Ray wrote:
> Sounds like a wonderful class but a couple of questions:
>
> 1) do you have air conditioning?
Yes we have air --- downstairs it is freezing and upstairs quite warm
especially when the hot Southern Ill sun swings around in the afternoon.
The greenhouse effect takes over with the 9 bodies about 5 th or 6 th
hour. Just to clarify: except for some local kids and special
arrangements we are not in session between the first of June and mid
August. The best teaching that I think I ever did was with a boy who had a
traumatic brain injury. We spent about 3 hours each morning somethink like
this: review homework, outside to take the weather data and 2 or 3 days a
week measuring the growth of a patch of sunflowers, putting the data into
spreadsheets, graphing, analyzing and writing about it.
> 2) do they have time to be with their family?
Our school is residential (except for about 5 of the 60 or so kids we
usually have) so they tend to go home or with a friend about once a month.
Home situations can be problematic since they often come from places where
they have been through a cycle of failure so home can be a tough spot
also. The curriculum is heavily geared to learning social skills
(positive communication, etc.) which, over time translates to the home
environment. As a result our parents talk of the "best Thanksgiving
ever.. " Since we are residential, home contacts are minimal but are more
productive and "familial".
Take care,
Paul
prkosuth@mychoice.net
OPINIONS ARE MY OWN
Brehm Preparatory School
Carbondale IL
--"prkosuth" <prkosuth@mychoice.net>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>