Continually, it is the nurturance of student understanding, confidence and self-expression that is first priority. When program-relevant developments come up in conversations between students and teachers in Logo class we are likely to pass them on to the dorm head, program directors or other staff member when appropriate. At the weekly staff meetings those people involved with particular students having difficulty will meet and discuss what the problem seems to be and what interventions should be attempted. Once last summer, after a particularly troublesome week or two, the Logo staff brought cookies, snacks and sodas to the staff meeting, only to find two cakes and more sodas and snacks already there. We weren't the only ones who thought everyone needed a party.
Collaboration occurs regularly among students too.
Early in the program it is fun to watch a clever and colorful graphic design propagate through the room as the discoverers share with neighboring partnerships, and their neighbors in turn try it out. Seymour Papert, the leading guru of Logo education, emphasizes the importance of a culture of learning in the classroom and school. Only when the learners are supporting each other, when commitment and desire to gain and use skills and ideas are shared by a learning community, does education truly happen. All, from toddlers to grandmothers, work together to get ready. Summermath Logo may not fully achieve the samba school ideal but we participate in that spirit every summer.