Elementary School (Grades 1st to 5th)

Our Philosophy:

The world is good. The world is beautiful. The world is true. These are the values that underscore the grade school journey. We nurture the whole child, body, mind and spirit, through story, reflection, adventure, play, and artistic work that fosters all the senses. Our teachers meet the temperament and unique traits of each child to allow their innate self-motivation to shine through. At our school social-and-emotional learning, SEL, is not a newly discovered school subject or an add-on to the onslaught of information that defines other approaches. Every aspect of the day has a social dimension, and every subject is meant to stir emotions and develop passions. Doing what is good, loving what is good, and understanding what is good, means gradual harmonizing of will forces, feeling, and thinking to allow for the whole healthy human being to pursue, in freedom, their unique destiny.

In our grade school teaching and learning take place in “blocks.” Thematic blocks are periods of time when the class dives deeply into a subject integrating the conceptual lessons with art, hands-on tasks, and individualized projects. All social studies (history, geography…), and science courses are taught in this way. In the early grades, language arts and math are taught in this manner as well. One important function of learning in blocks is to keep a high level of enthusiasm and buoyancy with each new subject and the unique experiences that accompany it. The other goal is to serve through the subject the developmental needs of each grade. No subject is relevant if it doesn't help the children to grow, as growing is the main thing they need to do at this time in their lives. Skills classes and subjects that require continued practice are taught as tracks. These include Spanish, world languages, handwork, woodwork, and games.

Classroom Without Walls (CWoW)

Classroom Without Walls (CWoW) Image

Learning does not only happen inside the classroom. Once a week after their morning lesson, each grade leaves the campus with our CWoW outdoor education teachers to visit local beaches and forests, observe wildlife, study plant life, and explore ocean life. Additionally, our children practice gardening, cooking, and animal husbandry (chickens, goats, alpacas) at our farmland in Novato as part of the CWoW program. Starting in 3rd grade our students begin formative overnight class trips - each one a milestone in their development.

3rd Grade: One night camping trip in beautiful redwoods or school farm
4th Grade: Five day trip to Headwaters Outdoor School in Mt. Shasta
5th Grade: One week camping trip in Joshua Tree

World Language

World Language Image

At the New Village School, language learning opens doors to new cultures and ways of thinking. From 1st through 8th grade, every student studies Spanish alongside an introduction to a second foreign language—Punjabi, Japanese, or Russian—chosen in 1st grade. Intentionally, the second language is not another Romance or Germanic language, like Spanish or English. This dual-language approach fosters communication skills, global awareness and additional cognitive flexibility and spatial awareness.

Learning two languages has enormous benefits for brain development. It enhances cognitive abilities like problem-solving, memory, and creativity. Bilingual students are more flexible thinkers, better multitaskers, and develop a greater sense of empathy and cultural understanding. By learning two languages, our students sharpen their minds and expand their world views.

Science

Science Image

We follow a phenomenological approach to science, which implies a lot of time is devoted to the direct experience and observation of phenomena and to building the awareness that human narratives, models, and theories are constantly evolving and being debunked by new, more expansive ones. This approach to science and the scientific method celebrates currently revered theories but does not exalt them as ultimate truths; instead, it reveres the rigor and the love that goes into the process of acquiring knowledge. The same reverence imbues all discourse about cultures and the “moral truths” that come to the fore in each time and place making up the highest values shared in civil society. In middle school the students apply the rigorous methods of scientific inquiry. At the same time, they begin to realize that consensus on what is true and good is the only way humans can work together. Developing a rigorous critical mind gives us greater agency, and it must also give us a greater ability to work together with other fellow humans, and to serve and heal the world.

An example of how scientific discourse serves a moral goal is in how Darwin's theory of evolution is taught. This theory tells us, among other things, that there is a continuum in our development in relation to our fellow mammals. At the same time, it also points to radical differences that have made Sapiens the dominant species on the planet and the only one, as far as we know, to apply “collective learning” to the development of tools and the solving of moral dilemmas. The moral implications of holding both truths are enormous. Our capacity to act out of empathy, rather than impulse, is dependent on developing quiet reflection and moral imagination. We can pursue more than our immediate self-interest, and our highest self-interest can align with the needs of our fellow living beings.

The realms of belief, particularly those beliefs that answer the big questions of life, are brought with respect for the different cultures in which they arise, their ways of life and geographic conditions. They are brought also with a great sense of reverence for those pearls of wisdom that appear in different parts of the world at given times forming the shared legacy of humanity.