TK
Teito Kokubo
  • Class of 2014
  • Sakai, Osaka

Teito Kokubo of Sakai, Osaka is student innovator at Pomfret School

2013 Dec 20

In a "new and different way of learning," Teito Kokubo of Sakai, Osaka recently participated in a group project entitled "From the Iroquois to the Lax Bros: The History and Evolution of the Game of Lacrosse."

Teito, a member of the class of 2014 at Pomfret School in Pomfret, Connecticut, was recently part of an all-school academic experiment called Project: Pomfret. From December 3 - 18 the students and faculty at Pomfret were at school, but not, in the conventional sense, in school. In place of class time and homework, they were instead out tackling one of twenty-nine innovative projects--among them designing and building a real footbridge, conducting statistical and laboratory analyses on the economic and nutritional value of organic produce, and trying to make sense of the Middle East, the environment, hip-hop music, the practicality of dams; and actually producing and using biodiesel fuel.

Teito was in the group of students and faculty who collaborated on a project entitled "From the Iroquois to the Lax Bros: The History and Evolution of the Game of Lacrosse."

Project: Pomfret represented an experimental retooling of the 120-year-old school's academic matrix, harvested from the year of self-examination that resulted in a new strategic plan. Project: Pomfret was based on the principles of project-based learning (students engage to the fullest when they can experience and solve real-world problems). Everyone involved got to break away from the established academic routine and focus instead on their one particular topic. The goal: to make the learning viable and real. After two days of final Project: Pomfret presentations, Head of School Tim Richards was impressed. "I found [this] the two best days I have spent in my life as an educator," he said. "I believe we all saw a new and different way of learning."

N.B.: Individual photographs are available. Please contact Betsy Walker, bwalker@pomfretschool.org.