Why do children at FSC love school?
Foundations School Community, an alternative/progressive kindergarten, elementary and middle school in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, has determined several reasons why children love to learn at our progressive K-8th grade school.
One of the reasons is because our social studies core curriculum utilizes subject matter that is relevant to their developmental level and presented in an interesting, experience-based way. For example, 3rd graders studying Native Americans in a traditional school would read about Native Americans, write about them, watch movies about them, visit a museum to look at Native American artifacts, or draw pictures they see in books of Native American art. At Foundations School Community, our kids literally “become” Native Americans. They go out where the Native American live, make spears, make yucca necklaces, make pump drills, make fire the way Native Americans made fire, prepare the acorn mush, hike and find the herbs that were used for medicinal purposes, and learn the dances and songs Native Americans sang.
Furthermore, at FSC, in addition to a strong academic curriculum, we address other critical issues of our students development. Attention on social/emotional issues is crucial in preventing bullying. If kids feel bad socially and emotionally, they aren’t able to attend cognitively to learn. Emotional safety is critical in school! Kindergarten, elementary school and middle school students at San Fernando’s Foundations School Community experience a high level of safety in their daily school environment.
Feeling connected to teachers also promotes a desire to learn. Foundations School Community teachers genuinely care about every child. All of our teachers go out of their way to develop personal relationships with the students. Teachers often have lunch with kids, make special time for them, and play with the kids. Our philosophy at Foundations School Community is that if you can “REACH” a child, then you can TEACH that child anything!
Providing a non-competitive environment where students feel safe to share their thoughts and opinions allow students to embrace learning on all levels. In competitive learning environments where kids are valued for being smarter and quicker than their peers, children who learn more slowly or learn differently are often left feeling isolated and negative about themselves. Many of these kids begin to feel that they are incapable of learning and they are not smart. So they stop trying and “shut down.” They dislike school and don’t want their peers to find out that they’re “not smart.” They try to hide and not answer questions or share their ideas and their thinking. At Foundations School Community we do not give letter grades or create an atmosphere of competitive learning. Every child’s thoughts are welcome and valued. We place an emphasis on process and sharing your thinking, not on being right or wrong. Taking guesses is important. Children are not pushed early to learn cognitive skills. Rather, their learning is accomplished developmentally, through rich hands-on learning experiences and age-appropriate activities.
Having fun at school is important! At Foundations School Community, our alternative/progressive approach allows us to create a lively, nurturing atmosphere, and we have lots of fun. We work hard, but we also offer many hands-on learning projects that are fun. There’s a great balance between pencil, paper, and hands-on projects. Children learn a lot more through experience-based projects, and they’re always a lot of fun. We also take many field trips that are exceptional learning opportunities not always found in traditional schools.
The proof is in the pudding: our kids leave Foundations School Community to go on to Los Angeles’ best high schools, where they excel, thrive and ultimately attend America’s finest colleges and universities!
