KPBS radio features story about IES...
On Tuesday February 9th, 2010, KPBS Radio featured a story about Integral Elementary School. The story broadcasted 4 times during the day.
Click here to listen to the story
Unconventional school focuses on students’ ‘Inner Being’.
SAN DIEGO — A group of enlightened San Diego youngsters are practicing ancient disciplines that most people don’t discover until later in life. They’re doing yoga and meditation at a private school in La Jolla. They study traditional subjects but they also focus on their “inner being.”
Fifteen precocious kids sit cross-legged. They’re in a circle inside a bare classroom. Some fidget. Others remain still. Teacher Wendy Cotton guides them through their group meditation.
“See yourself outside on a beautiful path,” Cotton said. “Take a look at this path. Is it dirt? Is it grass? Is it rocks? This is your special journey you get to create it however you’d like.”
This ritual begins each morning at the Integral School in La Jolla. The teachers at the school strive to help kids discover their life purpose by getting in-touch with themselves.
Carla Gerstein is a mother and the school’s co-founder. She didn’t like what traditional and charter schools had to offer.
“I was actually in this meditation and it kind of hit me,” Gerstein said. “I wanted something different for my kids, and I don’t see it out there. So it looks like I am going to have to do this.”
That’s when Gerstein partnered with Dr. Prapanna Smith to open the school.
“I don’t think there is any school that (more…)
