Announcing The Forest School's "Overarching Question" for the 2020-2021 school year!

 

We're thrilled to share that after great discussion, brainstorming, and feedback from learners, parents, and Guides, we have "landed the plane" on an overarching question for The Forest School's third year.

The 2019-2020 overarching question will be...

Drum roll please...

How might we learn and love across lines of difference?

In an election year.

In an intentionally diverse environment.

In a state that is hungry for racial reconciliation.

In a nation where division is often chosen instead of redemption.

At The Forest School, our commitment is Learning to Live Together.

Here’s how this question will be broken down over the year:

For each Session we’ll explore character traits that are crucial for learning and loving across lines of difference:

  1. Trust

  2. Growth mindset

  3. Cross cultural competence

  4. Storytelling

  5. Empathy

  6. Collaboration

  7. Social capital 

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 Context and significance:

Each year at The Forest School we choose an overarching question to guide our curriculum planning and tie together various aspects of the day into one cohesive package. Throughout the year, Guides and learners return to this question over and over. In addition, Tyler also discusses the question and themes in parent meetings.

For example, here are some of the ways that another Acton Academy tied back to the question "What motivates a hero?" Each student wrote a own personal motivational motto to stick onto his or her desk. The topic of one Socratic discussion was, “What motivates you more: hearing a hero’s story, setting and reaching your own goals, being publicly recognized for your effort and work, or being able to track your progress with a system of points and rewards?” For a project, learners considered, “As an entrepreneur, are you more motivated to use your gifts and talents, make the greatest profit, or fill the greatest need?”

Examples of overarching questions other Acton Academies have used in previous years include:


* What does it mean to be human? Can a robot become a human or vice versa?
* Does power corrupt?
* Does the past determine the future?
* What motivates a hero?
* When does a Hero submit to authority?
* Must a Hero conquer fear to find true love?

In deciding our overarching question, we knew that some of our learners and parents/caregivers wanted to share ideas and feedback before the overarching question was finalized.

In the spirit of brainstorming (ie, there were no wrong answers), we loved hearing awesome suggestions from multiple community members.

In the end, we were inspired most by choosing a question for this year that allowed us to help learners, Guides, and parents think deeply about one of our pillars at The Forest School: Learning to Live Together.

If you have ideas for how we can make the most of the above questions, we welcome your feedback on our Facebook page.

banner image via

 
Tyler Thigpen