Same for the Burke project. But Henry Sanoff, professor of architecture at North Carolina State University's School of Design, believes there is still far to go. He said most decisions in school planning processes are made before architects are involved. Sanoff said school officials need to know more about education research. But think of a church, how it motivates our spirit.
Size remains a huge issue, forcing safety to the forefront at the expense of learning.
The other component of effective school environments is time, Cushman said. You need private time to think, and you need conversation with people who can contribute something to your thinking. But Cushman's image is the antithesis of the modern school, where students hurry from classroom to classroom, running from one sliver of time to the next. Because of graduation requirements, the traditional school day has been broken into seven or eight periods. Because of the crunch of courses and the long list of extracurricular activities, there is no time for open-ended discussion.