Recently we have been focusing on finding schools and groups who want to run our program this school year. The reason I say both schools and "groups" is because we have decided to being branching out from the traditional perspective of education being limited to a classroom in a public institution. Not only do we now try to reach out to charter and private schools, but to after-school clubs and to students who are home-schooled. By looking at the ways that we can adapt our curriculum and our program to fit a greater number of organizations, we hope to continue to expand our impact and hopefully provide a more diverse understanding of citizenship.
I recently have been in contact with numerous home schooling groups in Arizona. When I used to work as an usher at the Tempe Center for the Arts, I would often work with large groups of home-schoolers coming to see performances from Child's Play. I think it is more often than not the case that home-schooled children get together on a regular basis for activities and field trips. Not only does this help create a broader educational experience, but develops social skills as well. Hopefully we can learn to market our program in a way that will incentivize groups of home-schoolers to become interested and work with us in the coming year.
I have also been in contact with administrators at the charter school run by ASU here in Phoenix, and with numerous teachers' associations in the valley. We hope to first get teachers invested so that they really enjoy working with us which will make the program more enjoyable for the students as well. Instead of using a top-down approach through too many administrators and curriculum mandates, we believe that teachers are ultimately are best bet in developing a successful program, and that getting their investment first is crucial to the success of our curriculum.
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