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indi_timberpathDad reminded me that I should talk here about sorta a big change in my life that actually happened a while ago but I guess is still worth mentioning: I go to regular school now! For a while I was home-schooled, partly because of how far we live from the city, and partly because me and my dad were both worried that the regular schools wouldn't do a good job with what I need.
Home-schooling was actually really great for me in a lot of ways, but it also got kinda lonely and isolating, and things got to a point where the stuff I was wanting to learn wasn't stuff that Dad was confident teaching. Fortunately, in the time that I wasn't going to school, we found out about a really good place that I could go, that dealt with a lot of the problems.
Kirreteuro Academy is sort of on the outskirts of the city, and it's not at all a normal school. There's only about 20 kids, for starters, and they're in all different age groups. That means that things are really personalized for everyone. There are four regular teachers, and it's run out of what used to be someone's house. So basically, it ends up being a lot like home-schooling, but with more folks around and people who are more experienced in teaching all sorts of things. I really like it, it's such a huge difference from any other school I've been to that I hardly know where to start talking about it.
I guess the teachers are a good place to start. Jack and Alex are probably the right ones to talk about first. They sort of started the school, because they also have a kid who they thought wouldn't be covered very well by regular school systems. Jack is really cool, my dad calls him an "old hippie", he's super-laid-back and knows a lot of stuff about music and art and culture. He's lived in a lot of different places in the world, and likes to share stories. He even has a local radio show where he plays all sorts of music I've never heard before. His wife Alex seems a bit more like a typical teacher, she mostly does administrative stuff for the school but she also teaches history, in a way that I actually find interesting rather than boring!
The two other regular teachers are Mal and Eve. Mal is probably my favorite, because he teaches math and science, he does it in a kinda goofy way that involves lots of analogies and chalkboard drawings, which helps me a lot; I'm realizing I'm definitely what the folks there call a 'visual learner'. It's kinda cool how math class works since everyone's in a different place. We have books, and we work from books and go to the teachers if we need help thinking through something. It's really impressive how much Mal knows, and it's exciting how much I'm learning. I think I got through a whole year of pre-algebra before Glowtide!
Eve teaches language and literature, which in this cases means I'm reading and discussing books with kids who are a lot older than me. It was kind of intimidating at first, both because of the reading and because Eve is kind of strict, but it turns out she's strict in a way that's really helpful, like she makes sure everyone gets a chance in discussions, which is good because sometimes the big kids really want to talk over me and talk down to me. I also saw a really cool other side to her a couple weeks ago. We were taking a field trip to the local newspaper and we stopped off where she lives, which is sort of a loft apartment thing except the whole bottom part was racks of movie posters and other collectibles like that. It turns out her and her boyfriend also have a business selling those. We saw some original posters from some of my favorite movies, even ones that are older than me. Did you know movie posters are printed on both sides so that they look good when they're lit from behind?
The other thing I really want to talk about is the school area itself. It was originally a house, but it's really big and has a whole bunch of other buildings around it too. There's a little greenhouse, some chicken and pigeon coops (we learned how to help take care of them our first week here, and it'e easier than I thought it would be) and even a two-story treehouse in a huge tree in the back yard. But my favorite place is the music room. I guess it was originally sort of like some sort of cellar or basement or something because it's basically below the house but you go into it from a separate door. And it's absolutely filled with music stuff. The walls are covered in crates of records, and there's a drum set and a fancy keyboard and all kinds of weird instruments from around the world. It's obviously one of Jack's favorite places, and he has shared a lot of music with us, and showed us how to use the instruments a bit too. Of course I tried out the drum set first. Jack says I have pretty good rhythm, but I think I like melodies better, because what I've really been having fun with is the keyboard, playing with all the different sounds it can make, or setting it up to do its own rhythm and improvising things on top of that. I'm not sure if I'll ever make something I want to share with other people, but I'm having a ton of fun trying things out.
There's so much more I could say about it (and I probably will) but I think that gives a good idea for now. It's so weird and cool to actually be looking forward to going to school. I mean I always loved learning, but it feels really special to have such a supportive place to do it that's acutally still called 'school'
Home-schooling was actually really great for me in a lot of ways, but it also got kinda lonely and isolating, and things got to a point where the stuff I was wanting to learn wasn't stuff that Dad was confident teaching. Fortunately, in the time that I wasn't going to school, we found out about a really good place that I could go, that dealt with a lot of the problems.
Kirreteuro Academy is sort of on the outskirts of the city, and it's not at all a normal school. There's only about 20 kids, for starters, and they're in all different age groups. That means that things are really personalized for everyone. There are four regular teachers, and it's run out of what used to be someone's house. So basically, it ends up being a lot like home-schooling, but with more folks around and people who are more experienced in teaching all sorts of things. I really like it, it's such a huge difference from any other school I've been to that I hardly know where to start talking about it.
I guess the teachers are a good place to start. Jack and Alex are probably the right ones to talk about first. They sort of started the school, because they also have a kid who they thought wouldn't be covered very well by regular school systems. Jack is really cool, my dad calls him an "old hippie", he's super-laid-back and knows a lot of stuff about music and art and culture. He's lived in a lot of different places in the world, and likes to share stories. He even has a local radio show where he plays all sorts of music I've never heard before. His wife Alex seems a bit more like a typical teacher, she mostly does administrative stuff for the school but she also teaches history, in a way that I actually find interesting rather than boring!
The two other regular teachers are Mal and Eve. Mal is probably my favorite, because he teaches math and science, he does it in a kinda goofy way that involves lots of analogies and chalkboard drawings, which helps me a lot; I'm realizing I'm definitely what the folks there call a 'visual learner'. It's kinda cool how math class works since everyone's in a different place. We have books, and we work from books and go to the teachers if we need help thinking through something. It's really impressive how much Mal knows, and it's exciting how much I'm learning. I think I got through a whole year of pre-algebra before Glowtide!
Eve teaches language and literature, which in this cases means I'm reading and discussing books with kids who are a lot older than me. It was kind of intimidating at first, both because of the reading and because Eve is kind of strict, but it turns out she's strict in a way that's really helpful, like she makes sure everyone gets a chance in discussions, which is good because sometimes the big kids really want to talk over me and talk down to me. I also saw a really cool other side to her a couple weeks ago. We were taking a field trip to the local newspaper and we stopped off where she lives, which is sort of a loft apartment thing except the whole bottom part was racks of movie posters and other collectibles like that. It turns out her and her boyfriend also have a business selling those. We saw some original posters from some of my favorite movies, even ones that are older than me. Did you know movie posters are printed on both sides so that they look good when they're lit from behind?
The other thing I really want to talk about is the school area itself. It was originally a house, but it's really big and has a whole bunch of other buildings around it too. There's a little greenhouse, some chicken and pigeon coops (we learned how to help take care of them our first week here, and it'e easier than I thought it would be) and even a two-story treehouse in a huge tree in the back yard. But my favorite place is the music room. I guess it was originally sort of like some sort of cellar or basement or something because it's basically below the house but you go into it from a separate door. And it's absolutely filled with music stuff. The walls are covered in crates of records, and there's a drum set and a fancy keyboard and all kinds of weird instruments from around the world. It's obviously one of Jack's favorite places, and he has shared a lot of music with us, and showed us how to use the instruments a bit too. Of course I tried out the drum set first. Jack says I have pretty good rhythm, but I think I like melodies better, because what I've really been having fun with is the keyboard, playing with all the different sounds it can make, or setting it up to do its own rhythm and improvising things on top of that. I'm not sure if I'll ever make something I want to share with other people, but I'm having a ton of fun trying things out.
There's so much more I could say about it (and I probably will) but I think that gives a good idea for now. It's so weird and cool to actually be looking forward to going to school. I mean I always loved learning, but it feels really special to have such a supportive place to do it that's acutally still called 'school'
