News from Arts & Ideas:Greetings everyone! Arts & Ideas would love to make your acquaintance. We've been somewhat quiet as we've established ourselves and grown from 9 to 40 students. We are so thrilled to begin our third year! (School started Wednesday, September 8, 2010.)
We are located in the beautiful Church of the Messiah on Harford and White Avenue (where you might pick up your CSA produce!). We are one of three Maryland Sudbury Schools and one of thirty plus Sudbury Schools world-wide. This approach to education has been around since 1968 and began at the Sudbury Valley School in MA. Sudbury Valley in turn, took it's inspiration from the Summerhill School in England, founded in 1921 and still going strong today.
Arts & Ideas was founded in 2008 by Arcadian residents, Danny Mydlack and Caroline Chavasse, after relocating to Baltimore from Los Angeles, and specifically choosing the Lauraville area based soley by looking at the website! We choose this area to found the school because of its vitality, cohesiveness and the obvious love and dedication people have for this northeast corner of Baltimore.
We spent a few years getting to know families at a playgroup we founded at Faith Community Church and felt some families might appreciate having another school choice among the already strong group of neighborhood schools. We also felt that this area could embrace the healthy and somewhat challenging discussions the Sudbury approach often prompts about education. Happily, a few families have either moved to this area or have not moved from this area so their children could attend Arts & Ideas.
We hope to contribute to the whole pie by being just one more interesting slice in this fine community!Staff also includes Liz Smith from Hamilton (also known for her backyard chickens and bees) and former Rock Candy proprieter, Joel Tyson. If you'd like to learn more about us, you can visit our website: aisudbury.com.
Also, please join us as we host the Baltimore screening of the documentary Race to Nowhere. This must-see documentary is currently getting national buzz on sites like The Huffington Post, with screenings in communities all over America, including New York and Los Angeles for week-long runs. All proceeds from the showing will go to benefit Arts & Ideas Tuition Assistance Program. Ticket information is on our site: aisudbury.com
Here is a blurb about the documentary:
"Director Vicki Abeles turns the personal political, igniting a national conversation in her new documentary about the pressures faced by American schoolchildren and their teachers in a system and culture obsessed with the illusion of achievement, competition and the pressure to perform. Featuring the heartbreaking stories of young people across the country who have been pushed to the brink, educators who are burned out and worried that students aren’t developing the skills they need, and parents who are trying to do what’s best for their kids, Race to Nowhere points to the silent epidemic in our schools: cheating has become commonplace, students have become disengaged, stress-related illness, depression and burnout are rampant, and young people arrive at college and the workplace unprepared and uninspired."
