Why the U School?

School Centered on  users

What is school without the people that use it? Think about all of the best schools, communities or organizations you have ever experienced.  They are unified in their purpose. They know why they exist. The U School is dedicated to personalizing students' (U) learning experience, and ensure that users remain at the center of our work.

After collecting qualitative data from hundreds of stakeholders across the city, I thought of simple ways to synthesize what stakeholders (users) want and need from schools currently. A colleague introduced me to Simon Sinek's Start with Why frame. The simplicity of the structure resonated with my research and school design efforts (see adapted frame below). Schools, and other organizations must commit to their purpose. The "Why?" drives all core efforts and decision-making. Furthermore, it is essential for schools to be simple places. Legibility, accessibility and flexibility allow for users to learn and grow inside the school. You can make school more complex for specific instances in time, but once it is too complex, it may not easily become simple.

---

Great and effective teaching and learning begins with a youth development (see previous entry) mindset. This came up often when speaking with both parents/guardians and students across the city. Stakeholders want an adult who is honest, compassionate and driven. They want, people who can empathize with their personal life, and still care why they miss school, and to push them toward their future goals. They want adults who honor their experiences, and integrate them into learning experiences. They want adults who trust youth, and know that stepping back offers more valuable learning opportunities for youth. There is only one word that effectively synthesizes the aforementioned: LOVE.

DREAM emerged as the embodiment of the desire to help students transfer their innate resilience  and resistance to new contexts. Eliminating the gap between aspirations and reality requires consciously cultivating tenacity.  It is hard to do. It is hard to challenge yourself.   Dream fits quite well as the How?, and embodies our commitment to valuing cognitive skills and dispositions (more coming soon about this) as part of the entire program. 

DO represents the tangible creations and labor of learners. Learning is nothing without creating, evaluating, sharing and reflecting. Do is our What?.

---

---

The U School represents the untapped potential of our learning communities.  We exist to serve the needs and interests of our users. We define users as the people who form the fabric of a school’s existence. The students, educators, and parents of this city wove The U School’s DNA. Together users researched, designed and gave feedback to the current iteration of this institution. Our name, mission, vision and core values reflect passion the users change individual  and collective trajectories (the work of the Stakeholder Workshops and Field Guide are forthcoming).

We believe that no product is ever complete. Our innovation labs will incubate the creators of tomorrow. Together we will work to develop each learners’ personal mission. We will connect to the passion of our youth by providing a supportive, demanding and personalized, project-based environment. Students will impact our communities with their solutions to the “Great Challenges of Our Time.”