What School Should Be: On Architecture
I want my kids to attend a school where the architecture amplifies student IQ.
There are physical spaces that make you feel smarter. Have you ever read literature at quartersawn oak tables beneath the gothic chandeliers of a vaulted reading room? Have you ever conducted an experiment in a glass-paneled, chrome-plated laboratory with banks of LED screens and biometric access? (To quote Dr. Seuss, “If you haven’t, you should.”) We think our best thoughts in spaces that were designed for thinking.
Imagine primary schools painted in dancing bright low-VOC colors and filled with inspiring quotations and rotating art installations. Twisting slides and live music fill the halls. Tech labs look like they were plucked from a spy novel. Rockstar VIP lounges reward kids who achieve, behave, and collaborate. Cafeterias are not linear slop troughs, but rather health and nutrition classrooms with abundant labels, fresh ingredients, round tables and plates, and cold water as the default beverage.
Secondary schools might be garbed in overzealous ivy behind shag green lawns, or they could be clad in titanium, glass, and concrete. Inside, they have wide, locker-free hallways with charging stations and fire hydrant wifi. The only lockers are in expansive industrial-grade locker-rooms, since device-toting students don’t need to swap out textbooks and folders between classes. Classrooms boast mix-and-match tables and chairs, red velvet couches, HD projectors facing every wall, and every input and output format imaginable. Libraries offer leather club chairs with retractable tablet stands beside electric fireplaces. Through a curtain of tempered glass, stainless steel media labs beckon students with a swivel ergonomic chair at each workstation.
But the buildings are not the entirety of the learning environment, since classes often meet outdoors or beyond school walls. When the weather is fair and the topic is mobile, an English class will be sprawled out beneath a broad chestnut tree and a biology class will be walking with sketchbooks along the nearest nature trail. The community is the school’s learning lab, and students here assume that it’s normal to learn about chemistry in a polymer factory, to query local politicians about school safety, and to play checkers with Korean War veterans at a retirement home.
