This week we looked at the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry with Jeff Hopkins. PSII is an alternative school in which students focus their time on projects and inquiry based on what they are interested in, rather than sitting for 4-5 periods a day being lectured in a regular high school. The students here, despite not learning in the traditional way, do better on average in mathematics, science, humanities, etc. Though despite the success over the past years, I do not believe their style of teaching will become wholly adopted, rather, some parts of what and how they do things will be taken and weaved into the public school system. This may include things like their focus on inquiry-based learning for certain subjects or classes, with other traditionally taught classes. I do also believe, however, that for certain students, PSII’s style of education may work better.

Another school like PSII is The Victoria School for Ideal Education. VSIE is a k-8 independent school with small class sized to maximize the amount of time the teacher can spend with each student. Additionally, they incorporate meditation into their daily schedule to help the students with their mental health, memory, academics, etc. Finally, VSIE ensures that they nurture their students understanding of the world and environment around them.