The job required the students to research the process, build a kiln, bellows and other apparatus before tending the fire during a 14-hour burn that went into the night. Students learned they couldn't have completed the project without the diversity of skills found in a class composed of students from farm backgrounds to suburban environments. Student initiatives like this are part of the Gailer curriculum Chaucer hopes to keep flexible and dynamic. In this situation, the teacher's job is to standing there with bellows waiting for an ember and then pumping like crazy. Student initiative is built in to the Gailer model.
Students devote Wednesdays to community service work for non-profit organizations of their choice.
Students sit on the Gailer board of directors, attend weekly forums with faculty and staff to determine school policy, and take part in hiring Gailer's 12 full-time instructors. Chaucer's notion of what a school should be was formed early in life. It was very open-minded, innovative. Growing up in Fairfield and Glastonbury, on both sides of New Haven, Chaucer lived too far away to attend Miss Gailer's School. We used to play in the school weekends and holidays.