Airplane-building school starts when kindergarten starts but children only graduate once they (or a team) have built an actual working plane: remote-controlled or flown by a human; single-seater or larger – or smaller; gas-powered or electric-powered or otherwise. Airplane-building school is part of a larger engineering academy, a sister curriculum to bridge-building, boat-building, etc. In the early years children cross-train but beginning around age 13, they specialize.
In airplane-building school, the children learn physics first. They learn by building themselves – by running their own construction experiments and seeing what happens. These are not free-form or gently guided. They are specific experiments dictated by a teacher, just like in an ordinary elementary school. The experiments all trend toward airplane building but also include materials research, the effects of wind/water/heat/cold etc. on a design, and so on. The children are encouraged to tweak the experiments (once the original is completed) and to share their results. They often work outside... As experiments grow more complex the children learn math (they inhale it, really) and they learn how to write down their calculations. By age 8 11/12 – the age my son is now – the children have already learned multiplication, division, fractions, geometry and simple algebra. So he'll have some catching up to do.
All through this time, teachers & parent volunteers read to the students. They read everything. Some of the students learn to read & write on their own but for others it's only now, when their curiosity about reading/writing is intense and they can clearly see its need, that formal instruction begins. It goes more quickly than you'd think.
They build paper airplanes. They build models. They study birds and flying insects and birds that don't fly and mammals that do. They study the history of flight, the history of people's dreams of flying. They build gliders, rotorcraft, hang gliders, parachutes, rockets. Some of them try base-jumping. This is controversial.
For their final "exam" they set out to build an airplane for a specific purpose to their own specifications, and then they build it.
That's what I wish for my son.
My daughter will go to a school for artists and storytellers. (They also learn bookkeeping. Just in case.)
6 comments:
i'll ride that horse. i think my son would like paleontologist school. though i'm not sure if there would ever be an exit. perhaps there needn't be.
my daughter? we shall see. right now i think singing school would please her immensely. that or doctor school. she's amazing. she can find my heartbeat in my FEET.
Beggars would fly! I love your idea.
Hmm. Somehow, I think you'd be better qualified to run the NYC public school system than the Cathie Black that Mr. Bloomberg has picked...
Bon had a discussion on her blog awhile back about education & how once you get out of school, the model of being graded on something no longer applies. This dream here grew out of that -- and out of my kid's complaint, at age EIGHT, that school doesn't teach anything useful.
Both your title and your opening sentence are very clear, but still - it's amazing how difficult it became for me to remember, as I read this post, that airplane school does not actually exist in our world.
Bea, that is the nicest thing anyone has ever said about a post of mine. Thank you.
Post a Comment