Week 6 Reflection

This week I got to tour the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry and hear from the founder about the school’s structure and pedagogy. I found PSII really interesting, it’s obviously extremely different from my own small-town public high school experience and I can see how the independent inquiry-based structure can really align with some student’s learning styles. Personally, I don’t think teenage Annika would’ve thrived in a learning environment like this; I’ve always done well with well-defined structure and assignments. As a teacher, I feel similarly about the importance of routine and structure, for my own style and needs at least and I left the tour still feeling unsure as to what exactly a teacher’s day-to-day looks like at PSII, but I suppose that’s the point.

Some things I noticed missing from PSII’s structure were regular student collaboration and physical activity. Two components of traditional school that students often don’t actively seek out but are absolutely integral to adolescent development. I believe it’s important for students to experience productively challenging situations, like working with people they don’t naturally work well with or pushing themselves physically even when they don’t necessarily want to in the moment.

Additionally, I can’t help but consider how the aspect of tuition affects the school’s success. The founder mentioned that PSII experiences very few student behavioural issues and he attributes this to the school’s structure and environment. But I think it’s important to consider that the socioeconomic backgrounds of the students implies that they likely have more than just financial support from their families and this certainly contributes to a more regulated and peaceful school environment. In this way, PSII’s student population is not a mirror of the average public school student population so fair comparisons between the two are hard to make.