22 August 2005

What are schools?

In order to understand how the full diversity of stuff I post on this blog relates to the mission set forth above (Passionate teachers teaching enthusiastic students in joyful schools) it is necessary to understand what I mean by the term 'school'. There are three key meanings that I generally use for the term and in the context of my mission I am referring to the broadest most inclusive sense.

To start with the narrowest sense, 'schools' are the buildings and related infrastructure in which teachers and students are housed. The middle range of meaning refers to teachers and students regardless of where they conduct their affairs. The broadest sense of 'school' is essentially all-inclusive of environments in which learning takes place without necessarily referring the roles of student and teacher.

This blog is a glimpse into my schooling, meaning any and all of the places in which I am learning, even when I am not taking advantage of infrastructure designed for the purpose nor in the traditional roles that are associated with that task. So far I have posted glimpses into only a few of the many areas in which I am actively learning.

In my book Attitude First (available from Trafford) I mentioned that I am not interested in trying to start a school, but that is only true of the most narrow sense of the word. The truth is that I am actually quite actively pursuing several projects that are aimed at creating schools in the broader senses of the word.

[For a more recent exploration of the idea of schools check out this page on the topic at my new website.]

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