Can School Design Improve Learning?

Developer William Gietema calls the new Hometown elementary school "child-centric." Indeed, the building's design and location take the full student experience into account. Located across the street from the town recreation center and adjacent to the city library and performing arts center, the energy efficient building challenges the traditional patterns of school construction. For example, "Instead of a school designed around the drive-through," notes Gietema, "we designed the school first, then came up with a method to allow parents to deliver and pick up their children without damaging the school's design." These features, as well as the incorporation of abundant windows to allow for sunlight that stimulates melatonin and endorphins which make children "ready to learn more rapidly," put this school in a class of its own.