A VanDamme Academy graduate, now a senior in high school, was asked on a college application whether there were any special circumstances that defined her childhood. She chose to write about her VanDamme Academy education as her special circumstance. Most of my elementary and middle school I attended VanDamme Academy, a unique private school. VanDamme’s goal was to produce students who are deeply educated and love school. Rather than focus on busy work and constant testing, English was broken up in to five different subjects, History was taught as the story of the world, and we had an hour a day of math practice. Rather than spending countless hours at home studying, the school’s philosophy was that the teachers should be responsible for teaching the kids in the classroom rather than sending the work home. Another unique aspect of VanDamme is that they do not give out multiple-choice tests, as they believe they don’t actually test the power of someone’s brain. Instead I was given either short answer or essay questions for tests in each subject. This allowed me to learn to think in a different way that wasn’t just inhaling information and then spitting it back out again. This school gave me a childhood, the time to play, and pursue interests. VanDamme gave me a lifelong love of learning and the certainty that I could get an education and still have time for life.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 20:06:45 +0000
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