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Written for TCS News, produced by Eighth Grade Language Arts students, December 2022

Winter 2019

October 2018. To read the full announcement, nally realized what was obvious--of course he’s bored.

The College School is a school like no other. It is a school that focuses on hands-on and outdoor learning. It is a school where kids get to grow up learning how to be mature, confident, and independent at a young age. I want to focus on what makes it so unique. I asked teachers, staff, and students why they think it is a special place, their favorite parts about it, and why they think it is like no other school.

The world he functions in is incred ibly different than the one in which I grew up. It moves at a lightning pace, and what happens at school must engage students in a way that understands this change in our culture. We don’t have to move more quickly, but we do have to educate stu dents more dynamically. And what does that look like?

Milana, an eighth grader, has been at TCS for 11 years. Milana said, “The assemblies and singing the song brings everyone together, and we get to connect as a community.” She also said trust is a big thing. “Teachers can trust the kids, and kids can trust each other. This is something most schools don’t have.”

As a young child, I was drawn to cozy nooks and small spaces to play and explore. Whether it was a closet floor that turned into a makeshift library or a seat found within a large cardboard box that turned into an imaginative spaceship, these spaces were inviting, inspiring, and full of wonder. As an educator, I wondered if the same holds for my students. Would they find small spaces full of creativity and big ideas like I had? This question turned into an experiment as I placed a small, framed piece of artwork that had once belonged to a dollhouse, just inside the frame of the studio easel. A small, paper arrow became the simple, nearly hidden invitation for the children to take a peek inside.

Students have to find their own an swers. Our students need to be curious, imaginative, and inquisitive. In my first few months here, I’ve seen that approach in action. Our teachers are guides, facilitators, and partners on this path. Much has changed in the past fifty-five years, but the reason this school was founded remains very much the same. n

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Within a month, a kindergartener spotted the small artwork and quickly shared the find with friends. The group became curious, wondering from where the image came, who had put it there, and if others could be added around it. Inspiration swirled as we cut tiny pieces of paper and cardboard to use for additional miniature pieces of art. The first ones were created with pen and colored pencils and quickly installed in the space behind the easel. Once finished with an original composition, the Kindergarten children would adhere their works to cardboard “frames” that were then hung up on one of the easel’s inner panels. The small, a-frame space became a favorite spot for viewing newly added pieces.

As the first group’s excitement caught on throughout the Kindergarten class, it became time to expand upon the mediums available to the children. New pieces were created in watercolor, collage, and oil pastel, adding variety and depth to the growing collection. As more and more works of art populated the panels, we began to have conversations about the space, what it could be, and how it should be used. The children decided that the space was best used as a museum and thus it became known as The Hidden Museum. In small groups, the kindergartners set expectations for appropriate artwork sizes, mediums, and topics.

Within our conversations, the children shared their knowledge and experiences of art museums they had visited. Someone noted that many different sculptures could be found in museums. This led the class to establish a new

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