School board approval is just first hurdle for new charter school

PALMER — The effort to bring a fifth charter school online in the Valley has crossed a major hurdle, but one of the school’s prime organizers said it’s not quite time to celebrate.

Lori Berrigan said she has few more months of waiting to go before the application to start Birchtree Charter School goes before a state review board next March in Juneau.

“We still have one big hurdle to overcome,” she said.

But that doesn’t mean last week’s approval by the school board, which voted 5-1 in her favor, wasn’t significant. And she said she was encouraged to hear that the lone dissenter — Ole Larsen — seems to want to help the school get going now that the board has approved it.

But what is the plan for Birchtree and how is it different than the options offered in the borough’s mainstream elementary and middle schools?

Berrigan said the school is going to be a Waldorf-inspired school. But, she said, to explain the curriculum would take volumes. Indeed, it already has.

“I have a bookcase full of books and resources (on Waldorf education),” she said.

One of the main features of Waldorf schools, she said, is that classes are structured in such a way that students enjoy the lessons and therefore participate actively in the learning process.

She said that’s a big part of what started her on the path toward starting a Waldorf school. When she lived in Anchorage, a neighbor ran a Waldorf-style kindergarten in her house. Berrigan signed her child up.

“When I walked into that original kindergarten that I went to, it was magical,” she said.

Students in the program, she said, would wait calmly and patiently for lessons to begin and then jump right in with enthusiasm.

One of the big keys to Waldorf, she said, is teaching subjects in the same order each day. It creates a rhythm students thrive on. It’s a lesson she’s incorporated into her own work. Berrigan said she’s started teaching a three-day-a-week Waldorf-style class at Twindly Bridge Charter School. She said her students are now able to anticipate her lesson plan and start setting up for one part of the day before the previous part has ended.

“They always know what’s going to happen next,” she said.

That part of the education — the children’s rapt attention and love of learning — is crucial, Berrigan said. So much so that Waldorf educators don’t worry so much when a child doesn’t pick up reading as fast as his or her compatriots.

“What we’re more worried about is that they still love it when they’re in the fourth or fifth grade,” she said.

Another aspect of Waldorf education, she said, is the inclusion of the myths and stories of a variety of world cultures. Teachers might use a block of time to go over Norse myths and another going over Greek myths. There might be a unit wherein children learn Jewish holidays and traditions.

Toward that, she said, Birchtree organizers are currently working to build relationships with local tribal councils so Alaska Native stories can become part of the curriculum.

Berrigan said that piece of the education is done to teach history and English, but also to instill tolerance in students.

“We don’t ever do it in a way that is against any religion,” she said. “When you understand people and hear their stories the fear is gone and tolerance comes.”

Waldorf also incorporates things like handicrafts, art, nature walks and movement — i.e. physical education. All of those elements are on an equal footing with the more traditional education topics.

The school, she said, will also strive to be a community, giving parents advice when they need help with their children.

Part of that, she said, will be a discouragement of allowing electronic media into children’s lives. Berrigan pointed to research showing that children with less exposure to TV and computers are much more well-behaved.

Which, she said, gets to something at the heart of Waldorf education. A good deal of the curriculum is built with brain science in mind.

For example, starting students out writing before they learn to read is one of Waldorf’s most distinct features. Berrigan said that is based on studies of the brain. Waldorf educators pay close attention to a child’s development to know when to begin reading.

In traditional schools, Berrigan said, “kids are being taught to read before their brains are really ready.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.