This might sound weird but the revolution in school has already started. In Turin a new school will arise: “The Possible School“, a primary school that will be different from the others: in this institute children will not do homework and teachers will not grade them. The revolutionary school will arise in Foggia Street and it will be open as from September 2017. Laura Milani, Director of Iaad (The Italian University for Design), is also the planner of the idea behind the “The Possible School” project.
The Possible School: where free time becomes important
The current idea of school, a remnant of an old cultural model, is no longer capable of representing current society in an appropriate manner. Today there’s only unidirectionl lessons that don’t allow children to develop creativity and fantasy. The concept of collaboration is not foreseen, except in some cases. This concept is, indeed, the heart of this particular project. Children and teachers will work every day in symbiosis.
This kind of school will aim at empowering kids and at making them more indipendent. Utmost confidence in their intelligence, but mostly on their talent. Children will have free time for other activities: because school, besides culture, must teach them to live, socialize and relate with people. Reading and studying it’s not enough: these two activities serve to enrich their cultural background but they are not all.
In this school there will be no homework: school hours, from 8am to 5 pm, is enough. Backpack is not necessary because all the course material is already present in the school. But above all, grades will no longer exist: in class they’ll be talking about projects to be carried out working together, moments of confrontation and relationship, in which students and teachers will both play a foundamental role.
A reversed approach, a very importante change of vision. A renewed school where kids don’t have to listen to teachers as automatons, but a place which values them and sustain their own ideas or thoughts.
School, as an institution, will remain the element that holds our society, altough more and more liquid, but students will be able to confront themselves and to reflect and improve: activities that we do less and less.
