Embracing the Alternative

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EMBRACING THEALTERNATIVE

Specialty schools offer education options to parents

BY ROGER MCKINNEY | Columbia Daily Tribune

For most education niches there is probably an option for Columbia parents, including schools with a focus on language, nature and art or sometimes a combination.

Starting its 16th academic year, La Petite Ecole, a dual-language immersion school at 1111 S. Fairview Road, is expanding to include fifth grade this year.

Eighty percent of students’ days are immersed in French, with 20 percent in English, said Principal Joelle Quoirin. When students are studying in one language, it is only that language.

Its preschool program is from age 18 months to 5 years, followed by the K-5 elementary program.

Studying other languages helps children with their cognitive development, Quoirin said.

“It helps them be better humans,” Quoirin said. “It helps them see the world through another person’s perspective.”

The school made a quick turnaround and switched to all online courses in March, but returned with its summer program on June 1, with many measures in place to mitigate COVID-19 risks. Families aren’t allowed in the building. Temperature checks are conducted each morning. Children are kept in stable groups. Face coverings are required. The academic year begins Sept. 8. In addition to the school operation, it offers enrichment programs for adults, a babyand-me program, and afterschool program for middle-schoolers.

New this year will be twice-weekly high school French classes for credit, Quoirin said.

Another Columbia school with a language focus is Language Tree, at 2311 E. Walnut St. It has education in French and Spanish for children ages 2-10.

A group of families started the school in 2012, said director Natalia Prats. It moved to its current location adjacent to

Stephens Lake Park after starting in a church basement.

There’s an early years classroom, preschool, pre-K and Kindergarten.

“After that when they graduate, they come to our graduate program once a week to keep the language alive,” Prats said.

The school had to close for two months, but before even before that, teachers wore face coverings. Enrollment has declined a little, she said.

“We’re using extreme sanitation and taking temperatures,” Prats said. “Now the kids don’t change classrooms.”

With Stephens Lake Park nearby, nature is included in the experience. Summer camps were taking place in July.

“The time to start immersion education is the early years,” Prats said. “That exposure you give to kids makes them global citizens.” City Garden School at 123 S. Ninth St., offers another alternative.

“City Garden School is Waldorf-inspired, community-based, art-based and naturebased,” said Tory Kassabaum, director of school affairs. “We have a tiered tuition model that allows parents to volunteer for lower tuition.”

The school plans to operate completely outdoors in the fall, using a private wooded area and a shelter for bad weather.

“We felt that the climbing COVID numbers and child and teacher safety is too important to risk being indoors unless absolutely necessary,” Kassabaum said.

Connecting children with the natural world always has been an essential aspect of City Garden School, Kassabaum said.

Arts is integral to the Waldorf curriculum, she said. There is spoken storytelling; hand work including knitting, crocheting and sewing; dance and movement; and vocal and instrumental music

“We definitely reach children with parents who value an arts education,” Kassabaum said.

It also appeals to parents whose children don’t respond to a public school education, she said.

The school with no electronics or technology went online when it closed in March. It was an adjustment to learning on screens when students were in classes with none.

Another school with a nature and art focus is Meadowlark School, 705 N. Providence Road. It serves children ages 3-6. The school has operated for two years.

Lead teacher and founder Matthew Hawley said the school uses a play-based learning model that is inspired by the Reggio Emilia education philosophy.

“We do a lot of art and creative expression,” Hawley said.

Several hours of each day is spent outdoors on the school’s one-acre property that includes a garden tended by the children, he said.

“We try to get outside as much as possible,” Hawley said.

The school closed for eight weeks. Teachers have been provided a 20 percent raise for hazard pay, he said.

Many changes have been made, including requiring parents to pick up and drop off their children at the gate.

The amount of time children spend outside has worked in the school’s favor in terms of avoiding illness, Hawley said.

Not all specialty schools survived the hardships of the pandemic. Wild Folk Forest School announced on its website that the school wouldn’t continue.

A message on its website reads: “The big news, however, is that this year, amidst personal and global upheaval, we have decided to shift: we have decided to no longer run summer camps or a forest school. This does not mean that Wild Folk is done for though! Like so many of you, we are also seeking innovative ways to share our passions and skills in this new reality.”

It had been open for five years.