Experimental School (89)

Schools can become institutionalized and non-responsive to the real needs of students, faculty members, the community and society. Schools with unchanging assumptions are unlikely to meet society's changing needs. This is unfortunate at a time when the need for public problem solving is the most acute. If schools aren't innovative and if people don't seriously think about how education can play new roles in new ways, it's unlikely that the society will be innovative in cultural, technical, scientific, or civic thought or action. Schools also tend to assist privileged subsets of society. Typically, older people can't attend school, nor can poor people, working people, or rural people. An experimental school attempts to accomplish positive aims while adopting experimentation as a guiding orientation. It will work towards its goals through careful and ongoing evaluation of the approaches that the school is trying. The concepts of an Experimental School can be useful to anybody who is involved in or interested in education. The key concepts are respect for learning, reflection, and a faith in the importance of reasoning and, especially, reasoning together.

Text: Douglas Schuler, Steve Schapp, & Thad Curtz

Goals to Be Met

1. Money

Though an ideal of experimental school is to have free enrollment, it still costs money to run a school. Buildings, books, teachers, field trips, and food must be supplied. At any time players can donate to the Shared Vision Envelope. $5000 must be donated collectively.

2. Volunteers

Volunteer work can supplant many of the costs. The more volunteers there are, the faster experimental schools can come into prevalence, translating to a low cost for students as well. So each player must acquire 100 volunteers.

3. Buildings

What is a school without a schoolhouse? Having a centralized location can create stability and solidarity. Build a campus in the middle of the board consisting of 4 houses, each house costing $200.