Friday, February 23, 1979
5
Lawrence Open School gives children a choice
Bv MARK GATES
Staff Reporter
The school day begins in a carpeted garage. The children stand in a circle with their three teachers. They stretch, reaching over their heads, and then lie on the floor. After several minutes of exercise, they sit back and close their eyes, meditating.
The children and the way they are being taught are what make this otherwise ordinary, gray, split-level house at 14th and Monterrey Wax unusual.
The children attend the Lawrence Open School here. It is a private school with an enrollment of 23 children from 5 to 8 eight years old. The Lawrence Open School is the only nontraditional elementary school in the region. The school has a coordinator for the school said recently.
The school's purpose is to develop in children a love of learning, strong communication skills and a sense of responsibility and independence, he said.
“WE STRESS self-discipline and self-motivation,” he said. “This ties in with choice making. For instance, the kids have a choice among 12 different skills in which they can make a choice about which one they want to study today and then follow through on it.”
The children also are taught reading, writing and arithmetic, but they are given a choice about which area of a subject they want to study each day. Bryant said.
A typical day at the school begins about 8:30 a.m. with the stretching exercises and meditation in the "sharing circle." The purpose of the exercise is to channel the children's energy to prepare for learning, Bryant said.
Each child then chooses a skill in language art and pursues that for half an hour.
After break, each child chooses two more skills in language arts to study for an hour. Then there is a lunch break followed by recess.
AFTER NOON, three activities such as art, music and science are alternated with dance.
The day ends as it began. The children sit in the sharing circle, relaxing.
"We want the day to be flexible and not highly structured to allow the children to take on tasks that Bryant said. "We don't feel that the breaks, which take up about a third of the day, are wasted time because when the kids come in to class, they are attentive and excellent."
There are also field trip and various minicourses during the school year, he said.
"We just finished a minicourse on UFOs last week," he said.
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The school opened last fall after two years of planning, Bryant said. During the 1974-75 school year, a citizens' committee proposed an alternative school within the public school system, but this proposal was not adopted.
BRYANT CONTACTED members of the committee, and they formed an educational steering committee which planned the Lawrence Open School.
Four of the seven committee members are University of Kansas professors. They are William Ballour, professor of physiology and cell biology; Karl Edwards, professor of molecular biology; construction: Paul Friedman, associate professor of speech and drama; and Fawaz Ulaby, professor of electrical engineering. The other members are Molly VanHee, 716 N. 4th St.; Hobin Naramore Route 3; and Deb Holmes, 112 Mississippi
"The structure of our school is working really well now." Brivid said.
"THEERE AREN'T enough parents, to my knowledge, who want the open school to justify making it a part of the Lawrence school system.
Gary Haworth, director of elementary education for Lawrence Unified School District 497, and "The concept sounds good." (The term is different from the public elementary schools.
"We don't provide as extreme a difference as the Lawrence Open School. We try to cover the middle of the spectrum. I'm glad that parents have the option. There's always the possibility it will be assimilated."
Eve 7:30 & 9:45
Sat Sun Mat 2:30
Bryant said, "If the public schools reconsider and want to include us as a school of choice in the system, that would be fine."
Dale Scannell, dean of the School of Education, said, "It (the Open School) is an interesting and useful thing for a community of this size to have.
He said most parents of children attending the school must pay tuition of nearly $1,000 a year, in addition to paying taxes that support public schools. However, the Lawrence school district does not receive this tax money because children attending the open school are not included in the count. He said the county used to determine allocation of tax dollars.
"It is good to have different emphases and orientation available for students. I would favor alternative schools being available through the public school system. I would favor schools outside the public school system, the harder it is to provide a good education for all."
*Large tuition payments, scholarship money and federal grant money are required.*
"We are in the process of being accredited and I expect that we will be in the spring," Bryant said. "We plan to add an age group 14 and 15 years old, we have a complete elementary school."
BRYANT SAID parents could decrease the tuition by helping with tasks around the school. There are also some scholarships available.
"I feel really confident that the program will continue to attract more students, that we'll get grant money and that we'll make it," Bryant said.
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Chairmen say drop policy OK
By MARK W. GATES
Staff Reporter
Department chairman in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences agree that the current drop policy in the college should continue.
1 believe that it worked better than what we had before." Helmut Husbinger, chairman of the German languages and literatures department, said last week. "I think the policy as it is now is superior to the previous policy."
The current withdrawal policy allows a student to drop a class during the first four weeks of school without that class appearing on his transcript.
A student may withdraw from a class until the beginning of the seventh week of school with only a "W" remaining on his transcript.
After the beginning of the seventh week, a student must petition the college to withdraw from a class.
If the petition is not approved by the college office, the student then appears before the Committee on Undergraduate Admissions to provide five reasons for wanting to drop the class.
MEMBERS OF THE College Assembly
will vote by mail next week on whether to retain the withdrawal policy that has been in effect for the college since fall 1977.
If the College Assembly fails to approve the current system, the college will return to the University system of allowing a student to withdraw from class until the 12th week with a notation of withdrawn or withdrawn fallen on his transcript.
The College Assembly is composed of all faculty members and student representatives from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. There are about 80 memi-
During the 1976 fall semester, there were 4,386 drops in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. After the current paucity was addressed, there were 4,083 drops during the fall semester of 1977.
LAST SPRING semester, 783 students petitioned to withdraw from classes. The college office approved 74 of those and the advisory committee approved 177 of the remaining 409 petitions. There were 232 petitions rejected by the committee.
"I think it's more in keeping with a sound academic policy," said Lawrence Wrightman, chairman of the psychology
department. "On the trial basis, i worked."
John Landgrebe, chairman of the chemistry department, said, "I'd like to see it retained, and if there were some way more stringent, I would like to see that, too."
"There ought to be a bona fide reason for a student to drop after six weeks, like they could do," she might not pass or because they're a pre-made student and might get a 'B' instead of a 'A'.
CHAFE-JIN LEE, chairman of the East Asian languages and cultures department, said, "I have no real opposition to the United Nations' unwarranted airwalal policy, I am not unhappy with it."
"It avoids awkward problems of students dropping classes at the end of the semester," said Earl Nebring, chairman of the political science department. "This plan makes it clearer whose responsibility it is to make the final decision."
James Akagi, chairman of the microbiology department, said that he needs a lot of faculty. This is a step toward trying to standardize things. It makes policy more
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No. of patients with diagnosis (n = 48)