The Rockaway College Concept Paper: Introduction

The blog entry of February 16, 2012, started a process of posting my thoughts on a school start-up project, Rockaway College, meant to bring a different path to the formal education of the full spectrum of gifted and talented, most especially to the Twice-Exceptional.   To recall:  The purpose of this task is to place in an accessible space the details of the school project so when I outreach to the professional educators recruiting them to form the institution’s development, fundraising and start-up team I can refer them to a source presenting a thorough understanding of the nature of the school.  And, hopefully, having been inspired by what they read, the interested will sign-up and work as a team to translate the writing on the screen to brick and mortar.

So far, I’ve:

-told the story of how I discovered Democratic Education and of how my Democratic school project, Rockaway College, came to be,

-defined Democratic Education,

-concisely critiqued current schooling,

-argued that formal learning structured differently than the current means by which children are schooled would not allow the harm and the hurt of contemporary schooling, especially to those who do not fit into the narrow band suited to best work through the current schooling system, that the cultivation of Mindfulness and Empowerment in each child are the twin pillars of the altered schooling structure, that Democratic Education engenders Mindfulness and Empowerment and represents the altered schooling certainly capable of working for those not fitting into the current system,

-detailed the Democratic Education System and its Curriculum,

-identified a poorly served student population, The Gifted Talented Disabled, who would be well served by the Democratic Education of Rockaway College,

-argued for the need to attend to this population which also demonstrated the need for Rockaway College,

-showed how following the neurology of these youngsters, as would Rockaway College, meets psychological and educational needs of this population,

-began detailing the school itself with explains of the concepts informing the institution’s learning models,

-and, described the learning models used in Rockaway College.

The next series of entries, commencing with this one, will feature the core concept paper detailing the school.   

I. INTRODUCTION:

The purpose of this paper is to outline an integrated pre-school through early college institution providing the bright neuro-diverse, i.e., the spectrum of gifted and talented, in New York City, an education environment focused on emotional wellness and healing and on a supportive individual responsibility centered learning within a Cooperative School culture.  Indeed, living through the cooperative community culture and learning through their natural inclinations and unique differences children, adolescents and young adults supported in their efforts by deep mentoring relationships would take responsibility for deciding what they learn, when learning happens and how what is chosen is learned and would help each other set solid emotional foundations for future growth while assisting each other to uncover and to explore their native intelligence, enhance their learning skills, enrich their scholarship and cultivate a deep appreciation of the classical and the modern worlds. 

THE MISSION of Rockaway College, then, is to cultivate in all its students a solid psychological foundation for future growth and a cognitive dexterity for adaptability to life’s vicissitudes by providing a highly supportive Learner-Responsibility-Centered education.

The proposed institution of learning situates itself within two units, Rockaway College School and Rockaway College.   Rockaway College School would consist of a unified Pre-School and Kindergarten and of an Elementary School; Rockaway College would consist of a Venture School, a Lower School and an Upper School. 

Collectively the education programs of  The School and The College represent a sequential progression in emotional and intellectual development:   The unified Pre-School/Kindergarten develops the regulation of children’s social-emotional dispositions and cultivates their natural learning instincts through engagement with a toy enhanced Montessori prepared environment for ages 3 to 5.  The Primary Education Program of the Elementary School would integrate a Montessori prepared environment for ages 6-11, an inquiry freedom of an Open, Democratic Classroom and a cooperative norm based form of community governance.  An intake program for secondary education, The Venture School, would offer an outdoor personal growth experience within a cooperative norm based community governance.  The Lower and The Upper Schools like Bard High School Early College, in New York City, would combine secondary academic and junior college Liberal Arts education so upon graduation from the Upper School young scholars would receive both a high school diploma and an Associate of Arts degree. The Lower School would offer secondary education through subject discipline learning labs, thematic study, individual project based learning and performance assessment within a cooperative community governance while the Upper School would offer a Cooperative Learning seminar course structure within a cooperative norm based community governance.

The remainder of this paper describes the Student Population, Rockaway College School and Rockaway College.