As part of my course work at THNK.org and my current research into what is a great education, I wrote this imagined User Case & Day in the Life of a student at
‘the World School for Social and Creative Entrepreneurs‘

User Case, Meet Anne

Anne is 14 years, living in 2015 and she goes to the World School of Social and Creative Entrepreneurs in Amsterdam and Paris.
She graduated from primary school 2 years earlier proficient in reading, writing, spelling, geography, history, sciences, Dutch and English, with a proficiency plus in visual expression and abstract maths and below proficiency in work speed and story telling. She thinks she wants to be a designer but isn’t sure at all.  Her hobbies are climbing trees, drawing and cooking.

Since she joined the World School of Social and Creative Entrepreneurs, 2 years ago she has done 4 major projects, 2 minor ones and set up an online business.
Major Projects are driven by cross topic learning objectives set by school staff and Minor projects are student driven where only the process is set by staff.
Projects are done in groups of 4/5 students, mainly in same age groups but sometimes with mixed ages and between school, such as Amsterdam and Paris.

An example of a major project is ‘Design a curriculum for primary school group 6 on the history of Europe, covering, language culture, politics and economies. An example of a minor project is where students watch a series of self chosen TED videos and subsequently write and deliver their own 9 minute TED talk on a theme of their choosing.

The business Anne set up is called iAnne and it profiles her Lego Architecture and her Plastic Bag Fashions and sells the How to instructions. She hasn’t sold that much but she has learned much about copyright, online selling, business maths and branding and been invited to give workshops in two primary schools.

Next year Anne will get the chance to go to Paris for two months, where she will attend the Paris branch of her school, practise her french and work together with students whom she already knows from a major project on which they collaborated.

World School for Social and Creative Entrepreneurs

The school philosophy

The World School for Social and Creative Entrepreneurs believes that the reason to educate people is

1. To give them tools for their natural creativity
2. To believe in themselves and their dreams
3. To give back to the world
4. To give them tools to learn what they need to know, understand or be able to do.
5. To manage their emotional self

So they can live in harmony with themselves, their community, the planet and creatively contribute in their unique way to a better world. See here for the School Manifesto.

The school combines curriculum staples, collaborative project work, individually motivated projects and care for the individuals personal and spiritual development. Students are encouraged to work hard, to discover their dreams, to work in teams and to take themselves and their fellow human beings seriously.

Day in the Life.

Anne gets up with her family at home in Amsterdam at 7.30, she needs to get to school for 9 am. She has breakfast, makes her lunch box grabs her laptop and heads for the bus by 8.30.

Every school day starts with Motion and Focus Class, students can choose between group sports, stretching and in the summertime swimming. Each session ends with focus, which is a style of guided meditation, delivered alternatively by teachers and students.

Anne’s spends every morning between the rest of the morning working on her Major Project, from 10 am to 12 am in her class group. The two-hour session consists of a number of cycles of video or instruction followed by team reflection and making and writing. The subjects Anne then studies would be for example, in the case of the European History project: french language, maths, political systems and European history.

This is how the week schedule looks:

After lunch Anne works on her minor project in her group. Her personal project follows which includes a meeting with her mentor. The day ends with a classical group exchange. Anne’s best friend Zoe sings a song for the group, which is a political commentary on the failing of the Dutch green party. It is part of her personal project: in which she is writing and performing a series of songs, on issues that she cares about. On alternate days Anne has a reflection session in her buddy group, there they talk about what they achieved that day, what they are thankful for and what they would like to work on the next day.

Technology Supported

All students have their own light-weight laptop, with access to wifi, and the schools intranet. On the intranet, Anne maintains her learning plan, updates her personal portfolio and links to the major project collaboration spaces. She maintains a list of courses she is following online and the badges she has achieved. There are also group forums, for the class, per topic and for the staff.

Teacher’s and mentors.

Teachers at the World School for Social and Creative Entrepreneurs, have all a specific area of interest about which they know a lot such, have usually started their own social or creative venture, are motivated to share, motivate and care about young people. They believe in the autonomy of young people and their intrinsic talents.

The role of the teacher is to co-develop Major projects and curate the inputs for students. To guide students both as individuals, being their mentor and through student groups dynamics. And to be a role model for students in their life-long learning approach to life.

The teacher works with according to a code of conduct which guides the teacher, student interaction and the safety of students when undertaking real life activities such as setting up a business.

Attribution.

This envisaged school experience, is inspired by a combination of sources including, my own experiences designing education, the curriculum approach at Thnk.org, the Vrij School, Amsterdam the Green school, Bali the UNIC school, Utrecht, the School of Life for atheists of Alain Botton, the Uncollege Manifesto, the Maker Movement, and the FrameWork for 21^st Century Learning, the Flipped Classroom, the Mac Arthur DML Badges project, Simon Simek, Mozilla Labs, the Open Education movement and others.

Let me know if it resonates with you!