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Those factory-style schools like to use the word pedagogy, which comes from Greek words that mean “leading or training a child.” But factory-school pedagogy keeps factory-school students dependent and child-like even when they’re ready (or more than ready) to soar on their own. At Three Column Network schools, we love two even sillier-sounding Greek words instead. There’s andragogy, which means “leading or training an adult person,” and there’s heutagogy, which means “leading or training yourself.”

 

When you put the two together, you get a very good idea of what a day (or a week, a month, or a year) at a Three Column Network school looks like. Our goal is to help our young learners become mature, self-directed learners who can actually lead themselves and others to the next phase of their learning.

 

Take that mental picture of a school you imagined earlier. Now, one at a time, let’s remove the factory-style elements and replace them with things that belong in a joyful learning community. The building itself isn’t ugly; it’s beautiful, and most Three Column Network schools will be located in interesting, historic buildings that we restore and lovingly redesign. Picture a set of interesting, attractive doors and a reception area where you feel welcome and at home. There might even be some plants (and if they’re there, our learners were responsible for choosing them, growing them, watering them, and taking care of them). If there’s a reception desk, the person greeting you is smiling and welcoming … and that person might be a parent or even an older learner. You can see a large, open space full of interesting “stuff,” everything from computers to high-tech equipment to floor cushions and even piles of … what’s that over there? Depending on the “Phase” of the school, there might be as few as ten learners with a single “learning guide,” or there might be as many as eighty or even a hundred learners with a “lead learning guide” and four or five “assistant learning guides.”

 

We aim for one learning guide for every 15-20 learners. Factory-schools may claim lower numbers, but they do some interesting math to get them.  People who spend the whole day in those busy offices, never interacting with a single student, get counted as "teachers," and schools will claim "teacher-student ratios" of 15 to 1 when actual class sizes are 30, 35, 40, or more.  But in Three Column Network schools, you’ll find one adult learning guide for every 15-20 young learners, and those learning guides will be working with learners throughout the day

 

There’s a constant flow of activity as the learners and guides work together (and sometimes by themselves, and sometimes in different-sized groups) making interesting things … things that “just happen” to combine each learner’s interests with important real-world knowledge, skills, and understandings. Different-aged learners are working together, and some are even creating or refining “stuff” that other learners will use in their own learning. You might hear a small-group discussion of a great piece of literature or important world events; you might see rehearsals for a play or a concert; and you might even see us all making, eating, or cleaning up after a healthy meal. Bathrooms? They’re clean, and they’re decorated with learners’ art projects … and they stay clean because we clean them together. Lockers? Nowhere to be found, because we have work spaces we created and designed for ourselves. Hallways, worksheets, and bored-looking teachers giving boring lectures? No room for those in a joyful learning community where we build meaningful things together!