Pilot School uses natural education method

Instead of the newest monkey bars or jungle gym, students at the Pilot School's new $34 million campus have the natural beauty of the First State Historic National Park as both a playground and classroom.

The school's administrators say the wonder of nature intertwines with the school's curriculum and is one of the best ways to reach students who struggle in traditional school settings. 

"From the beginning, we didn't want it to be a school on 50 acres but a 50-acre-school," said Andrew Hayes, a senior engineer at ForeSite Associates. "This design responds to all the natural features on the site so kids are able to learn through the environmental aspects."

The new school, which opened to students Monday on Woodlawn Drive off Concord Pike, is the institution's fourth location in its 60-year history. Its design reflects a lot of what has been learned about teaching students with academic challenges, said Kathleen Craven, the school's director.

The school does not have a traditional grade structure; it accepts students ages five through 14.

The Pilot School is a nonprofit, private corporation and designs a specialized curriculum for individual students who have average or above average intelligence, but also have some weakness in their learning development. Tuition is $27,000 for the school year, though some families receive assistance.

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"They may not speak or talk on a normal timeframe. They may have less ability to zip, snap or button. They may have trouble with oral-motor (skills) when they do speak forming specific and clear sounds," Craven said. "A traditional teacher may mean well, but there is not enough hands on with hearing it, speaking it and seeing it." 

Years struggling in a traditional classroom setting often see the kids who come to the Pilot School shut down and without confidence, so teachers must "build a bridge" in order for the student to fully take in the material, Craven said. 

One of the most successful bridges is the outdoors, and that is reflected all around the campus, Craven said. The school sits on 50 acres of property bounded on two sides by the First State National Historic Park.

Nature has always been a part of Pilot's teaching, but Craven said the outdoors will take on an expanded role where teachers of various subjects take students into the wild to relate the subject matter to the outdoors. 

"We are becoming almost a nature school, where nature is going to be part of nearly every subject we teach," Craven said. 

While the school borders the vast park, nature is also integrated into the 85,000-square-foot building. Students will be taught science from a second-floor observation deck that overlooks the rich canopy of maple, hickory, beech and oak in the adjacent parkland. The school also has rooftop planting beds to engage students.

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It is a departure from the technology arms race many schools are waging by offering iPads and other gadgets for kids.

"Nature is another tool," said Coleman du Pont, a member of the school's governing board. "We try to figure a way into that child's mind. They like science or frogs and use that as a jumping off point to help them develop a sense of 'I can do this.' "

Many students who come to Pilot have struggled in more traditional settings. This breeds frustration and feelings of low self-worth that must be overcome as part of catching them up academically, du Pont said.

"They internalize those fears about themselves," du Pont said. "You end up being filled with self-esteem issues and that is a spiral in the wrong direction."

Walking through the front door, it's clear the school was designed with comfort in mind. Students are greeted with a cavernous atrium with a glass wall and welcoming fireplace. You won't find many benches or chairs. Instead, the atrium is built around large boulders in an amphitheatre-like setting. 

The hallways and classrooms for younger students were also built with this in mind. Lower division hallways are lined with benches and designed to include small pockets where students can feel more comfortable socializing.

The classrooms are designed to give students a different feel than the more utilitarian setting of public schools. They feature sound dampening carpet, small spaces and large windows to calm the senses, Craven said.

"Everything in the school is double dry-walled to keep it quiet and calm," Craven said.

So-called tranquility rooms offer the students a place to escape and unwind, Craven said.

Jerry Heisler, a local developer who helped envision and execute the school's building plan, said one of the main ways to build happiness is to build self-esteem. That's the idea behind a saltwater swimming pool inside the school. It's not a luxury but an inviting way for kids to build confidence.

The pool features a beach-like entrance for nervous students to first dip their toe. Once they've built some confidence, they'll be participating in swimming and safety instruction as well as learning to canoe, kayak, snorkel and raft. 

"The one thing about Pilot is the children who come here are not happy," said Heisler, who is the father of a former Pilot student. "The children that come here are frustrated socially, physically and academically. That combination from frustration to happiness is an amazing transition."

Transition is also an important aspect of Pilot. It's meant to be a "short stay school" where students transition back into more traditional classroom settings.

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With that in mind, the areas of the school for older students are designed to ease the transition into whatever school the kids will learn at after pilot. 

Hallways are larger, taller and lined with lockers. The social area is an outdoor terrace designed to be more open than the smaller social spaces for younger students. 

Craven said the school has seen great success with transitioning students out. She said 98 percent of students who go to a different school, stay there and graduate through the highest grade offered.

All of their students eventually graduate with a high school degree, Craven said.

The new campus has been in the works for a decade. In that time, the state has seen a steady increase in the number of students who need more help than they might receive in a typical classroom setting. It's a trend that has state legislators worried about the implications for public school budgets. 

John Murry, another board member, said they feel their new campus is reflective of lessons that can be gleaned by other educators. 

"It combines the best educational research in terms of how kids learn nationally with what pilot has discovered over almost 60 years in terms of what kids learn," Murry said. "Through the convergence of those two (we) created a 50-acre role model educational platform for Delaware."

Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or xwilson@delawareonline.com. Follow @Ber_Xerxes on Twitter.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include the cost of the land in the total cost of the school project.