Clock skews and bookstores...
May. 13th, 2004 12:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsYesterday afternoon, those of you local to Seattle might be aware, there was a brief power interruption that caused all of our computers at the office to reboot. When everything came back, I assumed that my own workstation was fine, but I missed one detail: the clock had forgotten about daylight savings time. As a consequence, it read 4:30 when in reality it was 5:30, and I missed my bus. I made it home, but instead of having a peaceful hour I was barely in time to head back out to Kouryou-chan's school to attend a general parents' meeting held at the school's auditorium.
Kouryou-chan goes to one of the most wonderful schools I could imagine for her, Three Tree. It's a Montessori school, meaning that the classroom is organized around learning skills and knowledge. Students, rather than being straitjacketed into what the curriculum requires at that moment are free to choose a station and learn whatever they can from the materials presented, often guided by students who have completed that station. For Kouryou-chan, the result has been nothing short of amazing; she has an attention span that frequently can last hours, and she is already reading and learning to write, doing addition and some subtraction, mastering the rules and exceptions of the language. It's just mind-boggling how much she soaks up when she's left alone and allowed to learn for herself.
I like the place because there's no foo-foo like I seem to be hearing out of Yamaarashi-chan's school. I know Yamaarashi-chan's teacher is doing what she can within the stricture of The System, but I don't see the benefit to the somewhat disjointed daily schedule she has. What is it about public schools that makes them seem so... inefficient?
But Three Tree has just completed its first year of operation and was gearing up for the summer, when most of the facilities upgrades were scheduled, and looking for volunteers. I guess I'll be looking forward to that calendar.
This morning, I noticed that the bookstore Titlewave, which had disappeared a month ago, has been reopened now as a Twice Sold Tales. You can go in and buy if you want, but they're still moving in and completely disorganized. One row of shelves reads "Stuff," "Sundry," "Miscellaneous," "Etc," "Your Guess is as good as Mine," and "Who put this here?" The science fiction section appears to be organized by the date of the author's first kiss. Hopefully they'll get more organized as time goes on.
Kouryou-chan goes to one of the most wonderful schools I could imagine for her, Three Tree. It's a Montessori school, meaning that the classroom is organized around learning skills and knowledge. Students, rather than being straitjacketed into what the curriculum requires at that moment are free to choose a station and learn whatever they can from the materials presented, often guided by students who have completed that station. For Kouryou-chan, the result has been nothing short of amazing; she has an attention span that frequently can last hours, and she is already reading and learning to write, doing addition and some subtraction, mastering the rules and exceptions of the language. It's just mind-boggling how much she soaks up when she's left alone and allowed to learn for herself.
I like the place because there's no foo-foo like I seem to be hearing out of Yamaarashi-chan's school. I know Yamaarashi-chan's teacher is doing what she can within the stricture of The System, but I don't see the benefit to the somewhat disjointed daily schedule she has. What is it about public schools that makes them seem so... inefficient?
But Three Tree has just completed its first year of operation and was gearing up for the summer, when most of the facilities upgrades were scheduled, and looking for volunteers. I guess I'll be looking forward to that calendar.
This morning, I noticed that the bookstore Titlewave, which had disappeared a month ago, has been reopened now as a Twice Sold Tales. You can go in and buy if you want, but they're still moving in and completely disorganized. One row of shelves reads "Stuff," "Sundry," "Miscellaneous," "Etc," "Your Guess is as good as Mine," and "Who put this here?" The science fiction section appears to be organized by the date of the author's first kiss. Hopefully they'll get more organized as time goes on.
