The Amish and school design
think:lab: What the Amish Can Teach Us About School Design Priorities
The Amish school shootings in a Pennsylvania a few months ago devastated this group and sent shock waves through the rest of the country. But they are rebuilding their school, and doing so with the sense of community-first, not safety-first. think:lab reports that the school is being built with “no additional security measures” other than lockable doors, something that the original building had in place anyway.
It’s important that we build our schools–in any community–with the safety and welfare of our students in mind. That said, our school buildings should reflect who we are as a culture as well. Perhaps the article summed it up best:
We do not suggest that schools should avoid common sense security measures to ensure the safety and well-being of their kids and community…But we also believe that a small Amish community who has faced an unspeakable horror has much to teach every school design stakeholder about maintaining the priority of ‘healthy’ communities above a ‘walled’ compounds.
Technorati Tags: School design, education, school administration, Amish, school violence
