The Basic School: A Community for Learning

This report offers a new, comprehensive plan for elementary schooling that affirms hope and higher standards for the nation’s young children. The blueprint is built on four key priorities: the school as community, a curriculum with coherence, a climate for learning, and a commitment to character. Boyer's plan emphasizes the commonality of human experience and the integration of the content areas. 1995. A special report. A Closer Look at The Basic School is a video of Ernest L. Boyer leading a seminar of teachers and principals from the Basic School network. The video is in five parts, each about 20 minutes: (1) “The School Reform Movement”; (2) “An Overview of The Basic School”; (3) “Bringing Change to a School”; (4) “The Basic School Curriculum: The Tools of Learning Language, Mathematics, and the Arts”; and (5) “The Basic School Curriculum: The Eight Human Commonalities.”