The School on Magnolia New Life for High School
I A school is a vehicle/obstacle for learning of many kinds. This essay is an account of tinkering to make a small school for teenagers more of a vehicle for learning, less of an obstacle. Let's turn to a few things about the school. SMALL: Scale matters, because it situates people within the radius of relationship with each other which makes back-and-forth creative collaboration in communication possible. You can't solve problems you don't have. The communication at a variety of temperatures that small scale allows gives problems the chance to declare themselves. They are available to become much more inspirations than hazards. TINKERING: Teenagers are a puzzle to themselvesand to those who care about them. Puzzles are frustrating, but also intriguing. Being a teenager is about a mix of letting go and taking hold that can leave teenagers feeling they are trapeze artists in mid-air panic. Teenagers tinker their way forward not quite knowing what they are doing. So a school needs to keep tinkering, keep listening, keep adjusting, keep asking questions and questioning answers. COMMUNITY: A school is always embedded in a conflicted community that lives its hopes and its fears. Its students read the tensions of the times, embody them, are injured by them, seek solutions to them, and more. A school for teenagers draws on the resources of multiple generations and the rich history of previous tries, failures, partial successes, complicated aspirations. A school is a generational encounter of many generations and many cultures. PLEASURE: There is no pleasure quite like learning what is new to you that makes you come anew upon yourself. Teacher, student, interested bystander can all share this. A school tries to inoculate its students with the zest of this pleasure, a positive beneficial infection that opens up and can keep opening up unsuspected avenues. Pleasure in learning is the glue for a school's work and wealth. I wrote this essay almost fifty years ago during my first year of medical school. My hope is that it has something to say to today.