Shopfront Schools
. . . the Children’s Home provides the beginning of learning and forms the foundation of the Network of Learning in a community. As children grow older and more independent, these patterns must be supplemented by a mass of tiny institutions, schools and yet not schools, dotted among the living functions of the community.
Problem:
Around the age of 6 or 7, children develop a great need to learn by doing, to make their mark on a community outside the home. If the setting is right, these needs lead children directly to basic skills and habits of learning.
Background & Research: Not Included on the site—Go read the book!
Solution:
Instead of building large public schools for children 7 to 12, set up tiny independent schools, one school at a time. Keep the school small, so that its overheads are low and a teacher-student ratio of 1:10 can be maintained. Locate it in the public part of the community, with a shopfront and three or four rooms.
Usage:
Place the school on a pedestrian street—Pedestrian Street; near other functioning workshops—Self-Governing Workshops and Offices and within walking distance of a park—Accessible Green. Make it an identifiable part of the building it is part of—Building Complex; and give it a good strong opening at the front, so that it is connected with the street—Opening to the Street . . .
pg. 420