©2007-2008 The Willowell Foundation
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Bristol, VT 05443
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Website by Emily Watson-Blagden, Willowell Foundation A*VISTA 06-07
The Willowell Foundation
The Walden Project
Curriculum: Discipline Based Overview
(Linked to Vermont Standards)
Social Sciences
Students will meet formally on a bi-weekly basis. The purpose
of these meetings will be to create a conscious and shared sense
of community. All decisions with regards to policy and rules will
be generated by both the staff and students of the Walden Project.
This will foster an active sense of democracy and consensus building
by requiring students to take charge of their environment and to accept responsibility. Moreover, by creating a microcosm of the culture, students will have to look at the relationship between cause and effect, as well as identify logical fallacies. All the students will develop a formal understanding of power, justice, basic human rights, authority, and citizenship based on this discourse.
Students will also be encouraged to participate in a social science project that will ask them to engage in a social issue outside the Walden Project. They will trace the origins of the issue from the past to the present and show its relationship to society as a whole. They will frame their discourse on this issue in the context of institutional access, citizenship, and the role of government. As John Dewey said, “Public schools are the laboratory of democracy.” This civic piece is essential in this process. By being part of the “public”, they will understand their relationship to their society.
As part of the daily Walden regimen, students converse about a range of daily issues that are generated through the local and national media. This ongoing discourse is designed so that the students understand the ongoing shifts in the social and political climate of their world. Students will be encouraged to look critically at both the news stories themselves and the source of the information and then lead conversations based upon them. A polemic style will be employed to foster a sense of the complexity and diversity related to “the news.” Students will be encouraged to ask critical questions that relate to social and economic systems and their relationship to the individual quality of life.
Finally, as noted in the Arts, Language & Literature section, students will participate in reading groups that will look at social philosophers such as Dewey, Chomsky, Thoreau, and others. This will offer students a chance to frame their own experience at Walden in the proper socio-political context.
Linked to Vermont Standards: 6.1-6.6, 6.9-6.19
