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| The Voyage, Dorothea Tanning: Galesburg Illinois Native and Knox College Alumna |
For instance, this means I have learned about cultures and languages from travel, about parenthood from my kids and about illness from patients. Experiential learning is considered ideal for most, so I am not a rarity but I am probably worse than most at getting anything from an instruction manual: I need to operate the machine first.
Speaking about learning or having to learn...As the mother of an 11th grader, I have been reading books and websites about colleges for a few weeks. Please remember that I moved to the US from France at 20: my US college experience and knowledge is more limited than most of my colleagues'.
If you are also the parent of an 11th grader and have colleges on the mind, you may have taken a look at this website (or the book with the same name): COLLEGES THAT CHANGE LIVES or CTCLs, which is about 40 not necessarily famous but notably good colleges. In fact I had only heard from one of them after meeting a Barnes resident who had attended Beloit in Wisconsin. Those are 40 colleges purported to be particularly student centered: good at teaching, not just good at accepting already good students.
But...is the book believable? To ascertain this, my three sons and I piled up in the car last evening and went on a reconnaissance trip to Knox College, in Galesburg Illinois, one of the CTCLs and the nearest to our house.
After a night in a 2 Queens Beds Room with two teenagers and a tween and a look out of the hotel window this morning revealing blizzard conditions, I was seriously regretting any advantages of my exploratory immersive phenotype.
A few hours later: immersion success; we all got something great from the trip and are optimistic about the CTLCs' concept for now.
For instance our youngest learned that there are colleges like Knox, where you can take a term of studies in the wilderness and where students, united by an Honor code, are allowed to take tests wherever they are the most comfortable including the floor of the library. Plus, someone from Knox may have invented or improved upon the corn dog.
I learned that one of my favorite painters, Dorothea Tanning, was from Galesburg and attended Knox College. Dorothea, apart from her extraordinary talents, was the ultimate child of the 20th century: born in 1910, she died in 2012. I felt like I was meeting an old friend in a completely unexpected setting.
The boys and I took in the site of the historical Lincoln-Douglas Debate, where Abe specifically condemned slavery on moral grounds. We all took turn sitting in the same chair where Mr. Lincoln had sat 156 years ago and absolutely felt taller and smarter afterwards.
I was impressed by the creative educational experience afforded to students at Knox. For example, they are entitled to themed housing but asked to organize two events for their college community if allowed to create a new themed house (e.g., a book house would organize reading related events or a culinary house would organize foodie events...there is even a sweet house: use your imagination.)
Definite points for experiential learning. We will be on the road again.
Till Later,
Anne
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