A School With No Curriculum?
by Kristin Simpson 

For a long time we advertised The Beach School as a school with "no curriculum". Of course this isn't really true. What we meant was that there was no common curriculum, that each student derived his or her own curriculum based on interests.  After a year and a half of working at the school on a daily basis, I have come to see that our advertisements were misleading in more than one way-- we do have a common curriculum. There are a number of things which I would say most or all students learn over time at a school like ours. Students here do not learn these things because they are required to by teachers or administrators or parents. In my experience, learning that is extrinsically motivated in this way is not necessarily deep learning-- people start to go through the motions if their motivation does not come from inside themselves. At The Beach School, students learn the 'curriculum' because they want to. They are motivated by the desire to have fun and by the desire to be part of a well-functioning community. This learning, then, becomes deeply part of who they are.  

When we speak of 'curriculum' in a school, we generally are referring to the subject areas students are expected to study. There is no common curriculum in this sense at The Beach School-- hence the claim of 'no curriculum'. But nevertheless, when we introduce people to the school, one of the first questions we hear is, "What do students learn?", meaning, "What subjects do they study?" This is usually where we introduce the idea of self- directed learning. We say that here students get to focus on their interests, and get the time and space to uncover their passions, without being pressured to stick to someone else's agenda of what is a valid use of your time at school. People who are interested in our school often want to know what activities students do here because it is evidence that they are learning something. It is reassuring to hear that students are not just staring out the windows. They are engaged in reading, writing, cooking, drawing, math, video games, philosophical conversations, building things, incidental math, informal debating, art, French, music, etc. Many of these things sound like the subjects that would fill a timetable in a traditional school-- or at least you can understand how someone could learn such things from some of these activities. For example, few public schools teach a class in video gaming, but you can argue that someone playing them could learn skills in logic, art appreciation, physical co-ordination, etc. This usually convinces people to some degree that there is value to this kind of education. But by focusing on the 'subjects' that students learn at TBS, I have come to believe that we see only a small part of its curriculum, and probably not the most important part.  

The real curriculum at The Beach School, the curriculum everyone experiences through time at the school, focuses on what students learn about themselves, what they learn interacting with others, and what they learn about learning itself. When people talk about traditional schooling, these areas are often called the 'hidden' curriculum. This is because they make up a set of attitudes and values which are not usually explicitly taught, but which are acquired by students anyway through their experiences in the school. While most educational environments strive to produce students who feel confident in their own values, who believe in their own worth, who treat others fairly, who are curious about the world around them and who understand how to act on that curiosity, I believe that our school teaches these things with an unusual degree of success. This is because of its democratic nature. In a democracy, there is no authority telling you what to do. Instead, you have an equal say with everyone else on how things should be done. This means that each member of the school will have to grapple with and learn from two things: boredom, because no one is going to tell you how to fill your time or make the necessary arrangements for you, and community-building, because everyone needs to help create a place where they enjoy being. These are strong internal motivators for learning many aspects of The Beach School's curriculum. 

One aspect of our school's common curriculum is self-knowledge. This is because boredom will eventually force you to figure out what your interests are. And when you know what you want to do, your next step will be figuring out how you want to learn it-- you will not just be assigned the appropriate course with the set assignments. Instead, you will have to figure out, either on your own or with the help of other students or staff, how you will pursue this subject. Are you a person who learns by reading, by being taught, or by doing? Or by some combination of these? What sort of person makes a good teacher for you? Do you like to learn alone or in a group? Students at TBS discover their learning styles through introspection, discussion with others, and trial and error. Knowing how you learn is a great resource which helps you to keep learning new things throughout your life, because you know how to do this in a way that works for you.  

Another thing students learn at TBS is organization. Students learn how to get practical things done for themselves -- how do I cook my lunch? how do I make this piece of technology work? where can I find supplies to do this project? They also learn a lot about organizing group activities. They know how to participate in meetings, such as School Meeting and JC. But also they know how to organize in less formally structured ways. Maybe if you want to do something here, someone else will take charge and organize it for you, if they have exactly the same interests as you, but the likelihood of this happening regularly is slim. If you want to do something, you  will usually have to be part of the process for planning how it is going to get done. It could be something as simple as getting someone to go to the corner store with you, or something as complicated as writing and producing a play. In just the last few days, I can think of many examples of people organizing things.  

Yesterday a group of boys held a meeting to discuss how they might make money from an unused vending machine in a hallway downstairs. Some of them found a 1-800 number on the machine and called up Coca- Cola to find out more information. They learned the machine was the responsibility of a previous tenant in our building, so they found that organization in the phone book and called them up. The organization is now doing some research of their own (because they have not used the machine in some time) and is getting back to the group. This is a totally student-initiated and student-run project, which is not uncommon. At TBS, there is a huge amount of learning that occurs with any project that would simply get passed by if it were all set up and arranged by others, as often happens for children in our society.  

Another example of student organization is the planning for an upcoming school play. So far this has included finding out who is interested in participating, adapting a student's story into play form, finding possible directors, organizing an interview and other planning meetings with the selected director, and creating a rough budget. Recently we met to finalize a draft contract to be signed by all participants prior to taking our budgeting requests to School Meeting. The group spent over an hour and a half discussing the scheduling of rehearsal and performance dates, the various roles of each person involved in the production, and the commitment expected of all participants. Again, this is not an adult-run project. It is totally a group effort, where everyone participates in working through the details of taking an idea and making it into a practical reality.  

Time and again, visitors who come into our school or people who see us out in the community comment on how mature our students seem, and I think a large part is because they know how to organize themselves. I remember when a TBS group went to an animation workshop at the National Film Board that included a large group of students from another, more traditional school. Our students had initiated and helped plan the field trip, so all were really eager to participate in it. At the workshop, our group spontaneously sat down to plan their animated scene, trying to negotiate so that everyone in the group had input and felt happy with the end result. When they saw there was a line-up to use the camera, they decided to rehearse while they were waiting. The teachers accompanying the larger group were walking around guiding their students through the process. Clearly our group was much more self-directed, and a number of the teachers from the other group had questions for me about what kind of school I was with. Instructors we have hired from the community to teach classes at TBS have also told me they have been very impressed with the way that students have called them up, explained the kind of class they are looking for, and then invited them in for an interview where they are asked about what they have to offer as teachers, including their teaching style and sample activities, and asked to discuss scheduling and budget. People do not expect students to be this organized. 

Another thing students learn at TBS is communication. There is a big emphasis at our school on talking to other students and staff. Many people spend hours every day hanging out and talking with others (often while doing other activities, sometimes not). People learn how to express all kinds of ideas. In a way, this is initially motivated by the boredom that a democratic school forces people to address, because talking about all kinds of stuff and discussing different people's opinions is a major source of entertainment at our school. Even if you are not a big talker, you will probably get asked your opinion on a fairly regular basis.  

Also, the way the school is set up assumes that if you want something, or you want help with something, you will ask for it. No one is trying to anticipate all your wants and needs. This process can involve learning to get up the courage to approach someone to ask for something, and learning how to say what you want so that the person you are talking with understands what you are asking for. Sometimes it involves speaking up in a formal setting, like making a motion at School Meeting or telling your impression about some incident at JC. Because we are a close community, and conversation is such a major activity at our school, other people will often jump in to help you if you are struggling to get your point across successfully. Sometimes this process also includes learning how to use conversational style to your advantage-- how to get someone's attention successfully, how to phrase something in a way that will make them more likely to agree to do what you would like, how to approach awkward or difficult topics.  

People at TBS also learn how to use writing to convey their thoughts-- this could mean posting a sign to try to organize an activity, or taking notes at a meeting, or writing a JC complaint or a SM motion, or using writing to organize your thoughts on a topic you feel nervous talking about. All this is in addition to writing that people do for pleasure. We are quite a print-intensive environment.  

You need to learn to communicate at TBS because there is an enormous amount of pressure from the community to do so. You will often hear someone being told that they should talk to others if they want to organize something or sort out a problem.  More often than not, it is a student telling another student this, not staff. It is deeply entrenched in the community.  

Another aspect of the common curriculum at TBS is basically how to get along with other people. Direct democracy takes some getting used to, and there were certainly growing pains when we first opened last year. But now there is a general feeling that we are a community, and that we need to deal with each other in a way that is by and large respectful. There is a huge focus on ethics at our school. Everyone has been part of many debates over what is fair. These take place when we make rules, and when we enforce rules. They also form part of the more subtle process of each community member learning to balance what they want with what is best for the community as a whole. One of the beauties of our school is that people learn, in a deep way, lessons like, "I really feel like hitting him but I won't because I don't want to be part of a community where hitting people in anger is okay." This is quite complex and abstract. But we deal with these things regularly.  

Because everyone has a chance to participate in rule-making and deciding what happens when rules are broken, this process teaches over time intensive lessons in community-building. One of our students summed it up when she said one day in JC, to someone who she felt needed to hear this, "This is a school where every individual has rights. But the community has rights too." Nearly everyone in JC that day said they agreed with her that our school's job is a balancing act between these two sets of rights. From what I see, when you have rights yourself, it is much easier to learn to appreciate the rights of others. This may take some time, but it happens. And it is not a case of parroting what you know you are supposed to say, because you are free to disagree-- it is a case of developing firm ethical beliefs, and being able to debate them, and usually to act on them.  

People at our school learn over time how to form solid relationships with each other. People learn how to negotiate with each other, and to enforce boundaries-- to tell someone when you don't like what they are doing, and then to do something effective (and non-violent) about it if they do not stop. They also learn to think about how their actions will affect others. For example, just the other day, a picnic to the beach was organized, but then some people decided they didn't want to go because it was raining. Of the people who still did want to go, some could have left anyway because their open campus policy allows them to leave without a staff member (who needed to stay in the school with those who had changed their minds). But they decided, after a long discussion, that it would not be fair to those who were not allowed to go without a staff member to leave them behind. They also could have called a vote which, if 3/4 agreed, would have forced the reluctant ones to go anyway (based on a school rule devised out of similar circumstances last year) but they decided not to, as they thought forcing people to go out in the rain against their will would not be fair. These kinds of discussions about fairness are very common at school. Even people I have met at local businesses who see our students out in the community together comment on their level of co-operation and thoughtfulness towards each other. This does not mean that everyone always gets along, or agrees. But it is certainly part of the common learning at our school.  

At our school, you also learn little practical things you can use all your life-- things about how to take care of yourself and your environment. This again arises out of the fact that structure is created by the members of the community, not imposed from outside. We have no set lunch hour, so you have to learn to eat when you are hungry-- sometimes by melting down at the end of the day from hunger many times before you figure it out. This might seem like a small thing to learn, but it's actually pretty hard to do even for some of us adults! Another seemingly minor but important life lesson is learning (eventually) to clean up after yourself-- not necessarily because you are nagged (although that happens, both by staff and fellow students) but because no one has the job of doing it for you. This policy results in a lot of mess at school at times, but in the end people have decided that ideally they would like a clean school.  They have created rules about cleaning up your own mess and these are enforced by the student-dominated JC.  This is all part of the self-regulation students learn at our school.  

So are we a school with no curriculum? Students at The Beach School learn skills in their areas of interest. They learn, either formally or incidentally to their other interests,  useful traditional academic skills, such as reading, writing, and math. They learn, also often incidentally, general knowledge in areas like geography, history, and science that will help them understand our world better. But the real curriculum of our school is not subject-specific knowledge. It is how to take care of yourself, how to entertain yourself, how to learn what you want or need to know, how to take responsibility for your own actions or inactions, how to function as an effective member of a community. Subject-specific knowledge can be valuable, but my guess is that later in their lives the TBS learning that our students will really treasure are those derived from our common curriculum.