Session 1 Week 5
Town Hall meetings are an important part of self-governance at The Village School. This week Spark heroes learned about this tradition and took it very seriously, as a tool that they will use as they move up into Elementary studios as well as when they are members and citizens of larger communities. Each week moving forward Heroes will participate in a Town Hall Meeting where they are able to bring up important studio issues that need airing. If a hero has something they would like to discuss they write their name on our meeting sign-up and they have a chance to propose alterations to studio systems or any other situation impacting the community.
This week’s discussion brought up many issues. One hero noticed that often when working with our watercolor paint, the water cup got spilled. To prevent this, she suggested only filling the cup to a certain height. A diagram was drawn on the whiteboard and the hero counted and tallied votes for the height of the water. The next day was the first of the week that the tables remained dry, as everyone held each other accountable for carefully filling the water cup to the measurement that they had agreed upon. Other points of discussion included safety with sticks outside, using both sides of the paper, and pillow set up during quiet time.
As our afternoon projects have centered around big concepts like peace and kindness, the heroes talk about children around the world and how they play and want to be safe just like us. They picked up trash in the forest as an act of kindness to the earth and made a banner of flags with “peace” written in the language of their choosing.
These big concepts manifest themselves in the details of school routines through out our days. Heroes use their sense of fairness in disputes and empathize when someone is hurt or distraught. Town meetings are a clear avenue of communication within our studio.They give a space and time to talk through these topics that are most important to the heroes. It is a system that empowers them and provides the tools they need to be heard and in charge of their learning.
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