FIXING SCHOOL I START I 027

I
It's time to re-learn what primary and secondary schools are there for. Here are six places to start

0:

""z
0

""~~
0
:c
z
~
0:
0
-,
;.:
:c
c,
~
"',_
0

..
0
:c

Blue Schaal
HAT HAPPENS IN CLASSROOMS
hasn't fundamentally changed NewYork.us
since Victorian days: most schools
The Blue Man Group to eighth grade the Scientist, the
still rely on that Gradgrindian consists of face- by 2017, believes Innocent, the Group
model whereby students absorb the painted theatrical that curious Member, the Hero,
teacher's wisdom, to be tested on humanoids who minds are best the Artist and the
what they remember. Thankfully, a explore the world at learning, and Trickster, each with
few educators are showing that alter- around them. This taking on different unique worldviews.
curious spirit has perspectives is Heroes, for example,
native models can deliver creativity
now taken over the optimal way to are leaders, whereas
and self-directed learning. "The key Blue School at Blue School, encourage curiosity. Tricksters are
person in education is the student," founders founded in Lower At the school's rule-breakers and
says evolutionary psychologist Peter (clockwise Manhattan by core are six innovators. When
Gray of The Rockefeller University. from top left]: the original Blue modes of learning, kindergarteners
"Sometimes the innovation is 'do Jen Wink, Matt Man trio and their based on the were learning about>
Goldman, Chris wives. The school, Blue Man Group's
nothing' - let the kids take charge."
Wink, Philip which currently performances.
We think it's time to reinvent primary Stanton, Renee runs up to fifth These are
and secondary education. Here are six Rolleri and grade (UK year six), characters that
projects that passed the WIREDtest. Jennifer Stanton and is expanding kids "try on": there's
 028 I START I FIXING SCHOOL

the work of artist classes beat built a food

Andy Goldsworthy, drums covered dehydrator to try
they studied it in neon paint, and figure it out.
from a Trickster an idea straight By building a
I
viewpoint. Soon, the from the Blue Man curriculum on
,.,,. - '~ -
walls of the school Group's onstage inquisitiveness, ~
~
were tilled with performances. At the school's I
guerrilla artworks:
sticks, stones and
higher grades, kids
have more say in
founders believe
they're crafting
-· 1=

leaves were glued what they want to entrepreneurial - ~

~
-
together and stuck learn about. "The kids. "We think _, ~
I

up surreptitiously. teacher's job is to there's a kind

"Th is was very take the questions of combustible
much a Trickster kids come up with, alchemy from
act, and it was and to turn that into having a rich
supported and a curriculum," says worldview," says
celebrated by the Allison Gaines Pell, Chris Wink, a
school," says Matt Blue School's head. school cofounder
Goldman, school In one example, and Blue Man.
and Blue Man when fifth-graders "It's being able to
Group cofounder. studied Homer's jump from one lens
Two-year-olds in The Odyssey, they to another" EB
pre-kindergarten became interested blueschool.org
in how the Ancient
Greeks preserved
food- and so
*
*

HIGH
TECH
HIGH
San Diego, US
Duestta Learn
New York and Chicago, US

Larry Rosenstock (pictured]
was teaching carpentry at
a state-run high school in
Massachusetts in the 90s
when he realised that hands-on
projects were the best way to
engage children. So in 2000 he
helped set up High Tech High, a
middle school of 200 kids
in San Diego, with funding from
Irwin Jacobs, cofounder of
Qualcomm. The school is
one of 12 Institutes to
specialise in project-based
learning, with five more
(ranging from elementary
to high schools) being built
over the next five years.
Entry to the school is by
lottery and students and
teachers work In teams as
"designers" to tailor their own
curricula. Completed projects
so far include an environmental
field guide to San Diego Bay,
which was sold on Amazon, and
a year-long video study on gun
violence In schools. Teachers
often blend subjects; for
Instance, an art project could
involve making a sculpture
incorporating gears, which
pupils are studying in physics.
The benefits are clear: 87
per cent of High Tech High
students graduate from four-
year college courses, compared
to the state average of 35 per
cent, according to Rosenstock.
The plan now, he says, is to
go global. He teaches two
Massive Open Online Courses,
one with the MIT Media Lab on
ATIE SALEN WAS CODING AND TEACHING GAME
development in New York in 2009 when she became interested
in Il-year-olds' obsession with gaming. "Game design is all
about player experience," she says. ''Youhave to build a system
so that they feel like they are in control and can win. That is
not a feeling that middle-schoolers often have." So Salen,
43 (pictured above), founded Quest to Learn in New York - a
public school in which classrooms are built on the principles
of game design. In-house game designers work with teachers,
and Sal en's nonprofit Institute of Play, which runs the school,
has incubated a studio called Glass Lab with Electronic Arts,
which develops games that have an assessment component.
The curriculum is based on challenges. ''We call them quests
and missions," explains Salen. "vVe set up a problem that
classes have ten weeks to solve. When they achieve a quest, it
unlocks another one. With games you fail, but that helps you
move forward and do better." Props such as hula hoops and
dice are regularly used in the classrooms, Completed quests "'
w
0
z
include a challenge to write a business plan for a food-truck _,_,
w

0
deeper learn Ing and another business. Another used Minecraft to build a game-based :c
z
with University of California, (5
sustainable-energy system for the school: a geothermal
Berkeley on how to start a "'..,
0

school. "The world needs

model generated by molten lava flowing below the building. ;:

to experiment more with what There is now a ChicagoQuest charter school and another ."'
:c
0.

o
a school looks like," he says. planned for Denver. Next up: using what they learned to bring ...
0

0
:c
MV hightechhigh.org the gamified classroom to Turkey. MV instituteofplay.org > 0.
 030 I START I FIXING SCHOOL

* *
still played football,
but their grades
**'•,.rc-t""
(9 ~. *
had improved:'
Mind Lab was
developed in 1994
by educational
researchers Ehud
Shachar, Tzvika
Feldfogel and operates in 12
Oan Gendelman countries including

Mind Lab
Twelve countries worldwide
in Jerusalem.
The methodology
involves at least
the US, China and
the UK. According
to Pereira, more Ahmedabad, India
one hour per than 500,000
week playing students now use
Pupi Is in the understand why board games and its methodology. SCHOOLS MAKE KIDS
Mind Lab school teachers were learning skills A study by Donald
programme spend helpless and afraid of failure,
playing board such as strategic Green at Yale
their time playing says Kiran Bir Sethi (below),
games with kids," thinking, emotional University found
board games. founder of the Riverside School
says Valmir Pereira intelligence and that Mind Lab's
In pre-school,
(right], CEO of Mind decision-making. methods improve in Ahmedabad, India. So under
for instance, the
curriculum includes
Lab, who bought the Pereira, an students' scores her watch, kids are encouraged
Noughts & Crosses, company in 2009. entrepreneur from in maths and to leave the classroom and
Quarto, Hoppers "But everybody Sao Paulo, ran a language tests. learn their lessons in the real world. Sethi's idea
and Rush Hour. loves it. Parents 2007 Mind Lab "He's clearly shown
- transmitted through her organisation Design
"As an engineer would come to me pilot study in Brazil that we improve
who's worked with and tell me that involving 2,000 skills in these for Change - has spread to schools in 35 countries,
computers all their kids used to students across core subjects, including the US, China, Mexico and, most recently,
my life, I couldn't spend time playing 60 schools. It now even though we Cameroon. "It's an open-source idea," says Sethi.
footba II and had don't teach them," Riverside pupils spend 50 per cent of their time
bad school grades. says Pereira. JM outside the classroom working with community
After Mind Lab, they mind/ab-group.com
members and businesses. For an economics class,
year-11 students worked with the Havmor Ice Cream
Company in Ahmedabad to make and market a new
flavour they called Ras'mataz, which the company
at Newcastle now sells. For a language skills class, year-three
University, Mitra is students spent time at Ahmedabad's Kankaria Zoo
going one better and created an audio tour for its reptile house. And
with his School In
after a conference about children's rights violations,
The Cloud. Using $1
million awarded to Sethi asked her year-five students to roll incense
him as the 2013 TED sticks for eight hours, to bring home the reality of
Prize, he has set up child labour in India. "What was amazing was how
seven lab schools - something that was just intellectual became an
five In India and two enduring understanding," she says.
in the UK - In which
In 2009 Sethi started to expand her vision to kids
children learn for
beyond Riverside, by launching A Protagonist in

SCHOOL IN
ack in 1999, Indian- themselves using
born education internet-connected every Child, an NGO. She and her pupils marched
researcher Sugata terminals. Retired into municipal offices and demanded change in

THE CLOUD Ahmedabad that would make it safer for children.

Mitra [be/ow) teachers, or
installed an "Grannies", oversee The city listened, and created "Street Smart", a
internet-connected students via monthly event in which the city's streets are closed
computer in a New Skype (Microsoft Various, India and the UK
and turned into a safe area for community activities.
Delhi slum. The is a sponsor). The
machine entranced students are also
In 2013, Riverside's performance was 50 per
local children, encouraged to form Mitra hopes to refine cent higher than the national average for maths
who were soon groups and discuss self-learning. "We've and 30 per cent higher for science. And in a country
using It to learn their peers' work to never had anything where children are pushed to become doctors or
Independently. aid learning. like the internet lawyers, Sethi says her students tend to be more
Now professor In his previous before." he says.
imaginative. "I've had dancers, hotel-management
of educational experiments, "The danger is trying
technology Mitra found that
executives and herpetologists,'' she says.
to force it into an
children are able 18th-century model Riverside raises citizens, not
to learn complex of education." OF just academics, Sethi believes.
biology and theschoolinthe "We aren't experimenting,'' she
physics with light cloud.org Sugata says. "Every other schooling
encouragement. Mitra will speak system that isn't doing this,
The schools will at WIRED2014 on
they're 'alternative'." EB
run for three years, October 16-IZ
during which time wiredevent.co.uk
schoolriverside.com