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You
are here: In 1988, the staff at Fidalgo School in Anacortes, Washington, successfully implemented a curriculum based on current brain/mind research. We theorized that if you developed and taught intellectual skills to children, their academic achievement would dramatically improve. Eight years later, the evidence of enhanced student learning suggests that this theory is correct. The school has received numerous awards from various organizations, including the International Society for Intelligence Education, The New York Times, The 21st Century Award in skills for the Future of Excellence in Education, and Redbook magazine's 1994 award as one of America's best schools.
So what is "The Brain as the Curriculum"? In simple terms it's a curricular and instructional program designed to raise academic achievement through intelligence training and learning style applications in the classroom. A parent explains: "They're not just teaching kids facts. They're teaching kids how to think. They're teaching them processes." The goal of the program is to develop in all students the intellectual abilities that will allow them to excel in an ever-changing world.
The project contains eight components that support and enhance the core Integrated Learning System:
Dealing with Differences (viewing each child as an able learner with individual strengths; utilizing the Meekers' Structure of Intellect Model and Frank Belgau's Physical Intelligence Program)
Technology (integrated throughout the curriculum)
Multiage Classes (resulting in retention rates dropping to almost zero)
Integrative/Thematic Curriculum (focusing each year around a central building theme)
Sister School relationship with a school in Tsu, Japan (resulting in all teachers being trained for ten days in Japan in their Structure of Intellect Model)
Community Learning Center (offering more than 40 classes for adult community members as well as students)
Staff Development Master's Program (teachers earning a degree through Western Washington University focused on the school program that they helped to develop)
Remediation Programs (specialists working with classroom teachers on an inclusive model resulting in a remarkable rate of students exiting remedial programs and entering mainstream classes)
While we have discovered and implemented many outstanding instructional strategies that have greatly enhanced student learning, the truth is that Fidalgo School is blessed with a group of extraordinary teachers who daily practice high expectations, teacher efficacy, and facilitation of each child's learning. To quote one visitor, "Your staff simply won't let children fail. They keep searching and, more importantly, working until they find the keys to unlock each child's potential."
We have learned that education is not something you impart to children, doling out basic skills in prescribed manners in grade-level doses. It is, instead, a dynamic lifelong process facilitated by building and strengthening intellectual abilities, developing problem-solving strategies and good study habits, and establishing a sense of power and responsibility for individual learning by the learner him or herself.
Chris Borgen, principal of Fidalgo Elementary School in Anacortes, Washington, is also adjunct professor at Western Washington University.
You can reach Chris Borgen at Fidalgo School, 1360 Gibraltar Road, Anacortes, Washington 98221, or call him at (360) 293-9545.
For more about Fildalgo Elementary, please see Applying Our Knowledge, by Dee Dickinson of New Horizons for Learning.
© 1997 New Horizons for Learning
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