Off to Class: Incredible and Unusual Schools Around the World

by Susan Hughes

Overview

Travel around the globe to visit some of the world's most incredible schools, and meet the students who attend them, in this best-selling and award-winning nonfiction pick for ages 9 to 12

When North American kids picture a school, odds are they see rows of desks, stacks of textbooks, and linoleum hallways. They probably don’t picture caves, boats, or train platforms — but there are schools in caves, and on boats and on train platforms. There’s a whole world of unusual schools out there!

But the most amazing thing about these schools isn’t their location or what they look like. It’s that they provide a place for students who face some of the toughest environmental and cultural challenges, and live some of the most unique lifestyles, to learn. Education is not readily available for kids everywhere, and many communities are strapped for the resources that would make it easier for kids to go to school. In short, it’s not always easy getting kids off to class — but people around the world are finding creative ways to do it.

In Off to Class, readers will travel to dozens of countries to visit some of these incredible schools, and, through personal interviews, meet the students who attend them, too. And their stories aren't just inspiring — they'll also get kids to think about school and the world in a whole new way!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781926818863
Publisher:	OWLKIDS BOOKS
Publication date:	08/30/2011
Pages:	64
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)
Lexile:	950L (what's this?)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Susan Hughes is a writer and editor, and has been writing both fiction and non-fiction children’s books for over twenty years. Her book Coming to Canada was shortlisted for the Hackmatack Award and the Norma Fleck Award for Non-fiction, as well as the Red Cedar Book Award. She lives in Toronto.

Read an Excerpt

From Chapter 1: Bangladesh – Boat Schools

Water, Water, Everywhere
Has your school ever closed because of the weather? Lots of kids miss a day here and there because of snow or extreme heat. But in Bangladesh, students can miss months at a time during monsoon season, when heavy rains cause floods. Even when schools are open, it can be impossible for kids to get there.
Climate change is making the flooding even more extreme by melting glaciers in the Himalayas. The runoff swells rivers and makes them overflow their banks. The floods damage farms, schools, and other buildings. In the past few years, thousands of schools have been damaged, and hundreds have been destroyed completely.

Unsinkable Schools
After seeing many of his friends and family members miss out on an education, an architect named Mohammed Rezwan decided he was not going to let floods stop any more children from getting to school. He figured that the best way to beat the rising waters is to rise with them—on a boat.
“I thought that if the children cannot come to the school, then the school should come to them,” he explains. He raised enough money to open the first school boat in 2002. Now there are ninety boats that travel along a 250-kilometer (155 mile) stretch of rivers and streams in northwestern Bangladesh, giving thousands of kids the chance to learn.

Ahoy, (class) mates!
“Boat school is the combination of a school bus and schoolhouse,” says Mohammed. Six days a week, each boat stops at different villages along the shore, picking up children who are mostly in the same grade. When the classroom is full—about thirty to thirty-five students—the work begins.
For about three hours, the students have lessons in math, reading, writing, English, Bengali, the environment, and conservation. Then the boat returns all the students to their riverbank stops. From there, the boat moves on to pick up another set of students for another three-hour lesson. Each boat offers three sets of lessons a day.

Sidebar: All aboard
If it weren’t for the boats coming to pick up the children at their “doorsteps,” many young girls might not be going to school at all. Their parents wouldn’t let them travel out of the village to the nearest government school because it is dangerous and takes them away from their chores for too long. Now that the boat schools come to them, the girls have time to both learn and work.

Wireless waves
Even though the boats float from place to place, they have electricity to run up to four computers, a printer, a DVD player, and CD player. Solar panels on the roofs provide all the electricity they need. The boats are connected to the internet through wireless technology. Besides all the modern technology, the boats also stock hundreds of books.
“Solar power means we can offer late evening classes on the school boat for the children who work during the day,” says Mohammed. The boats also act as community centers in the evening, giving adults the chance to learn about things like health care and new rice-farming methods.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Working With the Environment

Things like climate change, severe storms, natural disasters, and shortages of energy and other resources are in the news just about every day. What do any of these things have to do with schools? They can make it pretty tough to build schools, to get to them, or to keep them standing. Schools need to be part of the solution to these problems. After all, they’re supposed to be about preparing kids for the future, so it would make sense for schools to help make sure there is a future. More and more schools are teaching students how to reduce their impact on the planet. Schools are also being built with sustainability in mind. In a lot of cases, building sustainably has the added bonus of costing less money. And that goes a long way toward building more schools and getting more kids off to class around the world.

Canada – Dr David Suzuki Elementary School
One of the newest sustainable schools, built with both the children’s and the planet’s future in mind.

Bangladesh – Boat Schools
An ingenious idea to ensure students don’t miss class during Bangladesh’s monsoon season.

USA – Arthur Ashe Charter School
How schools in New Orleans are rebuilding and offering new hope to students in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Haiti – Temporary Schools
Temporary schools set up after the devastating earthquake in January 2010 have helped kids cope with the disaster and brought education to students who didn’t have the opportunity to go to school before.

India – Druk White Lotus
Built in one of the coldest inhabited places on Earth, the Druk White Lotus school used traditional building methods with sustainable materials to build a school that can withstand the harsh climate of the area.

Burkina Faso – Gando Primary School
The son of the chief, who was lucky enough to receive a formal education, returns and teaches his community how to build a school made from local materials and provides and education for the children and practical skills for the adults.

Brazil – Rainforest School
Students in this remote village deep within the Amazon rainforest learn how the choices they make locally can help save the planet globally.

Chapter 2: Changing Expectations

A lot of things can make it tough for kids to get to school, from remoteness to weather to natural disasters. But an even bigger hurdle is one you can’t see: people’s attitudes. In some cases, people’s beliefs keep a specific group of kids out of school, whether it’s girls or kids of a certain background or status. In other cases, kids don’t get the chance to go to school because no one seems to care if they make it or not. But there are schools and students challenging the status quo that allows some kids to go to school while others miss out. They’re taking the idea that every kids has a right to school, and they’re finding inspiring ways to make it happen.

Nepal – Shree Santi Primary School
The Shree Santi Primary School challenges the social castes that have kept thousands of Nepali children from receiving a formal education.

Kenya – Naning’oi Girls Boarding School
A school that offers Maasai girls the promise of an education instead of the promise of marriage.

Iran – Small School, Big Changes
This small school of just four students is having a big impact by helping change attitudes about further education for young girls in Iran.

China – Cave School
The people of Dongzhong were struggling to keep their cave lifestyle alive, until a national television broadcast sparked interest in their way of life.

Uganda – ABC School
From its beginnings of holding classes under a tree, the ABC School now has over 400 students, many of whom are AIDS orphans.

Cambodia – Stung Mean Chey Center
The Stung Mean Chey Center offers kids living in the slums of Phnom Penh a free education.

Honduras – El Hogar de Amor y Esperanza
This school offers children an alternative to joining one of the many street gangs found throughout Honduras.

Bhutan/Nepal – Refugee School
A school offering hope and stability to 14,000 students displaced on the Bhutan/Nepal border.

Chapter 3: One Size Does Not Fit All

Some kids learn better outside of classrooms, in non-traditional ways. Some kids have families that are always on the move, so they have to choose between staying with their families or staying put to go to school. Other kids have to choose between spending their days in school and earning money. The thing all these kids have in common is this: they need schools to be flexible. For them, one size doesn’t fit all. And fortunately, some adults are starting to realize that all schools don’t have to look the same or work the same or teach the same. They don’t even have to be in a school building!

UK – Hazelwood School
A school for kids with multiple sensory impairments.

Russia – Evenk Nomadic School
Teachers travel by sled to the children’s nomadic camps in Siberia.

Thailand – Portable Schools Project
A portable school made of bamboo that provides schooling to the children of migrant workers.

Canada/New Caledonia –Virtual School
Going to school half a world away with help from the internet.

Various – The Mobile School Project
A project designed to bring schools to street kids around the world, including countries such as Colombia, Bolivia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Cambodia, Romania, and Germany.

India – Door Step
A school on wheels that picks up street children at set locations around the cities of Mumbai and Pune.

India – Platform School
Classrooms set up on the platforms at a train station provide education to street children.

USA – Grand Oaks Academy ‘Unschool’
An American family built a treehouse school in their backyard to homeschool their children.

Editorial Reviews

Skipping Stones Honor Award Winner, 2012
Shortlisted for the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Award, Juvenile Non-fiction category, 2011

"Off to Class is an easy-to-read yet detailed book that should, at the very least, be in every school library, if not every classroom and home."
Quill & Quire, starred review

"The strong emphasis on humanitarianism will move, excite, and inspire those reading...Off to Class will encourage them to help to 'be the change they wish to see in the world.'"
School Library Journal

"Hughes's examples of grassroots education in action are inspirational and informative."
Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher