Today we will tell you about 10 unique educational institutions from around the world that go beyond standard educational programs and offer unusual approaches to learning!
Green School in Paris
In the modern world, attention to ecology and the creation of a healthy urban environment have become priorities in urban planning. In Paris, in the Boulogne-Billancourt district, an amazing green school was created, where a separate ecosystem was literally created. This educational institution is located on the territory of the former industrial zone "Renault". The building of this school is literally "overgrown" with grass terraces and even has a real square on its roof!
Inside the building there is a kindergarten, a regular school and a sports complex, intended for residents of nearby houses. One of the outer walls is built of concrete blocks, taking into account the possibility of braiding them with climbing plants and creating nests for birds. In addition, mosses and wild grasses grow on the ledges of the wall, which makes the building completely green - both literally and figuratively. The creators of the school hope that their project will serve as an example of landscaping the urban landscape and will be consistently implemented by other developers.
Container School in Amsterdam
In the Netherlands, they are also thinking about the environment, demonstrating an innovative example of "zero waste" in education. The De Kleine Kapitein school was built exclusively from ... standard shipping containers.
The history of this school began in 2009, when the district urgently needed an additional school due to the rapid population growth. To quickly solve this problem, it was decided to use the remaining cabins after construction in order to simply build training facilities.
Initially, it was planned that the school would function for only one academic year, but the parents of the students offered to keep this unusual educational institution. The school building has become one of the attractions of the area due to its unusual design and ease of maintenance. The modularity of the containers allows you to quickly rebuild and repair the building, updating the study areas if necessary.
Providence Practice School
In 1995, in the US state of Rhode Island, a unique Big Picture Learning school appeared, which offers an unusual approach to education. In this school, in addition to the standard curriculum, children also receive vocational education. The first graduation of this school immediately attracted attention with its success: 98% (!) of graduates entered colleges on a scholarship.
This experience attracted the attention of a well-known supporter of non-standard teaching methods, Bill Gates, who allocated a grant for the development of the school.
Big Picture Learning students learn in small groups of 15 known as Tips. Each Council has its own curator who helps to optimize the educational process and choose a future specialization. Each student has his own individual curriculum, including an internship. Two days a week, students meet with representatives of different professions, learning the basics of their skills to determine what they would like to do in the future. This school does not use grades, and the curriculum is formed based on the interests of students and their parents.
In Big Picture Learning, mentors help students, and a special tutor is engaged in career guidance, who analyzes the interests and strengths of each student and develops an individual program.
School of tractor drivers in Altai
In Russia, too, there are educational institutions where children can learn a profession while studying. One of these projects is a school with a farm bias, located in the village of Novorossiysk in Altai.
This project was launched in 1992 in the context of the agricultural crisis in the region, when the school decided that it was important to form personnel from a young age. Subjects related to agriculture were included in the curriculum: crop production, agriculture, mechanical engineering and agroeconomics, and agricultural work was introduced for the lower grades.
Here, students are taught to distinguish between varieties of cereals, predict the harvest by the appearance of the ear, grow crops, and even drive and repair agricultural machinery! The school has its own tractor park, locksmith and carpentry workshops, as well as a huge area of arable land.
Students of this school even sell crops, and the proceeds are used to repair and buy new equipment. Many graduates claim that they enjoy working in the fields more than sitting at a desk. After graduating from school, they do not have problems with employment, as they receive not only a diploma of general education, but also the rights of a tractor driver.
School for illegal immigrants in Tel Aviv
Children from 50 countries study at the Bialik-Rogozin school in Israel: they differ in skin color, family circumstances and religion, but they have one thing in common - they are refugees and illegal immigrants. Many of them ended up in Israel without relatives, documents and means of subsistence, some had never even attended school before. However, for the employees of Bialik-Rogozin, there is no concept of "friends" and "strangers": each child here is provided not only with education, but also with basic necessities of life, such as food, clothing and even temporary shelter from immigration authorities.
In 2010, the documentary "No Longer Foreigners" about the school and its students won an Oscar, drawing public attention to the problem of educating illegal children.
A no-obligation school in Toronto
The Canadian Alpha Alternative School is an elementary school that provides an environment close to ideal: there are no grades, homework, strict schedules or traditional discipline. The only "punishment" that is used here is... temporarily restricting access to your favorite lessons!
Students determine how they want to spend their day: they can sit in the library, work on their own projects or attend classes. Teachers believe that each child is a unique person who develops at his own pace, and the main thing is not to interfere with this development. Classes are formed not by age, but by the interests of students, including mathematics, cooking and many others.
Lessons are conducted not only by teachers, but also by the students themselves, children exchange experiences with each other, and older students take care of younger ones. All conflicts in the school are resolved in a council, where both children and teachers participate: together they try to find a solution that would suit everyone. The opinion of students is taken into account even in the management of the educational institution!
The desire to study in such a school is shared by many, and there are always not enough places in it. The management of "Alpha" solves this problem fairly: the right to study here is determined by drawing lots.
A school without borders
Photographer Joann McPike has always spent her life traveling constantly, and her family never stayed anywhere for long. This could have created a problem for her son's education. But Joan came up with perhaps the most surprising solution: she created a school that travels with them.
THINK Global School is an educational project for high school students. A group of students consisting of about 30 teenagers from 15 to 18 years old from different countries travel around the world, spending each semester in a different country. During the three years of study, they manage to visit 12 different countries, where they will have to master the local language, immerse themselves in culture and learn various areas of knowledge from specialists.
There are no lessons in this school that focus on specific subjects, all classes cover a variety of disciplines. For example, in Botswana, students helped scientists from the University of South Africa study the populations of native animals by spending days counting animals and performing statistical calculations.
The management of the TGS recognizes that the main value of the school is not in the travel itself, but in the teaching methods. Here they are taught not just to pass tests, but to be useful for the world: to find a common language with different cultures, to be ready for changes in life and always follow their dreams.
The tuition fee at THINK Global School is $ 85,000 per year, not including air ticket costs.
Nomadic schools of the Far North
Have you ever thought about how the children of reindeer herders get an education? Until recently, they had only one way: to spend a few months in boarding school, staying away from their nomadic life. Therefore, it is not surprising that many of them preferred to cross the tundra with their parents, rather than sit at their desks.
In the XXI century, they finally had the opportunity to combine education and a nomadic way of life: since 2008, nomadic schools have been operating in Yakutia, which are tents-plagues equipped with satellite Internet and installed in large camps of nomads. In such schools there are up to 10 students and 2-3 teachers. The training lasts 7 years and is based on the traditional way of life of a reindeer herder: instead of physical education - lessons on catching deer and managing a team, instead of technology - bone carving and other national crafts. Students receive homework and test papers on school subjects and send them via the Internet.
Now in Yakutia there are more than a dozen such schools, the most famous of which is "Keneleken" in the Evenki district. The leadership of the republic plans to expand this project and create mobile schools in every major tribe of reindeer herders.
Bunker School in New Mexico
The Abo Primary School serves as a kind of monument to the nuclear threat that hung over the world during the Cuban missile crisis.
In 1962, the world was on the brink of disaster, when the Soviet Union and the United States were on the verge of a nuclear war that could take the lives of both countries. President John F. Kennedy instructed municipal authorities to build infrastructure in such a way that it could serve as a safe haven in the event of an attack from the USSR.
In the city of Artesia, New Mexico, this role was assigned to an elementary school: in the event of a disaster, it was supposed to become a shelter for 2160 people. This building is underground, only a small playground comes to the surface. The school has three reinforced exits, each of them is closed with a metal door weighing 800 kg.
Thanks to these safety measures and other design features, the building is able to withstand even a 20-megaton explosion! Behind the doors there are disinfection chambers with anti-radiation showers, and in the school itself there is a diesel power plant, autonomous ventilation, supplies of food, water, medicines and even a small morgue.
Fortunately, none of this came in handy, and Abo Elementary School closed in 1995 due to high maintenance costs. Now there is a warehouse on this site, and a new Eco school has been built nearby, in which there is nothing reminiscent of the fear of a possible nuclear threat.
