Cultivating Curiosity

CHAPTER 16TRUST

The campus of El Segundo Elementary School in the Compton Unified School District in Los Angeles was a chaotic environment when I arrived there in 1974. It was troubled by random shootings, gang violence, and constant fights on the playground. Funded by a grant from the U.S. Office of Education, I had agreed to train teachers in my Design-Based Learning methodology (then known as City Building Education) at the school. To ensure success, Emma Hulett, El Segundo's principal, had selected a dozen of her 45 teachers whom she thought would be most willing to participate in a six-week summer training program involving teachers, kids, and university architecture students.

Emma understood the value of building a tabletop City in ...