|
|
Frequently Asked Questions : |
Question : The MOST frequently asked question.
Answer: Please click THE ANSWER to find out.
Question : What are the basic rules?
Answer: Please click Basic Rules to find out.
Question : Do you use special or ordinary learning systems to accomplish your goals?
Answer: Yes. We use state of the art, innovative learning systems throughout. Instead of using "whatever's on the shelves" at the local office supply store, we utilize a few streamlined learning and documentation systems throughout the students' learning careers. The directors of different programs sometimes choose an additional learning system to further enhance the schoolwide system. Our mathematics director uses the innovative, yet very intensive NCTM Principles and Standards to teach mathematics in a more thorough, holistic, yet sensible way, while the humanities program director prefers Franklin Covey's document structuring forms and self-check rubrics under the mutifaceted Agilix learning umbrella of learning tools and software.
- The Levenger Tools for Serious Readers' Circa notebook system is used throughout, with support from their superior "Notabilia" professional composition books for student journaling. We encourage students to make journal entries EVERY DAY to both improve writing and comprehension skills and to have a private place to express their ideal and feelings before sharing them as assigments or with their classmates. The "Circa" system is suitable for use in all classes in conjunction with a limitless variety of other learning tools and serves as a superior method of maintaing learning portfolios. Students also keep special "Presentation Notebooks" (using "Circa" notebooks and accessories) when they present, or in Essential School language, "exhibit" their compentency at their work in all subjects, connected by common themes which they choose with their professor's guidance. Students learn to work together as they must in the future while focusing on their own acheivment goals. Significantly, our ALL-Ph.D. lead faculty keep records of student progress easily in the circa system. Eventually, though, official student records will be kept more permenently in the Bindertek top-punch system. It is easier for faculty to file, and for other learning institutions to peruse. It is also comfortable for parents and families to have a few large binders of their students' best work over the years so they can be thoroughly involved in student progress.
- How about software systems? We have already begun using a small portion of the entire "Agilix" learning system, which is an umbrella system for the legendary "Blackboard" computer learning software system, the new "backpack" system for mobile computing use, Franklin Covey's innovative forms software which can be adjusted for learning environments and be of tremendous use in helping students learn to plan and properly structure their work, and finally we will be using the Agilix-developed "Epic" sytem called "Early College," which dovetails wonderfully with our plans to implement an early college partnership program after students have been remediated and accelerated to the point where their learning skills are ready for greater challenges. This outcome is expected of all students. And all of these integrated tools help.
- Do you have a dress code or use uniforms? The answer is yes, and yes. We use Lands' End exclusively for apparel, and everything from top to toe is included. When students enter, they generally don a vest to go with a white polo, black slacks, black socks and shoes. All items are soon provided to parents by Pepper Tree from Lands' End at no extra charge.
Our uniforms work as a means of teaching a schoolwide sense of mutual respect and fellowship. They also maintain a "business casual" working environment, while stamping out the oppression of "style" which most often serves to solidify "cliques" so common to the middle school, Jr. High, and High School environment. As students mature into Phase III, their apparel continues the "business casual appearance, but matures with them. Girls are never forced to wear skirts or dresses, as is the law for women in California. If U.S. Sentators wear business suits with slacks in Washington, D.C. and around the globe, our young ladies will have the right to always wear a ladies' fine blazer and slacks. (They certainly may wear skirts or skorts, too, if they so choose.) And boys are not forced by peer pressure to wear the current "baggy" style of slacks common among adolescents. As boys mature into young men, they will be encouraged to enjoy wearing a business casual wardrobe with pride and self-esteem. Instead of enforcing conformity, our schoolwear accomplishes the opposite: it encourages young people to embrace diversity while leaving the straighjacket of "style" behind.
- How can I possibly afford today's textbooks? And with all the work that the kids do, what do they use to carry it around?
Books, the notebook/text system/and Tough Traveler's "Super Padre" backpack are all included at no extra charge. This also applies equally to students on financial aid and sponsorship plans. And all mention of finances is strictly confidential and should never be revealed to the kids.
- Do these streamlined learning systems really make a difference in student learning? Absolutely. Students thrive when they know what it is expected of them, and in what format. Just one peek at what the innovative NCTM Standards can do for mathematics education in the hands of a gifted mathematician and teacher tells the tale. Students have soared YEARS ahead in just a few months of learning at Pepper Tree. Circa and the Agilix/Franklin Covey "4-Box" document structuring system have helped students to clearly express themselves using the written word for perhaps the first time in their school lives. Our science director has used cyber-learning to teach the scientifiic method and statistics-probability to students starved for first-rate science education. No scientific question - no matter the topic - will ever be beyond the grasp of our students' own research from now on.
None of this is magic; it takes planning, dedication, and old-fashioned "elbow grease" to make it work, but with these tools in hand, it DOES work and true learning happens. For an educator, there is no sweeter nectar.
Question : Is the "Early College" concept new?
Answer: Not really. Martin Luther King, Jr. entered college at age 15 because he showed the ability to do so; he earned a B.A. in sociology and a Ph.D. in theology. The rest of that story really is history. Today, early college programs have been formalized, mostly for a very select few "gifted and talented" youths like the future Dr. King. Pepper Tree's program differs in only one significant way: we start the regular program at the very beginning of adolescence in order to bring "ordinary" kids TO and then PAST conventional "grade levels" by the time they are approximately "early college" age. We have had pilot programs to test the approach with local home schooling collectives and struggling college students. With self-pacing and other cutting edge methods, superlative learning tools, and a supportive, emotionally safe environment, it works! The biggest impediment to student progress, we have discovered is the presence of hostile learning environments, poor learning tools, lack of dedicated mentoring, and poor motivation. All of these can be remedied, the last often by the first three. It is true that the student - not mom, not dad, not gramps - must WANT to succeed and have focused goals.
They must still be able to dream.
Question : Do you accept students beneath the minimum age requirement of 11 years, 6 months?
Answer: Yes, but only on a case-by-case basis. We must conduct an interview with the youngster to determine if they have boththe intellectual capabilities, the motivation, and the emotional and/or academic necessity. To keep a child in a chaotic (that is to say, traditional) educational environment when they are bored, unchallenged, and restless is unsafe for them both emotionally and academically. Plus, such a child has a wonderful head start if they are capable of making the most of it. As a faculty, we observe the child at work and play and if he or she is performing well and begins to accelerate in all significant areas . . . and is also happy in our environment, he or she belongs here.
Question : Do you accept adolescents with severe emotional disturbances?
Answer: Not if they are a clear and present danger to other students' learning. Understandably, parents may try to hide as best they can during the meeting process the nature of the youngster's difficulties. If we see these difficulties become clear and apparent, we suggest a "cooling-off" period (not noted as a "suspension" because it is a voluntary decision between faculty and parents) and another chance. If the youngster expresses absolutely no desire or capacity for change, then an off-site counseling solution may be the only solution for their child; while we work to heal victims of peer abuse, we do not accept bullies or permit bullying behavior. We are NOT a "special needs" environment, and we will not become a "file 13" for kids who have been dismissed from a variety of other schools for unacceptable conduct. Significantly, we do not accept students with recent bad conduct records (and this must specifically refer to bullying, frequent cursing and disrespect for both other students and their teachers, bold expressions of hatred for other ethnic groups, or any gang affiliation or activity). If we find that such a youngster has a past that has not been revealed to us, we will act to protect other students.
Question : Do you accept youngsters who have PERMANENT cognitive impairments that would preclude their ability to accelerate their learning?
Answer: This would be unfair to the youngster and emotionally unsafe for them, so the answer is no.
Question : If my child is called a name or otherwise bullied at school, what will you do? Answer: We will stop it using whatever means appropriate to the situation. The next school day, the youngster will NOT be bullied or the perpetrators will find themselves "cooling-off." Soon we will have a Dean of Students who is also a mental health specialist whose chief role will be to ensure student emotional safety.
Question : Do you have a Dean of Students yet?
Answer: The Director must "wear this hat" until the first quarter of the 2007-2008 school year. The Director also handles admissions so this is connected to the admissions and retention process, but a "dedicated" Dean of Students is top of the list for our next hire. The individual will hold a doctorate degree and have experience with youth and youth counseling issues. We will not have a "Vice-Principal" who merely doles out punishments such as detention and demerit slips. Situations are treated with the utmost care and involvement, and the learning environment of EVERY student is always taken into account. Simple "punishments" very often do not even discover problems, let alone solve them. While this process is far more difficult than that of traditional schools, it is part of what makes Pepper Tree a significant departure from the norm and part of what makes our learning environment superior even though we do not seek out formally labeled "gifted" students.
Question: Do students need to pass entrance exams?
Answer: No. Our faculty spends weeks of intensive diagnosis with new students every quarter and a learning plan (NOT "tracking") is developed to suit the individual. Students are involved in taking responsibility for their own learning.
Question : Will you post more data regarding ethnic make-up and student enrollment?
Answer: Absolutely. This is our inaugural year at this location and it is premature to anticipate future enrollment of any kind. Pepper Tree is 100% minority at this time, though the balance has changed and will continue to adjust as our enrollment reaches or exceeds our goal for our first fall quarter at our beautiful new location in Central/North Long Beach. It would be premature to publish figures which do not reflect our goals to become as diverse as we would like and to represent the local community as perfectly as we would like. We are very proud of our present accomplishments and are seeing our enrollment rise on a continuous basis. All of our students will always receive free breakfasts and lunches regardless of "qualifying criteria." We have strict "healthy learning" dietary restrictions that keep adolescents from the mountains of sugar and fat that normally appear on school cafeteria and college "food court" plates and trays. Our food comes pre-packaged and ready, and is designed for "Healthy Learning." We have now even switched birthday celebrations away from the early part of the day for this reason. We also guard against serious food allergies and this has always been Pepper Tree policy.
As for "college," we will BE an " Early College " environment, with the goal being graduate school admission and success for EVERY student who begins our Phase III program. Our two preparatory phases for students in middle school to early high school are designed to prepare students for the Early College program rather than to examine and carefully choose students for such a program, which has been the norm for Early College programs. This exciting new educational change seeks to break the insensible barriers existing in adolescent learning environments that only serve to hold students back. We also provide some of the finest educators (all with Doctoral degrees and much successful experience at a variety of age levels) in the region with an opportunity to truly educate students to become professionals while they have the time and support to see their own scholarly careers take flight. They can do this here without the intolerable burdens of overcrowded college classes taught often at two, three, or even more campuses so that downsized educators with highly decorated careers and demonstrable records of teaching excellence and a great gift and love for teaching students at all stages of adolescence can reach their own goals and the professional fulfillment denied them by an untenable set of systems. We intend, of course, for ALL of our students to have college-University degrees in the fields of their choosing. We are, though, committed to guiding all of our students on to grad school where they can be reasonably assured of a professional career and an opportunity to build wealth for their families and their communities. College "acceptance/attendance" statistics often tell little about students' final educational outcomes. Did they become research scientists or specialists in Rush Week? There is no way to tell from these stats; only a school that sets its sights on graduate and professional school admission and success can do that. That is Pepper Tree's goal and we intend to inspire students to take "road less traveled" and thereby "make all the difference." (With apologies to the late poet laureate, Robert Frost.)
Question : So, who does Pepper Tree serve?
Answer: We serve a "community of communities" but we owe our local community first (a multi-cultural yet marginalized working class urban community). Soon, we hope to attract a rainbow reflection of the Los Angeles basin - without ever forgetting our duty to those least served by the current systems of public, private, and even parochial systems (who often try very hard to better serve urban communities). Such students are underserved as well by the two-tiered state University systems and the political strife recently experienced here along with the more general national downsizing of the professorate. Pepper Tree is committed to our principles. While we of course, need every penny to fund our work, we turn NO ONE away due to finances. With financing plans that bring communities together, we can work out individualized funding solutions with every family. We only ask that those who can give more to please give as much as they can: it's worth it, both for their children, and for the health of our school. So dig deep and tell your friends and neighbors about the Pepper Tree Center! We need your support. We are a non-sectarian independent non-profit school and we refuse to depend on the outmoded consumer model of individual family finances to support our not-for-profit work. This is not to say that our families are not generous; they are. Our families sacrifice every bit as much - if not more - for their children as any other family who sends their child to an independent school. It does, though, take a certain amount to educate each child well, and while we began very well-funded, that will not continue forever. Speaking to the Southern California/Long Beach/South Bay communities, we speak to you honestly: we need your support and your efforts to help us succeed in our work. Speaking to a larger national community, you need a model of how a 21st century school can succeed, even in one of the most educationally burdened areas of our nation. The need is there, but so is the talents of educators and the will of families. We also need the support of all who are willing to reach out and be a part of educational history.
We wish to take this opportunity to say that we appreciate with our whole hearts the generosity of every single person who has helped us in any way. Oh, and you can just give us a ring and feel free to "dew drop in"! 1-866-526-7333. 3012 Long Beach Blvd. , Long Beach , CA 90807 . Corner of Spring. Check out the giant ticker sign (the first of four fine signs!) Thank you for your time, generosity, and effort in the Pepper Tree project. A dream deferred has become a dream realized. But we do, of course, need all the support systems we can get.
3012 Long Beach Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90807 :: Toll Free # 1-866-526-7333 |
Copyright © www.pepper-tree.org 2007 |
|
