At Beacon Day School in Oakland, California, the school year never really ends. At this private elementary school, the school day is over ten hours long. There is no set vacation period.
Parents plan vacations to fit family needs.
Students work in teams by achievement level, not age. Letter grades are unknown and students spend six to eight hours a week on art, music, dance, drama, or martial arts. Thelma Farley and Leslie Medine founded this award-winning school over a decade ago as a fundamental alternative to traditional notions of schooling. Nothing about the way schools were run had anything to do with the ways kids learn. This philosophy explains why Beacon kids are not scolded for getting up to stretch while the teacher talks or for sitting on the floor to study.