The International Community School (ICS) of Gunma has existed for 12 years as mainly a kindergarten to fourth grade program. With their recent move to Isesaki City (near Honjo) last year, they have expanded through high school using the Oak Meadow curriculum of the United States. All ICS students are mixed for both Japanese and English medium instruction. They also offer the core requirements of Brazilian and Peruvian education for home speakers of Portuguese and Spanish, though anyone is welcome to learn these languages as well.
ICS has also joined the “free school” movement in Japan, welcoming Japanese students who are not satisfied with Japanese government-approved education. They see their mission as a multicultural and multilingual alternative education open to all, regardless of family income, native language or nationality. Parents who cannot afford their minimum monthly tuition are able to volunteer for the school to make up the difference. ICS experiment with experiential, multiage, project-based education, with the whole school engaged in monthly themes and sharing their learning in monthly presentations.
The ICS overall theme for this year is creating a community garden in which they research and grow vegetables and herbs from the lands of their ancestors. In the process, they are learning about biology, earth science, nutrition, history and current global problems. They also plan to sell the extra plants they grow in order to learn about how to run thier own cooperative business.
Students at ICS learn at their own pace and in their own way. Competition and comparison is discouraged, with stress on conflict resolution and empathy. ICS is truly a minority school with a rare humanistic vision in this increasingly materialistic and aggressive world. If you hope your child to be happy, rather than merely “successful” by the world’s standards, please visit ICS of Gunma!
More information can be found on their homepage at http://icsnet.or.jp/
— CHEIRON McMAHILL
