May 10 Visiting Hateigsskoli

This morning dawned chilly but filled with our excitement as we walked steadily up hill (good for the calves, Kirstin reassured us) to visit Hateigsskoli. Principal Asgeir Beinteinsson, and the students and teachers with whom he works daily, welcomed us.  There are approximately 400 students in grades 1 through 10 at the school.  Asgeir has been the leader since 1992 so his generous willingness to see the positive and the possible in people and situations has reached into all aspects of the school philosophy and climate. Academic goals focus on learning, as well as the pure pleasure of social engagement for children and adults.

To walk into Hateigsskolli is to walk into a valued, planned, beloved environment shared by students with other students; students with teachers and their school leader; and students and teachers with parents. Guests, too!

Our first period class was a group of male and female students in grade 4, dancing.  The music has uplift.  The teacher has choreographed this one--“The Basket Ball Dance.”  The beat dictates the dance, and boys and girls reach as if to drop a 3-pointer from a distance, or dribble secretly near the hoop, before spinning and making the basket.

Dance, drama, art, music, woodwork, and cooking classes are not marginalized.  They are valued.  Asgeir and his teachers recognize the importance of these pursuits in-and-of themselves, but equally as pursuits that ready students for the academic tasks in math, science, language and literature, and history.  We Cobbers see the liberal arts front and center in this public school. 

Asgeir and his faculty visited Artley Green School in London this winter.  While there, the British principal suggested that schools in the UK give students roots, while Icelandic schools give students wings.  (I would agree and add that schools in the US have a focus on roots, too.)  Perhaps the UK and the US need to strive toward wings.  Asgeir says his goal is to deepen roots without clipping wings.