FOREST SEMINAR
Reading, Playing, and Learning in the Fresh Air
SIGN UP TODAY! FIRST MEETING OCTOBER 10! LIMITED TO 12 STUDENTS
Designed for 10-13 year olds, Forest Seminar is a five-week-long classics-based enrichment program, held outdoors in Prospect Park. On Tuesdays and Fridays from 3:15 to 5:15 pm, and Saturdays from 1-5 pm, inquisitive young persons will encounter canonical texts, artworks, natural phenomena, and Latin. They will explore their world and nature through thoughtful discussion and observation, and will articulate their unique perspective through written responses, hands-on creations, maps, and math.
SCHEDULE
8 hours of in-person class a week, for five weeks. Classes will be on Tuesdays and Fridays from 3:15 to 5:15, and Saturday from 1-5pm.
STRUCTURE
Strictly limited to 12 students. 6-1 instructor-student ratio. Taught by two experienced teachers. We will wear masks and adhere to physical distancing.
LOCATION
The Merrie Forests of Prospect Park/Slope.
TUITION
Sliding scale: no one turned away for lack of funds. Inquire for details.
CURRICULUM
Resilience, Autonomy, Creativity, Discovery
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Forest Scholars will meet Plato, Shakespeare, Frederick Douglass, Emily Dickinson, and Ralph Ellison. We’ll explore the history of the United States—from Colonization to our current crisis in Democracy. Forest Scholars will begin to read Latin, navigate with a map and compass, and make cyanotypes using the sun. The Forest Seminar curriculum also addresses the New York State requirements for 4th-7th graders.
SEMINARS
All Seminars emphasize shared/Socratic inquiry. Together, we’ll develop a writing practice that includes a Commonplace Notebook and free-writing.
FOREST GAMES
This part of the curriculum will involve movement, observation, navigation, and image-making. We will experiment and explore, making Prospect Park our laboratory and fieldsite.
INSTRUCTORS
Annie Kopecky is currently on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania. Annie’s teaching experience includes Harvard (ten years), Stanford, Skidmore, and Brown. Annie brings this Ivy League experience to her work with younger students as “reverse engineering.”
Annie’s interests in early childhood education go back to her own K-12 boredom–she failed 8th grade “just to see what would happen”: she was also a highschool dropout–and a National Merit Finalist–who now holds multiple Ivy degrees: (Wellesley, Stanford, Harvard, and Brown).
Annie’s rocky early education drove her to develop holistic, interactive K-12 experiences such as Forest Seminar, Latin Immersion, holistic test prep (SHSAT/PSAT/SAT), and developmental and reparative therapeutic tutoring. The more critical, difficult and cynical a student is about their current educational experience, the more happily and enthusiastically Annie enjoys working with them!
Annie specializes in 8E learning: she strongly believes that all children are 8x exceptional, following Howard Gardner’s theories of multiple intelligences. Annie’s approach is playful yet rigorous: it does not feel like “work.” Annie’s mantra is: “As long as someone is present, I can work with them, and they will transform in powerful, unexpected ways.” Many parents can attest to this! (References available upon request).
“Starting her own school” has been a goal ever since Annie first read Summerhill, by A.S. Neill (in 3rd grade). At Harvard, Annie spent ten years teaching “Special Concentrators,” honors-only Harvard students who design their own majors with an advisor. Games, questions, puzzles, and wonderment animate Annie’s teaching, whether K-12 or Ivy League.
Finn West is a 30-year-old anthropologist, artist, and writer. He attended Waldorf School from K-8th grade, which he considers formative. After graduating from Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, Finn spent four months in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and Malaysia, exploring infrastructure, insects, and fisheries. As a graduating senior in college, Finn was awarded a “divisional/multi-departmental” prize for one of the two best students in both the Arts Division and the Social Sciences Division (a total of 15 separate departments). He is now a PhD candidate in Anthropology at Cornell University. Finn has always been inspired by the endless curiosity of children and has worked at a summer camp in Los Angeles, where he grew up.
APPLY
How do I apply?
…or click “Apply Online” below
Tell us how old your child(ren) are, what their interests are, and why you think they’d be a good fit for Forest Seminar.