If we take seriously the notion that school buildings present students with powerful messages about what society values, then school architecture needs to be radically re-thought. For a century and a half, we have built schools that lack adequate light, good furniture, inviting entryways, and green spaces. This is the time to do it: we are in the midst of a major surge in school construction. For the next several years, construction will begin on two new schools every day in the United States alone, and that doesn't even take into account school renovations. But many schools are aesthetically and environmentally deficient, and these schools sap the life right out of students and teachers and everyone else who goes there. Indeed, when adults are invited to think about their lifelong passions, learning that they willingly pursue, most identify something associated with the arts, the body, or the natural world. And yet, very few adults will say that they learned about the thing they love most (cooking, kayaking, playing the guitar, weaving) at school. How is it that our lifelong learning has so little to do with schooling? This book makes the argument that school architecture, even more than curriculum, delineates what students will learn at school.
About the Author: Dr. Rena Upitis is a former Dean of Education at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, and is currently Professor of Arts Education at Queen's University. She is also President and CEO of Wintergreen Studios, an education and retreat centre founded in 2007 http: //www.wintergreenstudios.com. Rena recently finished a six-year term as National Research Co-director of Learning Through the Arts, a multi-year project that brings artists to the classrooms of over 100,000 students. Her current passions revolve around the ways in which school architecture both constrains and opens up possibilities for learning. She has just completed a book manuscript titled Raising a School. Rena teaches courses on music and mathematics curriculum methods, integrated arts and technology, and research methods. She has worked as a music teacher in inner-city schools in Canada and the United States and has been a studio teacher of piano and music theory for over 30 years. Rena is often invited to present keynote addresses for diverse audiences, and she publishes widely in academic and professional journals, mostly on issues mathematics and arts education. Two of her books, This Too is Music (Heinemann) and Can I Play You My Song? (Heinemann) focus on teaching music in elementary classroom. Another co-authored book, Creative Mathematics (Routledge) explores ways of approaching mathematics through the arts. Her various research projects, funded by SSHRC and NSERC, as well as through foundations, industry, and government, have explored teacher, artist, and student transformation through the arts and the use of electronic games in mathematics and science education. Rena's research has been recognized by several awards, including the George C. Metcalf Research Award (2002) and the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies Publication Award (2005).