The heart and soul of any teaching or learning enterprise is in the hands of administrators and teachers. The skills that educators need to create and manage thematic learning centers are increasing exponentially. Creative ideas are popping up all over the place, and as more integrated curricula is developed through a variety of disciplines and themes, I think you will see more and more school boards, administrators and educators who are willing to explore and innovate. The result will be a better use of all of the community s existing resources, saving and sharing of costs among a wide variety of agencies and institutions, and a wider choice of teaching and learning opportunities for everyone. You make a compelling argument about whole systems thinking, referring to physicist and ecologist Fritjof Capra s work, the analogy of the hermit crab, and the economy of occupying underutilized buildings for learning.
Systems thinking works the same at every scale.
We just finished designing and building a 9,000 square foot museum in West Virginia. The building serves as a venue for the whole community to learn about art. Next week there will be an outdoor concert there with 3000 people. At the other end of the spectrum, the facility also accommodates the school system s gifted arts program, where five or six students meet at a time. The details of the building were designed to exhibit the elements of art like line, color, texture and form and text is included on the building to indicate where examples of these concepts occur.