What are your values?” This is a question we at Sierra Prep Academy (SPA) ask ourselves every day as we contend with myriad operational decisions.
Fortunately, the answer is very simple—community. It is the concept at the heart of our mission, and every activity at SPA. Be it curricular or administrative, it must serve the development of a community of learners.
As is often the case, upholding one’s values can be challenging when faced with the harsh realities of things like budgets. Many schools in the East Valley have had to make difficult decisions recently, and communities have been unsettled. Establishing Sierra Prep as a tuition-free, public charter school, in the East Mesa/Apache Junction region, is one way in which we are trying to help the larger East Valley develop meaningful communities.
The word community gets used rather a lot, but rarely does it seem to have substantive meaning. Not long ago, I heard someone refer to the Facebook community, which, according to a recent statistic, involves 1.4 billion people. While Facebook may be predicated upon gathering friends, I suggest more than one billion people do not truly constitute a community of individuals with shared values and goals.
As many as 100 to 300 people is considered the ideal range for community size, according to anthropologists and sociologists. Experience tells us smaller groups tend to function better when trying to establish commitment, mutuality and trust. This is why we at Sierra Prep have a target of 250 students total for grades 6 through 12, and 292 students as the absolute maximum.
No one school can serve the needs of everyone, but in a small community, the needs of every student can be met. Every element of Sierra Prep, including a sustainable budget model, has been designed with this in mind. Here are just a few examples:
Small Class Sizes
Sierra Prep has a maximum of 22 students per class (20 students per class—grades nine through 12) and two sections per grade. With small classes, teachers will know their students well, and will be able to provide individualized attention. As a result, we deliberately will build strong relationships, which will, in turn, create an enduring community.
Socratic Method
If we are to avoid the traditional hierarchy of learners, in which a teacher lectures from a lofty position, in the misguided effort to merely fill students with information, then, our methodology must be atypical. Ironically, the Socratic Method, which we employ, is more than 2,500 years old, but is far less common than it ought to be. In a Socratic seminar, in which students and teachers sit in a circular collegial setting, teachers guide questioning in order to capitalize upon student curiosity and insight. Students do not proffer answers they think the teacher wants to hear, but talk to each other in an effort to find truth through collective logical discourse. Meaningful conversation is not as easy as some might suppose, but it is a certain path toward developing camaraderie, shared purpose and community.
Meridian Collations and Post-Prandial Caesuras
Otherwise known as lunch and recess, these are essential restorative elements for a healthy environment promoting community. At Sierra Prep, teachers and students all take lunch together. On certain days each week, students will have assigned seats, so that they have the opportunity to engage with students from other grades and sections.
We also have two opportunities for recess at SPA—a 15-minute break in the morning and 30 minutes following lunch, which may be used entirely at the discretion of the student. Brains, like muscles, need rest in order to operate at peak performance. Rest helps significantly reduce stress, which, in turn, enables positive socialization.
The Leonardo Da Vinci Maker Space
As important as the classroom is, extracurricular activities are just as important for building friendships and creating fellowship. At SPA, we have planned for a number of activities, including music, fine arts, language clubs, speech and debate. Our new Maker Space will be the centerpiece of the school. Helping students make connections between the material covered in class and their individual agency in the world is one of our highest goals as an educational institution.
The Maker Space, in particular, will be a collaborative learning environment, which takes its inspiration from both Renaissance art studios and 21st century engineering workshops. As students work together, to build rockets or Rube Goldberg machines, or use laser cutters and 3-D printers, community will be strengthened on a daily basis.
Since we are a school based upon the great books, it is perhaps fitting to end by quoting from de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, in which he comments upon the American tendency to join in voluntary associations, saying, “Feelings and ideas are renewed, the heart enlarged, and the understanding developed, only by the reciprocal action of men one upon another.” How many problems in our current educational system could be significantly mitigated by one-on-one interactions, which increase understanding and refresh the heart and mind? Where else is this more possible than in a true community of learners?
For more information about Sierra Prep Academy, located at 7464 E. Main St., call (480) 440-0238.