A fantastic piece about the Liberty School featuring our amazing Program Director, Suzette Collard!!!!
The Liberty School: Lessons Learned
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Suzette Collard was attending a conference when a parent came up and asked her the difficult question: "How do I tell my kid that he's got…you know?" Even though this parent glossed over the issue, preferring to drop hints, Collard was sympathetic. It was a question she faced with her child. And despite huge advances in research, it was still an issue laden with social stigmas. It was not easy to talk about, but it was easy to tackle head-on. Armed with that knowledge, Collard gave her answer.
She told the parent that a child with dyslexia was no different from a child with braces, glasses, or hearing aids. Dyslexia was not a condition to hide, but rather one that, if managed early, allowed young learners to explore new depths of potential.
The Liberty School in Durango, where Collard is the Administrative Director, specializes in maximizing this potential in dyslexic, gifted, and twice exceptional students.
"Kids that come here are pretty downtrodden, at first," Collard explains. "They have to rebuild a lot of trust—in teachers and in themselves." She describes how year after year she sees new students enter with their heads hung, and shoulders slumped, only to blossom in a very short time.
In math class, Naomi whips out the iPad,
a standard-issue tool for Liberty School students.
Children in grades 1-8 receive individualized curricula, daily tutoring, supervised study halls to reinforce tutored learning, as well as all the benefits of small classes, and hands-on experiential instruction. Oh, and the occasional burst of dancing or singing in a math class! (Even the Director of Education, Christian Holman, was observed in a celebratory shimmy-shuffle when his class solved an algebraic equation through collaboration.)
Often, the nature of public schooling does not allow teachers to invest in the necessary specialized learning. According to Collard, gifted students can learn up to eight times faster than their peers, while dyslexic learners may need as much as 30 additional instruction hours a week.
The Liberty School excels at delivering tailored instruction with caring and devoted expert instructors. Their technique boils down to keeping students engaged, helping them discover the joys of learning, all while finding and fostering their unique talents.
When asked what was the best part about the school, one student responded, "I love all the fun games!"
"No," interjected another, "It's the one-on-one tutoring."
"I'm not invisible anymore," said a third.
With three years and counting at the Liberty School, more than one parent has stopped Collard to beam, "My child is back!"
Students interested in the Liberty School can shadow current students for all or part of a day. To learn more, visit www.thelibertyschool.org.
Left to right: Milo, Andrew, Evan, Cody, T.J.,
Nathan, and Saige find time to chill.
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