Envisioning the School in 2075

Fourth and fifth graders are building models of the school as they imagine it in 2075, which will be on display during our 50th Anniversary Celebration. This fourth grader is building a giant rock in the middle of campus. (“I’m not sure how it got there.”) Inside are multiple floors with classrooms and a meditation room. A waterfall flows over the top of the rock, which people will have to pass through to enter the space (by steps or a wheelchair ramp).

In a project for our 50th Anniversary Celebration, art teacher Lara Cannon recently asked her fourth and fifth grade students to imagine what the school might be like for the Class of 2075. Working in groups of three or four, they responded to prompts on a short questionnaire.

Many of their responses to the prompt “We hope that students who attend our school in 2075 will feel …” reflect the values the school has embraced in its first half-century: free, safe, happy, calm, prepared, kind, fun, respected, included, special, energetic, creative, unembarrassed, nice, loved, chill, not stressed.

Lara unleashed the students’ imaginations when she invited them to list “five elements of a building or outdoor area that can help give students a positive experience at school.” Among their suggestions:

Indoor spaces: a cafeteria, a dessert room, a music room, a coding/hacking room, a video arcade, free vending machines

Outdoor spaces: a big grass area, gardens (including mini Zen gardens and a roof garden); trees to climb, a treehouse, a zipline; animals (types not specified); go-karts, a roller coaster; a swimming pool, an infinity pool, a lake with a waterfall with a cavern behind it; an underground playground for when it’s too hot or rainy to be outside

It sounds like the Parent Corral needs to crank up its fundraising machine. On the other hand, they have 50 years to work their way through the list ...