Lyons Community School provides a broad, stimulating experience in the liberal arts, preparing students, grades 6 – 12, for college, healthy adulthood, and life-long learning.The logo for Lyons Community School consists of three intersecting curves. Each curve represents one of our core beliefs about a good education:1. New Experiences and Ideas Authentic learning comes when you open yourself up to new ideas and experiences, and consider them with a wondrous and critical lens. At Lyons we believe that you need to experience learning first hand, engage actively in thinking and take time to reflect. Younger students at Lyons, leave the building for the afternoon each week to travel to different parts of our city. This class, called Field Studies, is fundamental to our school. As they get older they pick electives, many of which continue this weekly travel, or internships. Students know these experiences are not simply field trips. They come equipped with their notebooks, reading books (for reading on the subway), a pen and an open mind. Our students become savvy travelers, not only gaining confidence and ease with our city’s complex transportation systems and layout, but within our various communities and sites with their differing expectations. The notion of constant exposure to new ideas is fundamental within our school as well. Inquiry based learning is central to our schoool. Students are introduced to new authors, art forms and ways of thinking about and seeing the world. Each semester in each core class students engage in intensive projects that culminate in Roundtable projects and presentations. Twice a year students demonstrate their understanding and growth through Roundtable presentations where outside evaluators see what they have learned. We encourage them to take chances in class by asking questions, suggesting their own ideas, and trying something new that might scare them or seem unfamiliar. Intellectual courage is key to developing a strong intellect and it starts with taking chances academically. 2. Being Known This support and understanding of the individual, allows us to know students as both learners and people. When asked to reflect back on what they must appreciate about Lyons both students and families say, "you guys really knew me, and you accepted me and supported me even when I was really struggling. You believed in me." 3. Community As is in our name, we are a community school. While we know everyone as a unique individual, more importantly we know that what we can accomplish together far exceeds anything any one of us could accomplish alone. We believe learning is social and that through discussions, collaborative learning and projects that stem from student interests, we all benefit. Through advisory, classes that encourage group work and collaboration, and our Restorative Justice work, students get practice working together, dealing with conflict and innumerous opportunities to strengthen the skills needed to work with other people. When alumni and families talk about what they gained from Lyons they always talk about their ability to work with all kinds of people in all kinds of situations. "We are the peace makers wherever we go. We help people believe we can work together instead of tearing each other down." Benefits of a Liberal Arts Education Lyons Community School is a liberal arts school. We firmly believe that a liberal arts education is ideal for secondary school students even if they already know what career they are interested in pursuing. A liberal arts education means that instead of focusing studies in one or two fields students are exposed to a wide range of topics and ideas. The purpose of a liberal arts education is to learn how to think and how to learn. With those tools students can do whatever they wish to do with their lives. Regardless of a student’s interests, the better she gets at reading and understanding challenging texts, writing well and thinking clearly, the better prepared she will be for any goal she wishes to accomplish. Also, when studying the liberal arts, students are learning to see the larger picture and understand how ideas are connected. NYS Performance Consortium School Restorative Justice School Lyons is a nationally recognized school for our work in Restorative Justice. We have visitors from across the country regularly visiting to learn from our experiences, are one of the NYC City Council five mentor RJ schools, and staff and students are regularly presenting at conferences and other schools. |
About Lyons >