The Three Paths of Attention & The Joy of Learning: Planting Culture
The Schoolhouse model uses a unique variety of approaches to accomplish two essential points: 1) sincere student enjoyment and 2) high-level cognitive activities rooted in time-tested methods and materials. The Schoolhouse model, however, relies on something even more fundamental: sustaining a deep culture.
To build and preserve a warm, positive culture should be every school’s first concern. Of course, some sort of culture will come about regardless; cultures are self-reinforcing, and every culture takes on a life of its own. But what does a deep culture feed upon? How does it sustain? A culture of sophistication, rationality, and creativity requires constant care and intention to keep it from falling into something irrational, shallow, and empty. Rich culture requires a first step: a reason for functioning that builds toward a lofty end goal. The point is whether a school, or any entity, can develop first a compelling and dynamic purpose for existing, a purpose powerful enough to replenish the need for doing meaningful things with our lives.
Within the body of our Schoolhouse culture, character growth acts as our central nervous system, informing all other systems. And since a culture of character building is our main goal, we focus on the process of how students ascend in their conduct and thinking. Growth is our focus, and we summarize student growth in our Character Maps. We “map” our students three times a year, detailing three central aspects of their growth: in KNOWLEDGE, GENIUS, & HEART (collectively referred to as the Three Paths of Attention).
1) Knowledge refers to a child’s ability to attend to scholastic work and duty. It manifests in number literacy, word literacy, nature study, and the arts. Think of Knowledge as a students’ ability to complete their schoolwork dutifully.
2) Genius refers to a child’s ability to attend to ideas and experiences in creative ways. It manifests in insight, wonder, finishing power, and delivery. Think of Genius as a students’ ability to think deeply about large ideas, create, and be curious.
3) Heart refers to a child’s ability to attend to their community and the people in it. It manifests in warmth, dignity, honesty, and teamwork. Think of Heart as a student’s ability to be a good person in a fundamental way.
One of the most powerful ways we see our students’ characters develop is the way they come to see their personal learning as genuinely joyful. In other words, our students eventually stop distinguishing between high-level learning and “fun,” (i.e., learning = joy). Could anything be better for a school? Our students study grammar and arithmetic and history and logic, and what many of them see at the end of each school day is “a good, fun time.” This speaks volumes to the dedication of our teachers, our learning form, and our point of study. When our children tell their parents, “we had fun today, we played,” I urge them to delve deeper into their child’s learning, using our daily updates as their compass. They’re sure to find that their children are so engaged in learning rich and meaningful things that they view “fun” and “study” as indistinguishable activities.
When students see number exercises, grammar practice, Shakespeare, Bach, public speaking, and logic puzzles as a good time, Northern Schoolhouse sees the value of a proper schooling in action. When sophisticated learning and joy merge together, deep culture has taken root.
