Much Ado About School
By Katherine Romano, Associate Editor

According to New School of Orlando's fearless leader, Morrie Sorin (above), "We try to teach our kids 'I am my brother's keeper.' And as a result, our students are really concerned about each other."

Before our visit to New School of Orlando, the school's Director, Morris Sorin, told us that it was "the best kept secret in town." After our taxi driver took a couple of wrong turns and then drove right past the school twice, we started to get an idea of what he was talking about.

New School of Orlando is located on a quiet, unassuming side street off a busy boulevard in downtown Orlando, FL. The campus consists of a series of one-story, rather nondescript buildings (in former lives the school was a Montessori preschool and a realtor's office, among several other things), a small parking area and a standard-issue playground. After we walked into the school's front office with a gaggle of students outfitted in white polo shirts and neatly pressed khakis, everything seemingly run-of-the-mill about New School of Orlando was left at the front door step.

Dream turned reality. While touring the school with Morris Sorin – whom kids and grown-ups alike call "Morrie" – we quickly caught his infectious blend of delight, awe and admiration for his students. As a former classroom teacher, principal, curriculum director and superintendent of schools, Morrie has culminated all the things he loves and has striven to achieve during his storied career in education into New School of Orlando.

Initially, this K-8 school with a basis in the Multiple Intelligences Theory began as the shared dream of Morrie, his wife and teacher friends Etty Baru, Diane Goldsmith, Zulma Rodriguez and Jaine La Fay. They had all met at the Hebrew Day School in Maitland, FL where Morrie served as director for close to eight years. After the school board voted on a change in direction, Morrie decided to tender his resignation. While catching up at lunch one day in 1995, Morrie and this special group of teachers began laying the groundwork for their "ideal" school – a place unlike any other they'd ever seen, a place where the teachers had the only say in what was best for the students.

A sneak peek at the kindergartners' performance of their original play about Zebra and Penguin escaping from the zoo and getting lost in the desert (above). Each student/desert animal played a big part in getting Zebra and Penguin safely home.

Their overwhelming enthusiasm and dedication to this dream was evidence enough for Morrie to take a $5,000 grant and a significant portion of his retirement fund to purchase two former homes that would eventually serve as the flagships for their dream turned reality.

Salad days. As we sat in his office, Morrie regaled us with stories of the school's salad days – before opening their doors, he and his teachers ripped up carpets, installed bathrooms and a kitchen and worked endlessly to bring their newborn school up to code. How's that for dedication? But wait, there's more. In NSO's first year, the teachers taught 33 students in the school they quite literally helped to build – without salary. It was a sacrifice, according to Morrie, everyone on board was quite willing to make and one that has clearly paid off tenfold. "The key thing in our philosophy that we ask ourselves is, 'Are we doing what we say we do?' " he told us. "Everyone has that commitment. We are all child advocates here."

Artists in the making – we were astonished at the second grade's beautiful artwork (above)! Etty Baru is the school's Art Instructor for all grades.

Think different. "Children very quickly learn that the name of the game is 'Guess the Teacher's Answer,' " Morrie continued. "Here we teach them to think outside the box – and our kids really do." To keep that way of thinking always fresh in the kids' minds, he keeps a framed picture of Charlie Chaplin, as seen in Apple's popular "Think Different" ad campaign, hanging up in his office. As if on cue, NSO's fourth through eighth grade students then filed into the school's rehearsal area outside of Morrie's office to give us a sample of the school's very different and very inspiring arts-infused curriculum.

Wherefore art thou, Romeo? The second half of the school year at NSO has the fourth through eighth graders studying one of Shakespeare's plays and eventually performing it at the end of the year. This year, they decided on "Romeo and Juliet." During their studies, students discovered that in Shakespeare's time, women were not allowed on stage so therefore, all of the female parts were played by men. In typical NSO-student fashion, the kids wanted to know if that was true then, couldn't the reverse hold true today? So in New School of Orlando's production of "Romeo and Juliet," Romeo was played by a girl. And what a production it was.

We got the privilege of viewing the scene in Act I where Romeo and Juliet first meet. Under the direction of NSO's resident Dance Instructor Sarah Swindell, a "Renaissance Dance" was added where kids leapt and pliéd and pirouetted past us like pros. There was a chorus of recorder-playing maidens, a series of tumbling manservants and a scene between Romeo and her Juliet that choked up one unnamed Associate Editor.

NSO's Dance Instructor Sarah Swindell gets the kids warmed up before their performance (above). The fourth grade sings their original song about the history of Florida (above right).

Even with the "think different" mentality firmly ensconced at New School of Orlando, these master thespians are most decidedly still "regular" kids. Even though students worry about things like maintaining a "B" (94) average or qualifying for academic advanced placement, we learned that the hardest part of performing Shakespeare is getting the boys to touch the girls.

Against the grain. The performing arts isn't the only area where NSO's students are going against the grain. Everywhere we went on the school's campus, we saw evidence of highly developed minds working at full capacity – from kindergartners playing chess with ease to the upper grades' ornately carved woodworking and stained glass projects in the art studio. "We want to teach our students the dignity of labor and that not everybody's going to be a doctor or a lawyer," Morrie said. "Some people are going to work with their hands and they have a right to be respected for what they do."

We also learned that as another way to prompt kids to "think different," NSO's teachers do not use textbooks in social studies and in science – in fact, the kids are encouraged to question what they read in their textbooks and turn in their findings as research and homework assignments. Each academic period at NSO is an hour and a half – in addition to regular subjects, students have two periods a week of art, music and computers, one period of gym and five weekly periods of Spanish. The whole school also participates in a performance called "Winterfest," which Morrie told us has been a wonderful learning experience especially for NSO's younger children. "Performing teaches them courage," he commented. "It's hard for them to get up on that stage, but they learn all about timing, discipline and focus."

Seventh and eighth grade dancers are all smiles while in rehearsal for "Romeo and Juliet" (above).

The same page. Like their kids, it sounds like NSO's parents are some pretty special people as well. Even though the tuition is on the higher end ($7500 for the 2003-2004 school year), NSO's parents wouldn't think twice about sending their kids anywhere else. There are a fair amount of single-parent families at NSO with several of those parents working multiple jobs to make it possible for their child to attend the school.

When parents of prospective NSO students first visit the school they are told flat out that they've got to support the New School's way of teaching or they shouldn't consider enrolling their child. "We know that the child is going to do well here and be happy but we have to be on the same page with the parents," Morrie said. There are currently 142 students, with room for about 170 in the school's current facilities. As you can imagine, classes are small and close-knit with about 12-18 students in each.

The second grade on the set of their movie, "The Melee over Pele".

Different drummers. Before we left for the day, the students of New School of Orlando still had a few more treats for us. We witnessed fifth-graders strengthening their improvisational skills, watched second graders filming their original movie, "The Melee over Pele," read the middle grades' book about the Harlem Renaissance and best of all, we got to watch the kids perform. Some of the highlights included the fourth grade's song they wrote themselves about the history of Florida, the first graders dramatic version of "Sleeping Beauty," and the seventh and eighth grades' medley of American folk songs. What was most striking about this display of talent, was that while these kids were doing what comes naturally, not a single child was stirring – all eyes were intent on the performers.

"People tend to think with a school such as this, that everything is very loose," Morrie said. "But on the contrary, the more options you offer children, the stronger the infrastructure has to be because you have to structure every one of those options." New School of Orlando may be a place for those who march to a different drummer, but together they form one amazing symphony.

Eighth grade scientists testing hypotheses in Lynn Tierney's science class (above). Music Instructor Cindy Bright (above left) has been a great help with integrating music into the kids' regular classroom curriculum.

October, 2003, Vol.34, No.2