VIDBE-Q 2025 Volume 70 Issue 4
a lifetime skill-builder, rather than a temporary high school experience. Recreation
and leisure are established as credited courses and are also seamlessly integrated
into informal residential life experiences, with ECC instruction embedded across
all settings.
A key approach at Bridges School is the consistent invitation for students to
serve as equitable partners in the learning process. The faculty implements a
deeper learning approach to the ECC, which goes beyond memorization to
emphasize critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and real-world
application. This method prioritizes the development of transferable skills,
creativity, and lifelong learning habits, and places strong emphasis on learning how
to learn, not just what to learn. Student voice, self-direction, and meaningful
engagement are encouraged at every step.
Roles for faculty and staff are explicitly communicated to students, enabling
them to understand and fulfill their own responsibilities within the learning
community. Students are regularly coached to ask themselves, "What's my role in
this?" and "What do I need to meet my personal vision needs and learning
profile?" While the physical education teacher may plan the lesson, students are
expected to actively connect the skills learned to various situations and to integrate
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