Wisdom begins
in wonder. - Socrates
Xara Learning Village
Influences and Approaches
The educational approach of
the Xara Learning Village offers the natural methods and approaches proven most effective
for learning, in a program of public education meeting California's standards and testing
requirements.
These methods and approaches,
however, are not compatible with the model of the traditional classroom, nor with
conventional ideas about how learning occurs. The flexibility offered to Charter Schools,
on the other hand, allows us to implement a new model, based on the best research about
how learning actually and naturally occurs.
The tapestry of Xara learning
is woven from the best research in childhood development and education, with strands
including:
- Strong emphasis on the student inquiry,
theory-building, co-learning, and documentation methods of the Reggio Emilia
schools;
- Jane Nelson's "Positive
Discipline;"
- Lifting elements of play, natural rythms,
beauty, sense of place and history from Rudolf Steiner and the Waldorf schools, John Dewey, and Maria Montessori;
- Brain-based learning for all the multiple intelligences,
and individual, developmentally appropriate challenges
- Servant leadership, participatory
citizenship, and "gift economy"
- Ecological literacy, place-based education, and "No Child Left Inside"
- The global perspectives and languages of the
International Baccalaureate Organization.
Throughout the K-12 program, emphasis is
placed on understanding the history of world civilizations and their technologies, arts,
cultures, and religions. This understanding is the key to meeting today's challenges and
to reaching tomorrow's promise.
Xara schools engage:
- Study of local and global sustainability, infrastructure, and development of the green collar economy
- Development of global, multicultural perspectives, languages and networks
- "Bioneering:"
systems thinking and design, deep ecology, and biomimicry: the science
of finding sustainable engineering solutions in nature’s living systems
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Teachers
and students will stay together from Kindergarten through the Second Grade, allowing each
teacher to really know each student as they develop the capacities for abstract thought
and for empathy.
As our first students grow, a Grade
3-5 "Terrace School" will open to carry on the methods
and approaches of the Garden School, adapted to the increasing skills and developmental
abilities of the children. Beginning in 3rd grade in the Xara Terrace School, a second
foreign language will be introduced.
Through the future Xara Village Middle
School and Xara Village High School, the projects and challenges will grow to stay ahead
of the State standards and impart essential skills and knowledge.
The schools will share a single campus
that will grow to be a showcase of green and sustainable technologies, a world-within-a-
world, and a laboratory for best practices in learning and living.
These notes, of course, provide only
general highlights of the overall program offered at Xara Learning Village. The following
link will lead to more detailed descriptions of the program and practices of the Xara
Garden School, and answer questions like,
"What is Xara?"
Click for Charter Excerpts
Click for For Registration
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