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By Allison Oster '01 |
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In his 1995 book, The Basic School: A Community for Learning, renowned educator Ernest L. Boyer outlined four building blocks for a proper education: community, curriculum coherence, climate for learning, and commitment to character. These key concepts were the core of Azusa Pacific University's Boyer Basic Camp, which was hosted by the Center for Research on Ethics and Values (CREV) July 31-August 4. The camp brought together members of the APU and Azusa communities to help enrich the education of 37 children. |
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Based upon the Basic School model proposed by the late Boyer, long-time president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the camp explored values through educational experiences. CREV members spent a year planning and preparing for this week-long program that involved classes in language arts, computers, word processing, and drama. "This is the first camp version of the Basic School in the nation," said Beverly Hardcastle Stanford, Ph.D., CREV director. The 7- to 12-year-old students worked together, with the older children assisting and teaching the younger ones during several activities. But for many of these students the $40 camp fee would have been prohibitive. Since CREV members did not want lack of finances to be a barrier to participation, they arranged for campus and community sponsors to provide partial and full scholarships for more than half of the camp attendees. |
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Camp instructors highlighted ethical living throughout the week. "Ordinary Courage" was the theme of the camp, emphasizing the value of having the courage to do the right thing in everyday situations. Each day, the students were taught an important character value. Teachers demonstrated and integrated daily themes of honesty, kindness, respect, and perseverance. Coherence was a key component of this year's Boyer Basic Camp. Certain themes were taught in each class in order to help students retain the information better. The classes provided children with an opportunity to learn, as well as use their knowledge to create their own production of The Empty Pot, a Chinese fable about honesty. "Our purpose is to connect across communities, emphasize character, and teach a coherent curriculum so that learning will be memorable," Stanford said. Eighteen members from the Azusa community, APU faculty, as well as students in the doctoral, master's degree, degree completion, and undergraduate programs worked as staff and research team members. The week ended with a performance of The Empty Pot, with the majority of the production work executed by the students. Tissue-paper flowers and tie-dyed T-shirts made by the children provided colorful costumes and props. Though the week itself was an enjoyable experience for all, the staff hopes that the long-term affect of the camp will be a stronger understanding of ethics exemplified throughout their educational and world experiences. "We hope we came close to Ernest Boyer's vision of school as a place that is concerned with the ethical and moral dimensions of a child's life," Stanford said. |
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