Stumbled upon a video on Ted with John Hardy talking about his dream school. The Green School. After some investigating, I realized that his dream was very similar to the Waldorf Schools. The philosophy, concept, the design. Even the wooden chairs and tables looked familiar. One thing. It isn't Hardy's dream anymore. It's his reality.
After selling his jewelry store in 2007, Hardy and his wife, Cynthia came up with the idea of The Green School in Bali. The idea behind the conceptualized school is that the kids would learn in an open-air surrounded by nature that they feed and tend to. The kids learn to build with bamboo while studying for the British school exams. The center of the school - called the Heart of School ranks up as Asia's largest bamboo building. Hardy is also a long time backer of the use of bamboo as an alternative to timber for building and reforestation.
Could this work in Canada? Waldorf did. I think this would too. In the video, Hardy remarked that his high school was built by the same people who made the jail and the insane asylum. With the same materials. If we had more schools like Waldorf's and The Green School, in North America where it's more visually accepting to the eye and also has more of a hands-on approach to its teaching patterns, maybe the Kids would be more welcome to education and wanting to be in school throughout the day.
I'm sure there's a study out there about kids and how they don't like going to school because it looks like a jail. Or insane asylum.
The big caption on the Green School's website states; "Empowering global citizens and green innovators who are inspired to take responsibility for the sustainability of the world." Only an ideal to most, but it could be a reality to us. Let's make it happen.
To check out the video of Hardy speaking about his creation, Go Here.
For more on the Green School Go Here.
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