

Building Two: The Gallery
This is the store that the school owns and the students run.

Building Three: Eating House
This house will be the dining facility. There is a separation between the students and the faculty.

Building Four: The Kitchen
This building contains three full kitchens. This is where food preparation classes and the actual food preparation occurs.

Building Five: Grades 7-9
This is currently a huge six flat. It will be transformed into a junior high school. The idea is to transition the students into these more traditional building in preparation for their academic future. This building will be less traditional on the interior than its counterpart in the high school.
Building Six: Grades 10-12
This is the high school. It is very traditional in appearance.

Building Seven: The Lower School
The Lower School is a completely new building. There is an octagonal main building. This is a multi purpose room. It houses theatre, assembly and indoor physical education.

There are three accompanying buildings which are the classrooms. They are also octagonal in shape. The interior walls are not fixed so each classroom may be opened up to create a classroom double in size.

Building Eight: The Art Studio
The Art Studio is a full studio containing drawing and painting rooms as well as potters wheels, fibers materials and a photo lab.

Building Nine: The Science Lab
The science lab is just that. Laboratories for Biology, Physics, Chemistry and a discovery lab.

GARDENS
Besides the 7 food gardens on the roof of each building, there are 9 ecosystems. These are part of the science department. They include an indigenous Missouri garden, a desert, a pond, meditation garden, a rock garden, a perennial garden, an annuals/home garden to name a few.



This environment is meant to awaken the students to the reality of what they study as well as provide a unique and beautiful garden within which learning is excited.




1 The Arts Make a Difference. 2006. Chicago, Illinois: Educational Leadership/
February. Author: Nick Rabkin and Robin Redmond.
2 Ormrod, Jeanne Ellis. (2004). Human Learning. Columbus, Ohio. Pearson, Merrill
Prentice Hall
3 Payne, Ruby K. (1998). A Framework for Understanding Poverty (Revised Edition)
Baytown, Texas. RFT Publishing.
4 How Arts Integration Supports Student Learning: Students Shed Light on the
Connections. 2006. Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education: www.capeweb.org.
Author: Karen DeMoss
5. Lad, Vasant Dr. (1984) Ayurveda: the Science of Self-Healing, A Practical Guide.
Dehli, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers
6. The Effect of Transcendental Meditation on Language Learning and GPA. 1975.
Speeches and meeting papers. Dinah Dodds
7. Maharishi International University Mixes Meditation and Education. 1975.
CHANGE. Allison Engel
8. Tiwari, Maya. (1995) Ayurveda: Secrets of Healing. Twin Lakes, Wisconsin. Lotus
Press
9. Chauhan, Partap Dr. (2000) Eternal Health: The Essence of Ayurveda. Faridabad,
Haryana, India .
10. The Professional Artist as Public School Educator. 2000-2001. CAPE. Lynn A.
Waldorf, UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies

11. Khasla, Dharma Singh M.D. and Cameron Stauth. 2001. Meditation and Medicine.
New York City, NY. Pocket Publishing.
12. Social Cognition in Context: Validating a Cartoon-Based Attributional Measure for










THE SHAW SCHOOL

A proposal







Dominique Gallo
Fall 2006


A concept created for
EDU526: Cultural Contexts/Diverse Learners
Elaine Waldon, instructor








It is our earth, not yours or mine or his. We are meant to live on it, helping each other, not destroying each other

J. Krishnamurti





From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere… If you never did, you should. These things are fun, and fun is good.”



Dr. Seuss.,, One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish




“Education is what remains when we have forgotten all that we have been taught. “

George Savile, Marquis of Halifax

A school in its most idealized setting is that place where children grow to be reasonable, thinking adults who will lead the civilization into endless millennia. What do we ask of our schools? What are parents expecting when they send their child into an educational institution? Some would say their purpose is to grow and gain the tools to be a successful adult—to “have it better than I did.” It is then, the institution, the district to decide how best to go about this. It is their job to integrate the most contemporary science and philosophic understanding of learning into the current practices of the school to enable the institution that will offer the tools for a successful student to evolve. I do not believe this is how the modern Missourian districts approach their task. I have therefore built this presentation in accordance with the modern understanding of how students would best become successful and responsible citizens. The school I have created is an institution whose purpose is to offer an institution whose aims are toward excellence in academia, an understanding of community, of civilization, breeding real understanding of concepts enabling children to grow into broad minded, critical thinking citizens. These children will find success in their future endeavors because they have been given the tools needed to be everything they choose to become.






The Practicals… Location… Location… Location
“Education is not filling a bucket but lighting a fire.”
William B Yeats
The idea of the school is to be an intrinsic aspect of the community. If this school were to become a district, the same formula would be followed by each new institution. That formula is as follows:
· Location: the students are able to attend the school only if they live in the neighborhood or walking distance to the school’s location. This is the Shaw School. That means that children from age 4 until high school graduation who live in the Shaw and South Grand neighborhoods may attend the Shaw School.
· Community Partnerships: The Shaw School being in the Shaw neighborhood includes such institutions as The Missouri Botanical Garden, Tower Grove Park, Nursing Home, Center High School, St. Margaret’s of Scotland, as well as the School for the Deaf to name a few. We will form bonds and partnerships with these organizations and institutions in a mutually beneficial relationship. For instance, the Missouri Botanical Garden could offer seminars in exchange for volunteer work in the garden.
· Professional Partnerships: There are a variety of businesses in the Shaw and South Grand Neighborhoods. As young people become a certain age, they will require the knowledge to find a job. We will work in partnership with the businesses in the neighborhood to not only integrate our students into the work environment; but the practical knowledge as well: fill out applications, succeed in the interview process and write a resume.
· The Gallery: The school will have its own retail/gallery business. We will have a student run and student art consignment shop. The items sold will be the direct products of the students. The students will make a percentage of that item while paying a commission to the gallery.
· Teaching Style: The focus of instruction for the Shaw School will be of an Arts-Integrated approach. This means that artists work with teachers to develop the lessons. (Rabkin, Redmond ) The departments will work as a unit covering compatible units if not working as a combined unit. (DeMoss) I included a sample of the types of lessons an observer might see. (See A1.)
· Diversity: Shaw and South Grand are filled with diversity: economic, racial, ethnic, creed, and family style. These are things that make it great here.
o All of our teachers will be a minimum of bilingual. Bilingual includes sign language. In fact sign language will be one language of 50 per cent of our teachers. This school will become a streamline program for deaf children.
o Language and culture will be taught from the start. This will breed an open environment for conversation and exposure as well as forming a bilingual community. Our students will engage in bilingual studies from the first year. Exposure to a bilingual
education increases the neuro-pathways for better associations and organization in all subjects. (Ormrod) Multilingual study also shows the variety of ways a thing can be said. We will; therefore, be better able to communicate.
· Health: Obesity and Mental Disorders are now rampant in our student populations. Many of these problems are directly linked to stress, general health and diet. Most people no longer know how to cook or what to eat. We will have greenhouses on top of each of our buildings. We will also have a large kitchen. The students will learn how to grow their own food, cook their own food and make healthy making their own independent choices. We will include the stress relief and increased brain activation found in Transcendental Meditation and other relaxation and physical fitness techniques.
· Money: Our teachers will earn a $40,000 starting salary. We will retain a crew of grant writers for the purpose of paying our faculty and staff. The students and our community partners will take up their own mantles. As much as we can, we will in-source our needs: web site, cleaning crew, grounds people, cooks, etc… Donations will always be accepted with deep gratitude; however, no building or bench will be dedicated to a donor.
· Schedules: The school’s operating hours are form 7 until 7. Students have individualized schedules. Some may go from 7 until 3. Some may attend from 12 until 7. Some may come in at 7 leave at 12, come back at 3 and stay until 7. Some still may be there from 7 until 7. The students schedule will depend on that student’s home life. Some parents work nights and would never see their children. The inverse is possible. Also, many cultures observe an afternoon siesta. Some children, still simply cannot concentrate in the afternoon. Our aim is the greatest education for our students; therefore, we will build the environment that will best accomplish that goal.

Members of a Community
“Education is too important to be left solely to educators.”
Francis Keppel
A neighbor is more than geographic location. A well known African proverb states: “It takes a village to raise a child.” A village has within it many of the tools a child requires to be a successful adult. It has families, businesses, parks, libraries and schools. Defining aspects of poverty include a lack of support systems, a lack of role models, and a lack of emotional resources. (Payne) Many times, these resources exist in the neighborhood; but, there is little knowledge as to how to access them. The neighborhood also includes a certain amount of diversity. Many times our fear of what is unknown creates a division which prohibits true integration. Understanding that the community is an organism, that all of it’s parts are part of it’s whole, creates an atmosphere of acceptance through experience and understanding. We have to experience each other in order to see and understand each other.

The Shaw School will create a partnership with it’s neighbors creating a vast network of support systems. Having these systems already in place offer both the students and their parents the knowledge that the resources exist as well as aid them in locating the appropriate resources as they are needed. Our goal is to be the village that raises the child. Our goal is to offer our neighbor a more broad definition of their role in ours lives.

Community Partnerships:
“You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself.”
Galileo Galilei

In order to be a part of the community, we will build partnerships with the organizations within the neighborhood. The Shaw School will be an active member of the community by building mutually beneficial relationships with it’s neighbors. The Shaw School’s neighbors include: The Missouri Botanical Garden, Tower Grove Park, St. Margaret’s of Scotland, A Nursing and Retirement Home, The School for the Blind, Center High School, The St. Louis Public Library both on Kingshighway and Grand Avenues. We will work together to explore and understand our neighborhood and our responsibilities as citizens. Our neighbors also provide a real world laboratory for our students to experience more depth in their lessons.

This can express itself in many ways. One way this concept and interdependence will manifest is within our own school. The high school students will be required to teach in the lower school two hours per week. Another example in the community would be a clean-up program where we would invite a member of the Missouri Botanical Garden to lead a group of students through the neighborhood. The students would pick up trash while the Garden’s staff member would talk and point out the plants in front of people’s homes. She would focus on plants that are indigenous to Missouri offering a definition to “indigenous”.

This concept understanding will transfer into others fields. Indigenous is that which was here such as Missouri thistle or field onion. Plants and trees that were planted by Shaw, for instance the Ginkgo Tree, are foreign. The foreign trees alter the ecosystem. There is a certain amount of change that occurs to the indigenous plant life. Foreign plants also offer new dimensions to the landscape which were impossible without the introduction. This is plant diversity mirrors human diversity. The understanding of “indigenous” allows for more intellectual discussions of human migration, animal migration as well as cultures that are the culmination of much human caused diversity and migration.

The sociologic, historic, religious, and philosophic studies of India are a great example of how the understanding of “indigenous” can greatly impact the understanding and approach of topic: India. As you can see, the transfer and association create the neuro-net that will be better able to recall information previously learned. (Ormrod) This gives way to a greater ability to understand new information and allows them a meaningful learning experience. Not only would the students be assimilating and integrating information in a meaningful way, but they are also gaining a broader understanding and appreciation of the neighborhood as well as their place in it. This leads to an interest and realization of civic duty.
“I am sure the reason such young nitwits are produced in our schools is because they have no contact with anything of any use in everyday life.”
Petronius (circa 66 CE) The Satyricon

Professional Partnerships for Professional Students
“The result of the educative process is capacity for further education.”
John Dewey

Students grow up and will need jobs. The Shaw Schools will teach the students the hidden rules of job applications and interviews. Regardless of whether they are applying for a job as a clerk in the game stop or a web designer for the parks department, the prospective employee will need to understand the hidden rules of that organization. Most of the businesses are set up using the rules of the Middle Class. The students will then have to be comfortable in those rules. They will have to have the language skills to speak in the parent voice with a Formal Discourse Pattern. (Payne) Understanding these voice and pattern differences will enable a student for any economic background to be successful in the academic and professional endeavors. Payne states that students of poverty “cannot use the formal register. The problem is that all the state tests—SAT, ACT, etc—are in formal register. It is further complicated by the fact that to get a well-paying job, it is expected that one will be able to use formal register.” (Payne, 43)

For students in the Shaw School, these concepts will be instilled early on through our education techniques and philosophy. The partnering with the businesses from early on will continue to emphasis this understanding. What we will be able to really teach once the student is ready to apply is the application and interview process. The behavior is already there. It is important to mention that Shaw School is not interested in suffocating the culture of poverty, but to understand and be able to choose when it is appropriate to use what voice and discourse. For instance there is a place for a casual-register discourse pattern. However, that place is not a job interview. Just as creative writing is different from scholarly writing. It is important to embrace the diversity in our school.

“The things taught in colleges and schools are not an education but the means of a education.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

As part of their junior year examinations, they will be required to find and apply for a part time job. They will have to successfully fill out the job application, gather all the necessary materials required for employment and go through the interview process. Once they are hired, they will open a checking account. They will begin a savings account. They will be responsible employees. This real world study of money and economy allows for more intrinsic learning. The process which includes the bank accounts teaches the rules of the middle class thus empowering them throughout their lives.

“The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as we continue to live.”
Mortimer Adler

The Gallery
“A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education he may steal the whole railroad.”
Theodore Roosevelt
The Shaw School’s campus includes a gallery open for business. The students will learn the value of their work by running a gallery filled with their projects and crafts. This is a consignment store like any other gallery in the city. We would ask for guidance from professional mentors such as the curators of I and I Gallery on Grand. Students will design the business plan and keep the books. Student, upon selling her work, will pay a commission to the gallery. This business will be totally run by the students under the guidance of teachers and community advisors.

The benefit of this Gallery is the real world application of running a business. The entrepreneur can come from any neighborhood and open a business if that entrepreneur has the how-to knowledge behind running the business. As a member of the community, that business owner has a duty to the betterment of that community. The students will become better problem solvers and strategizers which in turn will help them become more organized and successful students.

The student who sells their work sees the value of their craft. They can make money doing things they love. This endeavor teaches the value of work, creativity, vision, and community. And it is real, so there is a meaningful learning experience. The students become intentional learners “in which a learner is actively and consciously engaged in cognitive and metacognitive activities directed specifically at thinking about and learning something.” (Ormrod, 350)

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
Nelson Mandela

Arts Integrated Learning
“A master can tell you what he expects of you. A teacher, though awakens your own expectations.”
Patricia Neal
Arts-Integrated education was sited in the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 as having a “significant correlation, growing over time, between arts participation and academic performance.” (Rabkin, Redmond, 60) Students show academic progress at two times the rate of none arts integrated programs. This is particularly true in high risk students including those from lower social- economic situations.

In a controlled experiment in Chicago, the standardized tests of the test group rose as much as two times faster than youth in more traditional schools. (Rabkin, Redmond) In fact, in a separate study, the qualitative differences between the art units and the none arts integrated units were found to be a difference of 66-78%. The highest achieving students in the non-arts units retained 44% of the material. The lowest achieving students in the same unit retained 33% of the material. The highest achieving students in the Arts-Integrated units retained 78% of the material; while their lowest achieving counterparts retained 56%. (DeMoss, 11) The lowest achieving students in the art-integrated units retained more than the highest achieving students in the non-arts units.

So what is this Arts-Integrated teaching philosophy? It is a partnership in the classrooms between learning specialists (teachers) and artists. I am broadening this to a whole school collaboration of curricula. The research done by CAPE finds that students who participate in arts-integrated learning, experience more meaningful learning.

The “Intrinsic Learning Motivation” (DeMoss, 22) is shown by the student’s interest in taking more responsibility in their arts-integrated units than the non-arts-integrated units. They exhibit more of a free thinking conceptual understanding of the material and are therefore, able to engage in more expository conversation. They retain and are able to repeat facts or tidbits of information.

“Democratic access to Intellectual Knowledge” (DeMoss, 22). When the students are involved in the art-integrated units, they are more interested in figuring out solutions more readily than in the non-arts units. Also, many barriers that contribute to competition are removed and the students work together to increase their understanding and enjoyment of the material.

“Independent Learning Beyond School” (DeMoss, 23) The students are much more interested in learning more about the subject than the non-arts students. In fact, during the study, the students were asked whether or not they would read any more on the subject, some had already looked information up on the internet or became interested in the news and engaging their parents in conversation.

Arts-Integrated learning exemplifies cognitive research. Organization is paramount to the retrieval process. (Ormrod) The organizing of information is imperative to associating it with more sources creating a large body of information making retrieval, not only easier but more meaningful.

“Attention is essential for Learning.” (Ormrod 211) A variety of engaging tasks makes an easier environment for attention to occur. “Different people may attend differently to the same stimulus.” (Ormrod 212) The intrinsic understanding expressed in arts-integrated classrooms teaches the student to continually ask him or herself questions relating to their comprehension of the concept. “People can process only a limited amount of information at a time… Memory is selective…” (Ormrod 212) Because the exercises and tasks presented in the arts-integrated schema are directed toward the understanding of the concept, the information overload is less likely because there are not more facts to be put to memory; there is more gain in understanding and experience. The greater experiences allows for more association which allows for greater flow between the working and long-terms memory and greater rehearsal of tasks and strategies that will become automatic and authentic.

“Education is the transmission of civilization.” Ariel and Will Durant
Diversity
“Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education; they grow there, firm as weeds among rocks.”
Charlotte Bronte

The Shaw School will be an institution that embraces diversity. This will be shown not only in the student and faculty bodies; but experienced in a meaningful manner.
Our students will live in diversity, not just study “those people.” We will strive to approach topics of language, creed, color and ethnicity from a holistic view. We are all unique. We are all similar. We will draw from our neighbors and ourselves to experience diversity in everyday life.

Diversity is embedded in the structure of the school itself. All of the teachers will be bilingual. Many of the teachers will be fluent in sign language. Our students will be exposed to a second language from the very beginning. This exposure will breed a greater experience of communication. The exposure of signing and multi-lingual classrooms will broaden the associations of objects and names.

The anthropologic studies will be an ongoing and continual experience. For instance, we will not limit the students to learning about African Americans to Black History Month. For every Robert Frost there is a Maya Angelou. We will integrate a more complete and global education. Black History Month can be more the experience of Black people in the struggle for civil rights. The understanding of what civil rights and civil liberties are. This is the study of what is guaranteed in the Constitution of the United States. This is a current events study, a history study, and study of literature and social change. This is civic responsibility. I have written an example lesson labeled “A1” to show what this type of study may look like.

“Whenever people are well informed, they can be trusted with government.”
Thomas Jefferson

Our diversity is what makes us united and unique. Our local heroes are part of this lesson. It would be common practice for members of the community to come to the school and share who they are. Our single, working parents, our entrepreneurs, our alderman, our businesspeople, our artists, our clerks and our parents are our heroes. They show us our diversity.

Our students will be introduced to the people who make up the neighborhood support systems. This openness with the community leaders provides a basis for personal exploration. The student will be able to make contact with people of all jobs and further their own understanding of who it is they wish to become. What sorts of things are important to them as well as the opportunity to test their own strengths and weaknesses.

In this forum, the students could organize a lunch with a big shot mortgage broker. They could understand what it is they do and why. The next week, they could meet a local mortgage dealer whose mission it is to provide lost cost affordable loans to people who may not otherwise consider a loan or be approved for a loan. These are two extremes of the same business. The exposure to the many professional options which include the reasons one may choose one option over another, intensifies their individuality and offers direction for their future academic career.

“In the case of good books, the point is not how many of them you can get through, but how many can get through you.”
Mortimer Adler






HEALTH… The Science of Life
“If we value independence, if we are disturbed by the growing conformity of knowledge, of values, of attitudes, which our present system induces, then we may wish to set up conditions of learning which make for uniqueness, for self-direction, and for self-initiated learning.”
Carl Rogers

“Fundamental to the individual’s ability to remain healthy… are the maintenance of a sound diet and a stable, healthy routine. Also important are the pursuit of traditional practices such as yoga and breathing exercises…. Diet should be chosen to suit the individual constitution. If one understands the constitution and its relationship to the qualities of various foods, then it is possible to select a proper diet.” (Lad, 80)

The science of diet and use of relaxation techniques such as Transcendental Meditation increase an individual’s capacity to experience life. Many problems that plague children are diseases of excess and ignorance. Many of these diseases are manageable through diet and exercise. The Shaw School will approach this by a two fold path. First is through the practice of Transcendental Meditation and yoga. The second is understanding of food, it’s properties and how they affect us.

The practice of Transcendental Meditation (TM) is a proven tool to the decrease of anxiety and fear. What the practice of TM does is centers the individual in a neutral space fully activating the neurology of the brain. This space is free of muscular and mental anxiety and tension. This, recalibrating of the body, enables the practitioner to enter into new situations free to experience the exercise fully. By activating the neurological pathways, increase the ability to listen as the person is not anticipating directions as much as hearing them. The research in Maharishi University shows through brain scans that there are greater connections in the neural network and increase brain activation due to the practice of TM. There have been studies of this practice allowing students to reach their full potential as tests show an increase in GPA. (Dodds) TM will therefore, be taught and included in the structure of the school.

“Exercise improves the circulation system, immunity is increased, muscles are strengthened and relaxed, and the elimination of malas (waste) is assisted. It stimulates digestive fire, which increases appetite. This can be positive, if the diet is healthy and balanced… Exercise should be gentle and pleasant, and not strain or over-exert the body. It is best to choose a form of exercise appropriate to your constitution.” (Chauhan 139)
The Shaw School will instill the principles of Ayurveda into the daily understanding of the individual’s moods and needs. Ayurveda is a very individualized approach to health and diet. We will partner with an Ayurvedic doctor versed in western medicine to guide the Ayurvedic Practitioner in the education of each student’s individual constitution. We are not interested in eliminating the use of Western Medicines, we are interested in promoting total health and individual awareness among students so they may be better able to both use preventative care and provide academic and professional excellence.

The students will learn how they are unique and yet an intrinsic to the balance of the universe. The student will learn how to pay attention to their own bodies to ensure a greater understanding of their needs. The students will become the cooking staff and clean up staff for each other.
“The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.”
Anatole France
The Shaw School will be very unique as we will have green houses on the roof of each and every building. The students in tandem with science classes will in effect grow their own food. They will grow fruits and vegetables alongside herbs. They will learn the qualities of the food from seed to plant to kitchen.

The kitchen, then, is a building unto itself. The dietician will be able to teach the students a variety of recipes and techniques in preparing their food. Guest cooks will also come and teach the students. The students will teach their peers their own recipes.

The benefits of this type of program range from personal to classroom to community. The students begin with as understanding and responsibility for themselves and how they feel, their body. The laboratory classroom is filled with meaning and meaningful learning. The students are then responsible for each other at a most basic level: food. We are becoming citizens.
“Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands. Anne Frank
An Ideal Setting Comes at a Price
“Your education is worth what you are worth.”
Anon
I remember a couple of years ago, a restaurant opened in New York City. The menu did no include prices. The owners wanted to know what the patrons would pay or felt the food was worth. They kept detailed records of what each patron paid for the food. After six months, they priced the food according to the data they acquired. I feel that the same will be done with this school. I think that people will place a monetary value on what they receive through this independent school. Money is not the only currency. The parent may also pay with time, work or goods. Of course, this will not cover all of the costs; The Shaw School will have grant writers on staff trying to make all the ends meet.

All donations will be met with gratitude; however, no donation will warrant the singling out of a bench or a building. All gifts, no matter, the comparative size are any greater than any other due to each gift giver’s relative ability.

The Shaw School will in-source as much of its needs as we are able. The web site will be maintained by the graphic design and computer classrooms. The cooking and cleaning will be done by students and parents. The grounds will be kept by the students and the parents.

Our goal for the faculty is to pay a starting salary of $40,000 per year. Our faculty will be required to keep current on education topics, research and personal development. They will meet these requirements with inter-faculty papers, new classes and new certifications.

“I am not a teacher; only a fellow traveler of whom you asked the way. I pointed

ahead–ahead of myself as well as of you. “

George Bernard Shaw

As a community, we will lead be example. We, too, are members of the community. We will exemplify this in our actions and our attitudes. The Shaw School is based in the idea that we are all in this together. We are a democracy and are therefore be informed, knowledgeable and concerned citizens. This is our aim.

“The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without a teacher.”
Elbert Hubbard










Schedules
“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.”
Robert Frost

The Schools is opened from 7am until 7pm. The students and teachers are placed on individual schedules. This is because we are all unique in our manner, our family and our culture. A parent may work nights. This parent and this student may require that morning time as their quality time. This student’s day would begin at 11 or 12 and go until 7pm. Another student may have a typical 7am-3pm day. Another student, still, may have siesta with their family during he lunch hour or be unable to concentrate after lunch. This student would be in school from 7am until 12pm then again from 3pm until 7pm. There are a myriad of possibilities. Each student will be evaluated and scheduled accordingly.

It is important to know that the campus is open from 7am until 7pm. The student may, if fact remain at the campus and participate in gardening, cleaning, drawing or wondering. The campus is open and each student is instilled with respect for it’s amenities. Disrespect for art labs, gardens, kitchens will not be tolerated; discipline, however, will be just as specialized as the schedule.
Group Medtiation will be held at 7am and then again at 3pm.
“Education is not filling the Bowl with information. It is making the Bowl Bigger.”
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
CONCLUSION
The design of the Shaw School is based on a couple of basic topics. The first is that the school is the place where children become adults. This is the place where they learn how to become members of the society. With this in mind, the students are armed with the tools they need to survive in our culture.

They are offered support systems. Through community partners, teachers and the community, itself the role models and support systems and their meaning will be taught and experienced by the students of the Shaw School. The community contains role models. The community contains the systems. And if we find one that isn’t there, we can take steps to creating that system. Graduates of the Shaw School will be unable to suffer the crippling effect being without a support structure or role models. Graduates of the Shaw School will be able to find their system or create their system.

The Shaw School students will be offered an education only considered in very wealthy schools. This education will be free of a set charge. The value of the education will be expressed in the donation of money, time and goods. The education of financial institutions, entrepreneurial concepts, job search tools, and creating items for consignment, offers our students the know-how to be success in their careers. They can break they cycle of generational poverty. Those not from poverty will be equally engaged in the practices of success. The diversity of our school will breed the consciousness that will perpetuate responsible citizenship.

Emotional dysfunction is address in the structure and compassion of the Shaw School. As the students are better able to monitor their bodies, they will monitor their emotions and be better able to address their states and problems. The practice of TM and yoga will also help to increase their awareness and emotional stability. The role models are in place to help each and every student regardless of background understand and deal with their emotions.

Mental skills are acquired through an art-integrated curriculum designed to provide the greatest concept understanding. Teaching the student to organize their thoughts and introducing material in a variety of ways increases the student’s transfer ability. This increase in transfer makes the student a better student.

The attention paid to the self and world around the self offers a holistic, cosmic guidance to the students. The attention is expressed in a variety of ways but is attained primarily through the Ayurvedic health principles, meditation, gardening and physical well being. As well as the experience in civil service and the job place. This understanding is supportive to the student’s feeling of worth and importance. This is the cosmic intelligence that understands that we are all connected and we are all separate. This is spirituality anchored in science and free to anyone of any religious persuasion. This is not a religion.

Ruby Payne expressed and repeated the necessity for people to understand the hidden rules of the classes in order to move through them. Shaw School will be particularly able to accomplish this due to its intense attention to diversity. This diversity is inherent in the school’s attitudes toward the different classes as well as the cultural inclusion throughout the lessons. Each class has something of value to offer. Each situation calls for a certain group of rule to be followed. The key is to know what rules are called for and to feel comfortable in utilizing those tools.

I believe that would this school be built, the graduates would be nothing short of superb. They would be superb in their confidence, understanding and clarity of themselves and their environment.

“When asked how much educated men were superior to those uneducated, Aristotle answered, ‘As much as the living are to the dead.”
Diogenes Laertius



“Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master.”
Leonardo da Vinci


A1
Sample Lesson
Grade Level: 11th grade
Time: One month
Students: average urban public school

OBJECTIVES
Students will gain an understanding and appreciation for Shakespeare
Students will study the concept of slavery and see how it relates to them.
Students will collate two books for the library.
PLAN
1. A large piece of butcher paper will be laid out on the floor. In the center is a the word “slavery” with a circle around it. The students will be asked to do a word association with the word on the butcher paper using markers. They can draw or write other words. Then, we will reconvene and discuss our piece of butcher paper. I will engage them in a discussion on what slavery is and is not. Whether or not there is slavery today. The students will then draw a picture and write a paragraph on what slavery means to them-- Any personal stories of slavery. Because most of the children will have some knowledge of slavery in the United States, we will break into five small groups and discuss what we know about slavery. They will come up with five points on slavery which will be presented to the class. I will introduce a community journal where any students may write any question or comment to be addressed or not during the next class period.
2. I will tell them the story of the Tempest by W. Shakespeare in a story telling fashion. They can ask questions and make statements regarding the story. I will assign them to read as much of the first act as they can.
3. Today, we can discuss the language of the play. I will choose a section of each act and walk through how to read it. They will then break up into their groups again and each tackles their own act of the play.
4. Tackling the act includes rewriting it in their own words and manner. They will rewrite the play in a play format in modern times. The final quarter of each period will be another writing assignment to be completed at home. One day, we will write song lyrics inspired by the action of the play. Another day we will write a poem. Still others, paint or write a short story.
5. During this time, in our social sciences period, we will also be studying institutional and culture slavery around the world. We will look critically at the practices of cultures towards woman, and those of other races as it pertains to slavery. The students will be keeping both a personal journal and a newsprint journal of things they thought about and found in the media.
6. I will invite a representative from the United Nations, St. Louis office to come and speak on global slavery as well as regional slavery. This will be followed be a question and answer period and journal period. The students will then be given a disposable camera. Their task is to use the film to shoot photographs of things that remind them of or exemplify slavery for them.
7. At about this point, each group will be about ready to present their section of the play. We will then view Julie Taymor’s production. We will discuss the play and in what ways it relates to slavery. And in what ways it relates to us. We will then place another large piece of butcher paper on the floor and write the word “slavery” in the center. The students will do a new word and picture association on the new sheet. We will place the two sheets next to each other and discuss followed by journaling.
8. The social studies aspect will then produce a proposal or request to end an aspect of slavery. This is being delivered to or presented to the parties the students decide are appropriate.
9. The performance literature aspect will then perform their version of the Tempest. We will have a party.
10. The new Tempest inspired by W. Shakespeare will be printed and bound. The supplemental stories, drawing, song lyrics, photographs etc… will also be bound into a second book. One copy of each will be placed into the library and each student will receive a copy.
11. Each student will bind their own work: photographs, stories, journal etc.
12. We will present the play that we write along with prepared hand out material for the parents, special friends and fellow classmates.
EVALUATION
1. Evaluate each student’s conceptual understand of slavery.
2. Evaluate each student’s mastery of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
3. Evaluate a growth in each student’s civic understanding.

1. The books, performances and class participation will be used to evaluate each student’s success with the subject matter.
2. A personal session with each student will take place two weeks into the program as well as complete the program.
A2
Clarification of the Model

This is a piece of property that actually exists in the Shaw Neighborhood in the 3900 block of Magnolia in St. Louis, Missouri.

The southern border of the campus is Tower Grove Park. The western border is Lawrence Avenue.

The new buildings will be green. This means that they use solar energy for electricity and heat. The toilettes are grey water toilettes. This means that the water used in the toilettes is then flash composted and used for the plant irrigation system. Because there is a greenhouse on the roof of each building, the total energy requirement is lessened. The buildings are however hooked up to the grid and we sell excess energy to the energy company.

The preexisting buildings will be transformed green as the finances permit.

Building One: Administrative Building
This is an administrative building. This is where the grant writers and the rest of the staff is located.

Building Two: The Gallery
This is the store that the school owns and the students run.

Building Three: Eating House
This house will be the dining facility. There is a separation between the students and the faculty.

Building Four: The Kitchen
This building contains three full kitchens. This is where food preparation classes and the actual food preparation occurs.

Building Five: Grades 7-9
This is currently a huge six flat. It will be transformed into a junior high school. The idea is to transition the students into these more traditional building in preparation for their academic future. This building will be less traditional on the interior than its counterpart in the high school.
Building Six: Grades 10-12
This is the high school. It is very traditional in appearance.

Building Seven: The Lower School
The Lower School is a completely new building. There is an octagonal main building. This is a multi purpose room. It houses theatre, assembly and indoor physical education.

There are three accompanying buildings which are the classrooms. They are also octagonal in shape. The interior walls are not fixed so each classroom may be opened up to create a classroom double in size.

Building Eight: The Art Studio
The Art Studio is a full studio containing drawing and painting rooms as well as potters wheels, fibers materials and a photo lab.

Building Nine: The Science Lab
The science lab is just that. Laboratories for Biology, Physics, Chemistry and a discovery lab.

GARDENS
Besides the 7 food gardens on the roof of each building, there are 9 ecosystems. These are part of the science department. They include an indigenous Missouri garden, a desert, a pond, meditation garden, a rock garden, a perennial garden, an annuals/home garden to name a few.



This environment is meant to awaken the students to the reality of what they study as well as provide a unique and beautiful garden within which learning is excited.




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