ST IGNATIUS – A new school without grades or homework or even teachers is about to open later this month. The school – Glacier Lake – is located on Wild Rose Lane in the home of school founders Ben Kestner and Lisa Pavlock, but it’s not exactly home schooling.
A child’s answer to “what do you want to learn today” could be anything from the quadratic equation to how to figure property values in a Monopoly game. The learning philosophy is based on the Sudbury method growing in popularity across the country.
Their involvement in this method was inspired when they saw a change towards learning in the couple’s 6-year-old daughter as she started school.
“We thought there has to be a different way,” Pavlock said.
They both have experience in education. Kestner — originally from England with a London based accent — taught as a music teacher for several years before becoming a principal in a middle school. He taught in England, Germany and Belgium. Pavlock taught language classes in Belgium, Germany and the U.S. She currently coaches basketball. While in Belgium, they developed the idea for the new school.
Kestner explained that education around the world needs updating.
But they aren’t against traditional schools.
Getting people to wrap their minds around a different way of educating children can be a challenge.
“People assume that the kids in these schools are free to do whatever they want, including something dangerous,” Kestner said. But they do have rules, and they have involvement in those rules.
When rules are broken, the situation will be discussed, and everyone has an equal vote. They also know that they can’t break the law. “They really don’t just run around doing anything they want all day,” Kestner said.
In the new school, the role of teacher is changed to “the guide on the side,” but they are not called teachers.
Funding currently comes from tuition but they hope to change that by gaining a nonprofit status in the future, which will allow them to apply for grants.
“We want to make this alternative available for all kids,” Kestner said.
Glacier Lake School is currently taking applications for admission and enrolling kids in the school’s summer camps. More information is available at www.glacierlakeschool.com or (406) 745-2345.