Real Options for Student Well-being
Teachers who believe in public education have recently opened three private learning centres in Ottawa because they have been unable to pursue through community schools the kind of innovations being called for by people such as Sir Ken Robinson.
The Compass Centre for Self-Directed Learning, which is a member of Liberated Learners, offers one of these learning spaces. Revel Academy, based on the Acton learning model with a measure of Montessori, is another, and Blue Sky School, which is pioneering a prototype school of the future, is the third. All are particularly attentive to the individual needs of their students. By moving away from formal scheduling and age-segregation, they are showing us how to once and for all get beyond one-size-fits-all education.
Public education is our most powerful tool for building strong communities and the kind of world we want children and youth to inherit. UCY is working to make public education every parent’s first choice for their children. Consequently, it is raising awareness of how these kinds of private school learning environments can be provided in community public schools. The goal is to make these kinds of programs accessible to all who want them. It would help to address the problem of equity, and innovative teachers would not be leaving public education. Free of the business distractions of having to make private schools viable, they could give their full attention to their students.