The Graham School
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The Graham School (or TGS) is a 4 year high school (grades 9-12) charter school located in Columbus, Ohio, United States. Its focus is experiential learning in a small-school setting where all students are known by all staff members.
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[edit] Motto
"Encounter the World, Engage the Mind."
[edit] The Mission
The Graham School (TGS) has a particular mission to urban students in Central Ohio preparing them for lifelong learning and informed citizenship through real-world experiences and rigorous academics. Fostering ownership and responsibility for their education prepares our students to be successful in college, the workplace, and other endeavors they undertake upon leaving Graham.
[edit] The School
TGS is a public secondary school with a charter granted by the State of Ohio. The school is open to all Ohio students with a priority given to students who live in the Columbus Public School District. The school's main focus is experiential education, and in a small-school setting where all students are known by all staff members. It is open to students in grades 9-12. In its fifth year, The Graham School enrolls 200 students. Its demographic characteristics reflect those of urban Columbus and Central Ohio.
The vision that formed and fuels TGS is as a school that:
-Treats all students humanely and individually. -Serves the urban community of Columbus.
-Enlivens the human spirit via concerned and positive ways mature, wise adults interact with teenagers and serve as role models for them.
-Causes students to become more thoughtful, inquisitive people particularly in core literacy areas including: science; math; the arts; communication through literature, writing, and oral presentation; technology; social studies; languages and cultural studies; and community engagement.
-Respects the need for students to establish their own independence while at the same time developing in them a sense of commitment to their community.
-Is a place where adults working at the school always exhibit respect toward students and other adults. Serves every child equally who desires this kind of experiential education.
[edit] The Curriculum
As the primary means of articulating our mission to "encounter the world and engage the mind," we offer students from the ninth grade forward a balance of classroom and experiential learning opportunities. Students spend three days each week at the school and two days at one of 50 learning partner sites including museums, hospitals, a botanical conservatory and parkland, businesses, and other private and public community organizations that share with TGS a common vision for students and their learning.
Classroom work in traditional and non-traditional (for high schools) courses helps students acquire basic conceptual and factual knowledge and develops study habits, self-discipline, research skills, and teamwork. Research, teaching, and service learning experiences at the partner sites develop students' confidence in their ability to do productive and significant work and form a tangible commitment to their community.
The school also is committed to students experiencing college-level courses while in high school through partnership programs with area higher education institutions.
To graduate, students must meet all the requirements for completing coursework in the academic areas as stipulated by the State of Ohio, including passing the Ohio Graduation Test. The Graham School also has further graduation requirements in its experiential program.
[edit] TGS Staff
Staff members at TGS are dedicated educators distinguished by the energy, excitement and creativity they bring to the adventure of helping students learn. Of our 15 full-time and 8 part-time staff, five hold the master's degree and four hold doctorates. All teachers hold certification with the state of Ohio, in addition to their bachelor's degrees. In addition to their teaching and/or other duties, staff also serve as student advisors for small groups of 12-15 students. Meeting with the same advisory group twice weekly throughout the year enables teachers to help guide all aspects of student development.
[edit] Community Partners
Our community partners serve as other, concerned adults for our students to interact with, and represent a special feature of our school. On-going conversation exists between TGS staff and partners/mentors to outline, design and implement the work for our students at the sites. The experiences at our sites are designed to: Build confidence in a student that she or he can contribute important work that changes and/or adds to an organization, thus engendering a sense of accomplishment about real work. Provide students with appropriately responsible tasks, thus creating deeper responsibility to the partner organization and to the larger community. Generate discussion and evaluation of how the work at the partner site helps the student determine better what she or he does and does not want to pursue professionally. Create products (research results, artistic displays, essays, oral presentations, etc.) that demonstrate what the student has learned and accomplished at the site.
[edit] Why the "Graham" School?
Russell E. Graham 1896-1996
Russell E. Graham was educated in a one-room country schoolhouse near Zanesville, Ohio. Because he needed to work on the family farm, Russell could attend school only part-time during the spring and fall. In eighth grade, he failed the Boxwell exam [a qualifying test for high school similar to the proficiency tests], and therefore he could not attend high school.
Nevertheless, Russell read and studied independently and as an adult became the state property appraiser for a federal agency. He then opened a real estate office at the corner of Torrence Road and Indianola Avenue. Later, Russell moved the business to the building he built in Beechwold on North High Street, where The Graham School originally opened in 2000.
Russell was a successful broker and a respected community member. He was also a lifelong learner long before we invented that term. With an open mind and a generous and adventurous spirit, Russell encountered the world, learned from it, and gave back to it.
Some of his accomplishments:
-Making a three-month trip around the globe at age 74
-Taking his teenaged grandsons to Africa at age 91
-Learning to use a computer and computerizing his business at age 91
-Learning to read music and play the organ at age 95
-Having failed his driving test at age 95, practicing in his driveway for a year and passing the test at age 96.
When he was 94, Russell Graham memorized this poem:
The Man in the Glass
When you get what you want in your struggle for self And the world makes you king for a day, Just go to a mirror and look at yourself, And see what that man has to say.
For it isn't your father or mother or wife Who judgment upon you must pass; The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life Is the one staring back in the glass.
Some people may think you a straight-shootin' chum And call you a wonderful guy, But the man in the glass says you're only a bum If you can't look him in the eye.
He's the fellow to please, never mind all the rest, For he's with you clear up to the end, And you've passed your most dangerous, difficult test If the man in the glass is your friend.
You may find the rest of the world down the pathway of years And get pats on the back as you pass, But your final reward will be heartaches and tears If you cheated the man in the glass.
The Graham School is committed to helping students discover what our namesake knew: that to live a rich, full life of value to ourselves and others, we must take responsibility for our own learning and pursue both knowledge and truth with a sense of excitement and adventure, not just during our school years, but throughout our lives.
[edit] College Acceptance of March 2006
Note: The Graham School opened in 2000 and has had only two four-year graduating classes.
Agnes Scott College
American University
Antioch College
Barnard College (Columbia University)
Boston University
Bowling Green University
Calvin College
Columbus College of Art and Design
Columbus State Community College
Davis Elkins College
DePaul University
DeVry Institute
Eastern Kentucky University
Embrey Riddle University
George Washington University
Heidelberg College - President's Scholarship, full four-year scholarship
Indiana University
Miami University
Ohio Dominican University
Ohio Northern College
Ohio Wesleyan University
Ohio University
Otterbein College
Purdue Universityv Sheridan College (Ontario, Canada)
St. John's College (Maryland and Arizona campuses)
Syracuse University
The College of Wooster
The Ohio State University
University of Chicago
University of Dayton
University of Kansas
University of Kentucky
University of Wisconsin
Warren Wilson - full four-year scholarship West Virginia University
- For the 2003-2004 school year The Graham School had a National Merit Commended Scholar.
- For the 2004-2005 school year The Graham School had a Joyce Scholar recipient.
- For the 2005-2006 school year The Graham School had a National Merit Commended Scholar.
