We believe in children’s innate intelligence, curiosity, creativity, and wonder. We are a school that nurtures those characteristics and invites children to be active knowers/innovators and teachers to be facilitators of production. Inquiry-based, multi-modal learning experiences encourage children to explore their passions and work actively with their community. This experiential approach allows them to acquire basic academic skills and content knowledge (meet standards) while empowering them as engaged learners and socially conscious citizens. We aim for deep human engagement by reconnecting students and teachers with their learning and community through creative inquiry-based experiential education grounded in social justice.
At TESG, we also center our children’s social and emotional development. We believe children need to practice social skills, emotional regulation, and conflict resolution just as they practice reading and math. As such, we use Responsive Classroom and Restorative Practices to support students’ social and emotional development.
Click here to learn more about Experiential Education, Social Justice Education, Social/Emotional Learning, and Restorative Practices.
Our school is more than our building. Experiential education requires us to expand the idea of “classroom” and make spaces for teaching and learning in the community. Downtown Greensboro, and Church Street, in particular, is the ideal location for such a school. The area is rich with resources our students can access as they do project-based learning, work with experts-in-residence, preform service, and participate in internships. Best of all, we can walk with students to a variety of museums, galleries, businesses, parks, theaters, community organizations, and universities. We can use public transportation and the Amtrak system to facilitate travel to areas beyond our immediate neighborhood.
To make this expanded classroom possible, our school nurtures relationships with local museums, universities, community organizations, and businesses. We look forward to partnering with Elsewhere Living Museum, Greensboro Children’s Museum, the Center for Visual Arts, Triad Stage, GreenHill, and the International Civil Rights Museum–just a few among a growing list of folks who have expressed interest in developing programming with us.
Our school also serves as an intellectual and experiential hub for educational researchers, future and current teachers, and interested community members who want to learn more about our practices and how to implement them in other spaces. Downtown Greensboro is a central location for the colleges and universities in the region, allowing educators a local place to research and practice experiential education.
The Experiential School of Greensboro 