We’re looking for a new school for the geekling, and I’m blogging the whole fascinating process. If you missed it, the first two installments were the black-crayon-banning Seattle Waldorf School, and the school/homeless food delivery service Giddens.
The next school we graced with our under-caffeinated presence was the Spruce Street School.
The trump card for the Spruce Street School is that, as far as mass transit in Seattle is concerned, all roads lead to downtown, so the school is very easily accessible, and when you’re working 40 hours a week, that’s a huge factor. Also, it will be two blocks from a light rail station starting in 2009.
The music program is really impressive. All the kids learn marimba, and since there is no way to play a marimba out of key, they sound really fantastic after a few months. I wonder about the adults there though. I think listening to marimba music at work all day every day would drive me up the wall.
They have a theater program with a heavy emphasis on Shakespeare. That’s awesome. Their playground (including climbing wall) is on the roof. Also awesome.
They also have three-week “elective” periods, where teachers sign up to teach random stuff like cooking or contra dancing or juggling, and kids from any grade can sign up for the class.
They don’t have the mission or vision that we saw so strongly at Giddens.
The curriculum was extremely American-centric. They learn all about democracy and American media, and elections and presidents, but they don’t seem to learn anything about the rest of the world. Seems to me like becoming a global-citizen is an absolute requirement for being a functioning adult today, let alone ten years from now.
The weirdest part of the whole tour was that the entire school is carpeted. I’ve never seen a school with carpeting before. It seems terribly inefficient. Not sure why it bothers me so much. I just feel like schools shouldn’t be carpeted.
Overall, our opinion was mixed. The location is amazing, but the school itself seems pretty average.
