Farther down the hall the second graders have also finished their morning circle exercises - clapping out rhythms as they recite the multiplication tables, tossing bean bags to each other as they count by tens, silently balancing on one foot and reciting poetry as they move around the room creating different forms or shapes. From this playful opening activity they head back to their desks for the more focused work of playing the recorder. This will set the mood for the rest of the morning lesson. The class then sits down and begins to retell the story they heard yesterday. One after another the children contribute to the tale of Tricky Mischief who, after much mischief and confusion, saved the kingdom because of his ability to use place value. They begin to draw the lively, mischievous fellow as he gathers together units, tens, hundreds and thousands. As they finish, the children move to the counting area where they begin the sizable task of "counting" the precise number of buttons filling a large grocery box. There is only one rule - no counting past ten. All the buttons must be bagged in groups of ten. All bags must be "carried over" and boxed in groups of ten, and so on. It will surely take several days to bag the entire load of buttons, but in the end a quick scan of the boxes, bags and single buttons will give an exact count!

After a snack and recess the second graders are met outside by the French teacher. "Bon jour, mes enfants. Venez ici," she calls to them. The children line up and, once settled, join together in reciting the French greeting verse, usually a colorful description of seasonal changes. For the next thirty minutes or so, they play a variety of games such as Mother May I, Freeze Tag, and relay races - all in French. "Allons-y," she calls to the children, and they follow her inside to draw pictures of their game. Now, with the teacher's help, they describe their pictures to one another - all in French. After reciting a closing French verse, all return to the English language and spend the rest of the mid-day lesson working individually or in small groups on skill-building. One group may be practicing reading, another playing "multiplication baseball,"a third walking the balance beam, while many others sit at their desks, writing and drawing in their journals.

As the day moves on, recess, lunch and group reading will provide much-needed play and rest after a morning of hard work. The last period of the day will be devoted to projects. Today, the students will work in small groups to make an imaginative model of the land of Tricky Mischief, out of beeswax, wood, silk and stone. Finally, they will come together to clean the classroom and join in a closing song.

Leaving the second grade early in the mid-day lesson, we make our way down the hall past the other Elementary grades. Passing the third grade room we see the model houses they have built as part of their study of shelter, food and clothing - life on earth in different cultures and
climates. A foot-high adobe house with hand-modeled bricks, a stone castle, a grass hut, a house on stilts all cover the display table. Farther down the hall we hear noisy fourth grade students. Peeking into the chaos it appears they are engrossed in a game of trading different sized "pie pieces." A quick look at the black board reveals that this is part of a fractions lesson. In the next room the fifth graders are silently "reciting" a verse in Native American sign language; in unison, twenty pairs of hands slide fluidly from one gesture to the next. Just inside the door, the walls are decorated with paintings of North American landscapes, and tables hold clay pots and baskets they have made as part of their study of North American cultural geography. By year's end they will be ready for the annual "Geography Festival."

Finally we come to the sixth grade. The sixth graders have already had a rich start to their day with bean bag exercises, folk dance, recorder playing and song. During the morning lesson they focused on finishing their group description of Inca life. For the last few weeks all the students have contributed to a class report on the Incas. Students had been assigned biographies to read ahead of time. Then for ten days the teacher wove together a story describing the land and the people which included a time for each student's report. As we arrive, the mid-day lesson is well underway and it is a bit difficult to figure out what is going on here. The conversation is almost as lively as the morning exercises! After heated discussion, the teacher takes out a hat and puts it on. It is quite like a Dr. Seuss creation - a paper cone with feathers, ribbons and sparkles all over. Then she takes out several stacks of colored hats and hands the green ones to the students. "Time for the hat trick," she says.

As the students put the hats on, the teacher explains to us that this is a version of a Japanese management exercise in which the hats denote the type of discussion that will take place. When the students wear green, only constructive suggestions can be contributed - no questions, no doubts, no objections. Later they may be given another color - black for questions, red for objections, purple for solutions and so on. Despite the temporarily increased chaos as the students put on their hats, the teacher assures us that they know how to use this structure; they depended heavily on it when they planned their week-long wilderness trip in the fall - and all made it back in good heath! "The point of this part of our work is not so much learning about the Incas as experiencing constructive group process," she tells us, " Once the decision on a project is made, their attention will go back to the Incas and the research and language arts skills needed for the projects they have chosen."

Once the they have their hats on, there is some order to the conversation and we can see that the students are discussing plans for an "Inca Project." They have to decide what kind of projects they would like to do, and whether to do them together or individually. They are full of ideas. Some are fascinated with the Incas' terraced agriculture and want to build models and explore both the physics and farming involved. Others connect more with the mythology and way of life of the kings and want to create a play. Still others focus on the Inca decimal system and want to research how it relates to the Roman system they studied earlier in the year and then make a game from each. Once they have decided, the students will spend morning lessons and project periods for several weeks researching and developing themes and activities until the Inca way of life and history come alive in the classroom. Finally, they will close their study with written reports.

After recess, lunch and a group reading time, they will go on to the afternoon lesson. Today this lesson will begin with an orchestra class. Here the students can let the morning full of ideas and opinions rest and join together as a whole group creating music. Finally they will have foreign language class, clean-up, a closing verse and home.

As our work continues to grow and comes to be realized at the high school level, students will have both "campus days" - when they will spend the entire time at school and apprenticeship days, when the full day or a substantial part of it is spent working in the local community.

For example, the tenth grade students will focus on social service apprenticeships. Early in the year they will spend two or three weeks in full time training at the social service apprenticeship of their choice. For the rest of the year they will continue in this work several mornings a week and attend classes the rest of the time. Some may work in hospitals, some in homeless shelters. Some may assist in preschools, some in the WIC Nutrition program. Some may read to the blind, others help the elderly.

On campus days, in support of the apprenticehip work students are doing, sophomore science class will focus on biology and sociology. In the classroom one might see careful illustrations in workbooks which make clear that they have just finished a review of structural anatomy. Now the teacher might introduce the basic functions of the immune system. As he gives the presentation an ongoing series of questions will likely arise. A young man who is working at a homeless shelter may ask what prolonged exposure to the cold does to the immune system. Another, who is working at a pre-school, might wonder if the immune system affects learning. A young woman who has been volunteering in the pediatrics wing of the local hospital may ask about the effect of immunizations. This kind of question, connecting the theoretical science to the community service work they are doing, is what our program seeks to foster.

The teacher might choose to answer the questions directly, or to encourage the students to look at their own questions more deeply before he responds. He may well choose to use art work or drama to help the student explorations go further. “For homework tonight, I'd like you to draw a scene from your apprenticeship, it can be as realistic or as imaginative as you like. Look at it and then write down ways you feel biology research could serve these people." Knowing that this kind of assignment will spark further questions and insights, the teacher is laying the ground for real understanding.

The rest of the day will include time to come together in music and song, times to study literature foreign language, and art, times to debrief about their field work, and times for physical activity. By the time they finish high school, all students will have had the opportunity to taste a wide variety of experiences and apply their learning in meaningful ways. We believe this will give them the foundation needed to focus more independently on their future pursuits.

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