"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." -Nelson Mandela
Sycamore is known as a private independent school with no religious affiliation. It was 1985 when a group of parents and educators sat around a kitchen table and came up with an idea that would satisfy all the needs of their children and students. The solution was a private independent school named Sycamore that would accommodate intellectually gifted students and give them an environment to thrive in. These types of schools mare extremely rare, especially when filled with gifted and talented students. There are fewer than 80 private independent schools in the country and Sycamore is the only one designed to educate intellectually gifted students in the US.
There is a saying that one of the Sycamore administrators emphasized to us: "if you were made to be a cheetah, run like a cheetah." In other words, most of the students that attend Sycamore school are extremely gifted and talented, intellectually. Therefore, a traditional school environment is not somewhere where they could thrive educationally. Sycamore offers the opportunity for students to run and chase their education, not to slow down and settle for less than their potential. |
"If you were made to be a cheetah, run like a cheetah"
Sycamore is home to students from early childhood education (3 years old) all the way to 8th grade. I really loved this aspect of the school, the fact that the kids get to grow up together emotionally and educationally is a really unique experience. There are around 40 kids per grade and there are two teachers per classroom. Applications are required to be considered for the Sycamore school and tuition sits somewhere around $19,000 per year. Clearly, Sycamore is a school that students are fortunate enough to be a part of, it is no small investment!
Sycamore School gave our ED199 class a wonderful opportunity to walk around the school and observe multiple classrooms. The classroom set up was extremely traditional with individual desks inside the classroom and cubbies outside. There was an amazing sense of mutual respect between the students the teachers that did not go unnoticed. I spent most of my time in a first-grade classroom where I was blown away at the material they were learning. Their teacher told me that at Sycamore, the goal is for the students to work one year ahead of their current grade level's curriculum. A large question that our ED199 making meaning group brought to the table after these observations was the relationship between intellectual giftedness and social/emotional development. Although these students are extremely intelligent for their ages, their social/emotional development and maturity level remains the same as a normal student. Sycamore is aware of this and recently added a psychologist on staff to work with the students through this process. They work emphasizes mindfulness, with the presence of self-awareness and self-management which puts the students in charge of themselves. |
"Even the smallest person can change the course of the future" |
"It takes a big heart to shape little minds"