It's time to be honest. School can be incredibly dull and tedious. All you do is wait for the clock
to tick, & often times, what you're supposed to be taking notes on isn't retained in your memory.
So it's no wonder why so many students find school boring! If the educational system is too tedious,
then it won't be as effective in getting students to learn. It is not that students
are uninterested or lack the ability, but their methods of learning may not be ideal.
You'd be surprised to know that there are a few schools out there that are nothing but awesome.
Wanna take a look? Here's a list of the 10 coolest schools where you'll never regret going to class.
Number 10: Fuji Yochien. Open seems to be the theme for
fun schools. And Fuji Yochien is no different. It might not be as expansive as Mother Nature,
but this Japanese kindergarten was created as one connected loop of classrooms. There
are barely walls to keep out the elements. The center of the ring is a courtyard designed
to foster, creative and physical play, but perhaps the coolest feature of this school is the roof.
Now, that might sound like something any building should have, but Fuji Yochien takes things to a
new level. The entire donut shaped roof is a precisely designed boardwalk playground.
The uninterrupted loop offers students tons of room to run, while being bare enough to encourage
imaginative, cooperative play. This philosophy of allowing kids to develop through play is
carried into the fellow Japanese school Dai-chi Yochien. This preschool's courtyard was designed
to collect rainwater into a giant shallow puddle. Imagine how cool that would make pirate games.
Number 9: Burgess High School. Burgess High School was essentially
a social experiment run by headmaster James East. A Cambridge education had him convinced
that children must first find themselves before they can or will actively delve themselves into
their education. That's why, this private school in the sixties let students as young
as 12 do pretty much anything they wanted. Cigarettes were frequently passed around in
classes. Boys tore through the campus on dirt bikes with helmets being optional.
There was even a dog who frequented the cafeteria looking for handouts. If they
wanted to skip class, so what, they did. The idea was that if you told kids not
to do something, it was just going to make them want to do it 10 times more. By allowing
them to experiment in a safe environment. Kids would be more likely to come to their
education on their own terms or get themselves killed jumping off a tree, whatever came first.
Unsurprisingly, this little experiment didn't last. The school was eventually shutdown.
Number 8: Forest Kindergarten. If you're the parent of a budding five-year-old,
you've probably already realized that kindergarten has become the new first grade. Long recesses and
learning through play are being replaced by six-hour days sitting at a desk. But at
Forest Kindergarten, exploration sets the pace for learning rather than unrealistic academic goals.
Children eat, play, and even nap outdoors in all kinds of weather, from sunshine to
snow. If they want to climb a tree, they do. If they want to play in that puddle,
they will. Teachers are there to keep kids safe and facilitate. It might sound like chaos,
but building a shelter teaches teamwork and perseverance while fashioning toys and
tools from woodland items fosters creativity as well as strategy.
Plus, nature is full of math and science for early learners. How many snails are on that tree? Why do
you think they want to eat these leaves more than those ones? The potential is endless.
Number 7: Green School. This school is the brainchild of
John and Cynthia Hardy. They first conceived the idea for an off the grid learning center
in 2006, and with the goal of fostering generations of ecologically minded leaders,
they wasted no time sculpting an amazing campus from the resources of the jungles of Indonesia.
It became clear when the school opened in 2008, that going completely off the grid,
while still maintaining the quality of education they were after wasn't
as feasible as they had hoped. That said, the school is built almost entirely from renewable,
locally sourced materials, including a 60 meter or nearly 200-foot-long building made from bamboo.
The school boast, hydroelectric and solar power and teaches kids how to co-exist with nature
without losing the edge of technological advancements. Pre-schoolers up through
high school students grow their own food while learning about things like environmental science,
entrepreneurship, and the creative arts. Number 6: Makoko Floating School.
Global warming is an alarming problem that can be challenging for certain populations.
For the people of the water community of Makoko off the coast of Nigeria,
a shift in sea levels has already begun to affect their homes. So, what does one do in
the face of imminent disaster? They get creative! The Makoko Floating School was a project aimed
not only to provide a public space for young and old people alike but as a pilot project
that could solve the issues of this exceptional community. The floating structure boasted three
levels and served many purposes from a school to a fish market and even a movie set at one point.
Unfortunately, it did collapse in 2016 due to lack of maintenance, but the idea of floating
education isn't new. In fact, in Bangladesh, there are several schools of various sophistication
that are built onto boats and rafts. They service children who might otherwise be
isolated during the monsoon, when practically the entire jungle is flooded for months on end.
Number 5: Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy. The Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy is a school
in Eagle County, Colorado. With the exclusive privilege of calling itself the first public
Winter Sports Academy in the United States. Students in fifth through 12th grade still
learn everything they would at a regular middle or high school, but with flexible schedules that
allow them to hone their snow skills. Any resident of the county is able to
attend the academic half of the program for free. If you want the sports training,
you have to pay a measly $7,500 per year. That might seem like a lot for skiing,
but considering similar programs can cost as much as 25,000$. 7,500 isn't looking all that bad.
The program is aimed more at those looking to compete in winter sports, at national,
and even Olympic levels, so students are allowed to continue their education remotely.
Winter practice or competition takes them away from school. It's certainly not for everyone,
but for those with a passion for winter sports, this school is the place to be!
Number 4: LaGuardia High School. Okay, so you've got it all planned
out. You're going to be an actor or an actress, or maybe even a director or a singer, something
to do with the visual or performing arts. If you happen to live in New York City, then you don't
have to try and convince your parents to let you drop out of high school to achieve your dream.
LaGuardia High School is an amazing program and one of only nine specialized schools in the whole
state funded by the New York legislature. At LaGuardia, kids get the same education
they would at any other high school, but there's the added requirement of some sort of visual or
performance based major, basically. Since the school is state funded,
it's free to attend for NYC students. However, spots are limited, an admission
is based on an exceedingly competitive audition process. If you can get in, though, it's one of
the best visual and performing arts schools in at least the state, if not the whole country. Just
look at the school's alumni list and you'll see that it's a school experience at Creating Stars.
Number 3: All Female Traveling School. Usually, students have to wait until
college to enjoy the life altering experience of a semester abroad. But the mission of the
traveling school is to give young women age 15 to 18, a chance to see the world and grow
into culturally sensitive, globally aware leaders. The school has a four to one student teacher ratio
and accepts only 16 students at a time. These lucky few will travel with four full-time teachers
to another country and live there for the next 15 weeks. While that can be a huge deal for some
15 year olds or even your average 18 year old. The girls get to experience things most of us
can only dream of. Visiting places like Africa and India. They go out, explore,
and immerse themselves in the culture. But this experience of a lifetime isn't exactly free.
This exclusive program costs somewhere around 27,000$. And that can definitely cut out students
in less fortunate financial situations, even with the fact that financial aid is available
for those who qualify. Number 2: Witch School.
No, I'm not talking about Hogwarts. This isn't some fairy-tale fantasy genre creation, which
school is a real thing. Seriously, is that cool or what? Just don't expect to learn how to levitate a
feather, because this school adopts a pagan based learning program with mostly online classes and
two real life in-person campuses in Chicago, Illinois, and get this Salem, Massachusetts.
Now, as you can imagine, the school has faced its fair share of controversy and resistance
from the general public. But come on, you can take classes on Wiccan and Pagan philosophies,
actual magical traditions, and gain a better understanding of the religions themselves.
It might not be learning how to transform your body into a tabby cat,
and you're probably not going to be sending any letters out on the leg of an owl, but you've got
to admit Witch school is pretty cool. Number 1: John Ball Zoo School.
The John Ball Zoo Garden is a wildlife sanctuary in Grand Rapids,
Michigan. Despite a rocky political history, the park is now a thriving
tourist attraction and a safe place to land for animals of all kind. From Wallabies to
the largest alligator outside of Florida, and even a Komodo dragon named Precious.
Cool Animals Aside, what puts this park at number one on this list is the fact that it's
also a school. Every year, 66th graders from the district get the opportunity to actually
go to school there. Not only do these kids receive all the normal parts of an education,
they also get to go to specialized classes, but they don't just listen to some zoologist’s spiel.
This school offers hands on learning experiences in various fields of zoology. They get to take
care of, and even touch animals some of us will never see in person, let alone handle.
It's a once in a lifetime experience aimed at creating a new generation of animal protectors.
Which school do you wish you went to or maybe you'd like to send your
kid to one. Let me know in the comment section down below. Thanks for watching.