Redesigning Education And Living Meaningfully (REALM)
Silver Lining for Learning
Exploring Alternative Education at VILLACON
This chapter explores VILLACON, a groundbreaking conference dedicated to alternative education methods that emphasize community involvement. Participants share their insights on the need for innovative educational frameworks that prioritize dynamic and purpose-driven learning experiences for children.
The REALM is working to redefine what school means by offering real-world project-based classes, taught by teachers passionate about their subject matter, offered on a flexible basis, enabling families to build weekly schedules that work best for them, in an environment that will soon enable coworking for parents alongside the co-learning options for kids. For 13 years, The REALM has served kids ages 5-15 with classes offered in age bands or skill levels, not traditional grade levels. With over 110 current families in west Los Angeles and dozens on a waitlist, The REALM is working to expand into larger space, add a high school program in the fall and begin replicating the program design in other cities nationally.
As moms, friends, and educators, Jessica & Victoria came together in 2009 to design a new school model that would better serve the needs of individual students, offer creative and flexible solutions for families, and provide a safe space for teachers to truly teach what, how and when they wanted - all while building a physical space and community that is more reflective of a village than of a traditional school. They started with 1 student and through a lot of hard work and sweat equity, they have grown The REALM to be sustainable - serving over 3500 families over the past 14 years. As they say, on their website:
The REALM stands for our transformational goal: Redesigning Education and Living Meaningfully. Walking in, you can feel the difference in the fluid design or our spaces, the excitement of our teachers, and the sheer joy in the kids. Parents have freedom to create their children’s schedule, students take classes they are genuinely interested in, and our students score widely above “grade level” on Standardized Tests such as the Star 360 (conducted through charter schools) in core academic subjects. 100% of our graduates are now attending their high school or program of choice, with some rising 9th graders jumping straight into college courses.
Families come to The REALM seeking a learning environment for their kids and a community for their families where they feel heard, trusted, valued, and loved. They are looking for a choice in how, when and what their kids are learning and seek a customized educational experience. They are looking for passionate, inspiring teachers and relevant, experiential classes. Parents are frustrated with the outdated educational model that no longer serves our students or their future success and happiness. Parents want their children to be seen and treated as the unique individuals that they are, filled with possibility rather than a sum of test scores and grades. Parents want their children to be on a pursuit of discovery of their own strengths, passion and interests and be allowed to try on various learning styles and preferences.
At REALM, we offer customized experiential learning. Families have freedom, and every schedule is centered around the students and what they are interested in learning that semester. We actively help kids find their strengths and understand their areas of struggle. Students are not given labels to define their learning preferences or unique abilities. We do not issue grades or scores. Kids demonstrate learning through projects, written essays, spoken word performances, science projects - we value and showcase real-world knowledge.
The REALM trusts kids and families to discern for themselves who they are, what they need to learn, and which choices will contribute to their sense of living a meaningful life. We trust their self-determination and curiosity. We trust that their varied ways of knowing are valid, and their interdisciplinary interests add richness to our shared worlds.
Check out their website at at: www.realmlearning.com and on Instagram: @realmlearning
Our guests
Jessica Slayback, Co-Founder/Director
Jessica Slayback, a pioneer in non-traditional education, believes that we have the urgent responsibility to reinvent how we educate our children. Immediately after graduating from The University of Chicago, summa cum laude, Slayback taught 4th grade for two years in Harlem with Teach for America while obtaining her Master’s in Education. Through her 20+ years of experience in public, charter, independent, and private schools, Jessica has developed and run youth theater programs within inner city schools in Chicago and NYC, created and implemented a 6-12 grade Music and Theater Curriculum for North Star Academy, obtained a grant to travel with Newark High School students to New Zealand and spearheaded the development of a thriving K/1 program in Santa Monica.
Witnessing sparks of greatness and moments of brilliance when children are honored for who they are and are presented with opportunities in which to shine led her in 2009 to develop and co-found The REALM Creative Academy. This thriving center combines a unique and innovative approach to education. It offers creative and diverse educational experiences, igniting students’ minds with a passion for learning while allowing students to guide and shape their educational journey. While raising two beautiful boys with her video game designer husband, Sean, she relentlessly strives to innovate education to promote the growth of aware, empathetic, joyful, creative, purpose-driven humans.
Victoria Forsman, Co-Founder/Director
Victoria is a person who has a vision for greatness in all things and believes that change and creative freedom can guide us toward new levels of accomplishment. After graduating from Stevens College with a BA in Early Childhood Education, she received her MA in Education and Administration at Loyola Marymount. Throughout her 13 years in alternative education, she has recognized trends, disparities, successes, and the promise of education. She has witnessed schools producing successful lifelong learners and struggling to reach and inspire students during their journey. She has watched and experienced the roller coaster of trends impacting schools in Los Angeles, realizing the uphill battle many schools face. She has joined fellow professionals in the classroom, hearing their commitment, passions, and frustrations about the school system and its bureaucracy.
Victoria has discovered what works the best; a diverse, rich, individualized, supportive learning experience in which learning is meaningful, accessible, relevant, and memorable. She believes that when individuals diversify their experiences and dabble in every area simultaneously and with support, academics, leadership, arts, outdoors, structure, creative freedom, participation, observation, research, organization, problem-solving, processing emotions, and taking risks, it paves the way for pretty extraordinary people. Unfortunately, too few of these opportunities exist in a supported setting. It is because of this need that Victoria is committed to redesigning education. She passionately experiments with ideas and programs, encouraging a love of life and learning.
Hayden Harrower, High School Founder/Assistant Director
After studying instructional and small-group communication at San Diego State University for his master's program, Hayden began his teaching career in the university and community college ranks. After seeing so many students struggle to manage the workload like he had as a student, he began dreaming of a better way to prepare teenagers for the transition into adulthood and higher learning. After coaching hundreds of students to manage themselves better outside of class, he took a job working in an education department at a substance abuse and mental health program for young adults. Through this program, Hayden coached young adults into rebuilding their lives from the ground up, teaching them the necessary executive function skills while boosting their own beliefs about themselves to pursue what they found meaningful. Hayden continued this work when he transitioned to a facility that focused on high school students struggling with acute mental health issues. Hayden designed and led a program to help high schoolers regain confidence in approaching schoolwork, develop new work processes to better handle the load, and help them identify passions and interests to motivate them through the hard times.
After almost five years of helping countless students and families, Hayden arrived at REALM in the summer of 2023 where he is setting out to expand REALM into the high school ages, creating a program that is just as flexible and choice-driven while meeting the specific needs of high school students and the differing pathways they can enter. Overall, Hayden is focused on creating a "meaning-centered" high school experience, that will not only better prepare students for the world they enter, but will be a much more engaging and fulfilling journey as well.
Join the conversation at silverliningforlearning.org
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