Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Form Follows Function

To Gabby, school is a holding facility where you're forced to sit down ALL DAY soaking up lessons with the expectation that you'll be able to regurgitate them on demand. In addition to reading and math, Gabby has been learning about weather anomalies and seems to be really holding onto these lessons. Today, I picked Gabby up from school and was informed that "one time, a volcano blew up so fast [and this REALLY happened mom] that the people in the city couldn't run away from it and THEY ALL DIED. And later, people came to the city and it was all buried in dust--with people buried in it too--from the volcano. Are there any volcanoes in Utah Mom?" Thank you public education, because every six-year-old deserves to know about Pompeii.

Anyway, as I was saying . . . school is a holding facility. So why not create a school that conveys this message, where form follows function. Well, in Indiana they're way ahead of us in this regard. Below, is where Gabby (my child who already dreads schools that are aesthetically pleasing) will be attending elementary school when we move.
Noah and I had heard rumors that this elementary school resembled a prison, but we weren't informed that this particular structure resembles NOTHING BUT a prison. It's actually one of the top schools in the area (I'm big on schools so we're making sure to move into the area with this school, so I can't bag on it too much since it's our decision). I will say this though, it does look sturdy.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Suggested Curriculum:
Math: 27,000 people died in an earthquake in Guatemala in 1976. Can you arrange 27,000 dominoes? Now make them all fall down. Numbers are big.

Science: When warm air meets cool air (as it often does in Indiana), a tornado might result. Research tornadoes. How many people died? How did they die? How many tornadoes have there been in Indiana? What would happen to you if you were in a car an an F-5 tornado struck?

Art: Tsunamis kill whole villages.
Draw a picture of this school just after it has been hit by a tsunami.

English: Read _Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day_. What would make your day really, really bad? Write an essay about how you'd feel if you discovered that your house was sitting on a volcano, and one day your toilet started erupting lava. Do you need to use the bathroom now?

Oh, there are so many possibilities

Julene said...

lol! What were the designers thinking?

Kaila said...

I'll make sure to give those suggestions to the school board in Indiana Mom.

whitney said...

Oh my heck! It really does look like a prision! Gotta love the bleak landscape-it really adds to the overall effect.

whitney said...

LOL at your mom-now I see where you get your sense of humor, Kaila.