Teachers look to protect culture of SLCs through shared electives By Kaden Brastow, Photos by Emma Rose Neal C ome next year, the academic experiences of freshmen and sophomores will change drastically. Instead of the three current Small Learning Learning Communities, TLC (The Collaborative), ROCK (Revolution of Core Knowledge), and DaVinci, freshmen will be randomly assigned into seven different SLCs, each one made up of three teachers. ROCK art and drama teacher Jasper Thelin’s new position of DISCO (Drake Integrated Studies Curricula Organizer) Coordinator will promote the unique cultural aspects of each SLC. “I’m going to be doing everything I can to help everybody be aligned, while at the same time celebrating and encouraging them to find their own voice and unique culture,” Thelin said. To foster cultural individuality within the new SLCs, DaVinci teacher Cathy Sarkisian proposed arranging Freshmen into SLCs based on their electives. “One of the reasons why ROCK and DaVinci were popular was because they had that extra flavor to them where students were choosing electives they were ROCK sophomores Neal Karlinsky and Caiden Potter paint landscapes in art class. This change was heavily influenced by the inability to accommodate dozens of freshmen who selected DaVinci and Rock as their first choice. Students and their parents were attracted by the way they intertwined their electives with their culture and curriculum. Unfortunately, the lack of teachers willing to teach in those SLCs prevented students from getting what they wanted out of their early high school education. DaVinci and ROCK both require freshmen to take two semester-long electives. In a proposed system where electives are completely separate from SLCs, students would be able to freely select electives about their English, without worrying history, and science classes. However, some fear that the absence of this link will hurt the cultural aspect of SLCs. interested in,” Sarkisian said. If electives are the choice and SLCs form themselves around those communities, SLCs might look similar to ROCK and DaVinci but for all electives instead of just drama, art, and engineering. For former DaVinci student Junior Madeline Knightly, this would fit the way she chose her freshman schedule. “With DaVinci, I had no idea what I was getting into. I just went in based on the electives, but the community ended up being one of the best bits,” Knightly said. Of course, there are issues with this. If the schedule assigns students to SLCs based on electives, one or two of the SLCs would likely be a mix of students from smaller electives. The SLC committee can’t make any decisions about a possible connection to electives until incoming freshmen sign up for classes, and the restrictions around scheduling become clearer. Come next year, ROCK, DaVinci, and TLC will be gone, and seven equally sized communities led by teacher teams of three will take their place. Teachers like Thelin and Sarkisian accept this inevitability but want to carry the “I can be sad about the end of something that I’m proud of and believe in, and excited about being part of developing something new.” spirit of ROCK and DaVinci across the threshold. “I can be sad about the end of something that I’m proud of and believe in, and excited about being part of developing something new.” Thelin said. From Thelin and Sarkisian’s perspectives, making electives integral to building a community in SLCs would allow students to form their own culture and tradition. “I’m really hoping that in these changes we can keep the electives involved somehow so students are getting a choice - they’re getting something a little special that’s theirs,” Sarkisian said. “People have been coming to this with good intentions; I just want to make sure they also come with imagination and with openness.” Leo Battaglia and Nate Karpay-Brody learn engineering techniques in DaVinci Principles of Technology class. 6
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