The document discusses creating a more collaborative and creative learning environment in schools through design. It describes the author's experience teaching in a preschool that focuses on nurturing creativity, and how this has opened their eyes to alternatives to the traditional public school model. The author advocates using collaborative design with stakeholders to generate solutions and initiate paradigm shifts, such as creating outdoor learning spaces that incorporate movement, gardening, and natural materials. The goal is to co-design ecologically responsible schools that inspire creative and collaborative learning within a living community.

1. S H A R O N D V O R A
Greening the classroom:
movement towards a living,
learning community
What will it
take to make a
radical shift in
the state of
public schools
in America?
I do believe that just about every problem can be
addressed and repaired through the healing
portal of good design. I’ve been a designer of
one sort or another my whole life.
When I was young, I held the magical belief
that working creatively with a shoebox could
inherently shift the universe, as we know it.
Combined with my radical belief that anything
could be created out of a shoe box {fuzzy slippers,
for example}, I also had a hidden internal inkling
that the shoe box held a great deal of the
mystery of God’s impact on the planet. Were
we all, including the earth itself, encapsulated in
some kind of shoebox, carried under the armpit
of the unknown, all-powerful God?

2. THE LOREM IPSUMS SPRING 2012
I had a typical public school education. These past 2 years, I’ve had the
And for the most part, so did my opportunity to teach in an
children. Since I had my 3 environment very different
children at a young age, there from the public
were only about 5 years educational system.
between the completion of my I’m
education and the beginning of
theirs. Then about 10 years
later I went back to school to
earn a Master of Arts in
Teaching, which sent me
right back where I teaching in a preschool for the
started—into the public arts and my students are three
school system. to five year old creatives!
It’s been a very
I never did like going to
school much. But this
time, I was the teacher. I
designed my classroom
as a creative venture,
with the students as my freeing
collaborators and me as experience for me to work in an
the instigator, motivator institution whose mission is to
and resource director. nurture and inspire creativity! I
Together we generated a jumped at the opportunity to
memorable art experience release myself from the
that extended our learning anxiety of preparation, goals
beyond the classroom. and objectives in exchange for
an emergent curriculum, one that
Learning experiences is peer-driven and thrives on
(ah ha!) are impactful spontaneity and the keen skillfulness
—the stuff of of an adaptable & responsive
potential direction learning environment.
and transformation
in a child’s It has been this
expanding preschool
worldview. And it’s experience
towards this end that has
that I am an opened my
advocate of the eyes and heart
essential role of the arts to what lies
experience in our schools. ahead for these
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3. THE LOREM IPSUMS SPRING 2012
unsuspecting young people. After their heart-connecting,
creative experience in preschool, they’re going to be seated in a
public school classroom for 13 years straight!
Something else is going on that has piqued my interest. A few
of these young students are already showing signs of
inattention, hyperactivity, lack of focus and behavioral
tendencies deserving of attention. It’s clear that already our
learning environment isn’t an ideal fit for every child. I’ve
become interested in developmental movement patterns and
using movement strategies in the classroom to help with focus and community building.
Intuitively, I tackle emergent concerns with design solutions. We’re creating a movement
room, an organic garden, a recycled materials zone, an earth digging area. Of course, these
aren’t ingenious ideas, but are important strategies for repairing a prevalent design problem
where most schoolyards are equipped with monumental metal play structures planted in a
sea of splintery bark chips.
Why is Collaborative Design the perfect approach for this particular wicked problem?
Interfacing with the issues and collaborating with the stakeholders can happen in a way
that is creative, playful, enlivening and approached from the disarming perspective of
bringing art and design into the equation. A healthy collaboration can involve all of the
stakeholders in an engaging and creative process—one that has the potential of stimulating
a wide variety of viewpoints. Working with a visual and kinesthetic exploration of the
problem at hand, while embracing and considering various viewpoints can open the door
for new solutions to emerge.
Who are the stakeholders? Childhood itself is at stake—that whole amazingly magical time
of development that each of us gets to experience just once, but that is being squandered
away inside unhealthy buildings devoid of green, life-giving, natural connections. Families
of every configuration and in many states of transition, administrators, teachers and most
importantly students of all shapes, sizes, inclinations and abilities—these are some of the
stakeholders.
Through the Collaborative Design process, I would like to generate creative design
solutions with the potential to initiate a paradigm shift at the classroom level and
ultimately at the school and societal level. I’d like to co-design an ecologically responsible
and aware learning environment—one that engages the arts, inspires creative thinking,
collaborative learning and encourages the freedom and empowerment to co-create a living
community whose potential extends beyond itself in time and space. Technology has a
great role to play in making that extension possible—as a key to establishing global
connections for learning communities at the most active and humanistic level.
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