Curiosity-Driven Education

We nurture student curiosity, awe, and wonder, and their questions and wonderings abound. For years, we’ve connected as many students as we can with experts relevant to their project topics. At Slate School, we have 4-5 project cycles each year where every one of our current 67 students select a project topic and then delve into their research and learning for 6-8 weeks each time. Books, resources, and experts are curated for the student projects. Among the many project experts who have visited with our students, we’ve had a physicist visit with a 1st grader studying roller coasters, an endocrinologist meet with 6th grade students studying diabetes and cancer, an ornithologist meet with a 1st grader studying birds, and a rugby coach meet with a student studying the sport. These individual conversations have been remarkably empowering and valuable to our students, and this year, we’ve expanded this concept to monthly Lunchtime Conversations, where an inspiring guest joins our Grade 5/6 students for a lunch conversation.

“Free Non-Verbal Music” is a flagship program at Slate School. We invite groups of 10 students to join together for 25 minutes of completely free, completely non-verbal musical expression. Instruments such as djembes, vibraphone, recorders, and piano, are placed around a central space. Friends are invited to sing, clap, hoot, howl, stomp, play, draw, lie down, dance, meditate, or do anything else without words. I am generally stationed at the drum set to help build a consensus beat that is sustained, which is a critical ingredient for human-made music’s power.