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FRANCIE SUMMERS is putting a new city on the map.
It's called Garehime Heights, Nev.; population 1,100. It has its own city council, court system, postal service, recycling center, newspaper, Chamber of Commerce, bank and other businesses.
"What about a school?" you ask.
Garehime IS a school.
Summers is principal of Garehime Elementary, which opened last August in northwest Las Vegas. She and her teaching staff created Garehime Heights as a "lifelike experience of the real world."
Each classroom has a yearlong theme, and the students run a small business from the class. That includes applying for a business license, paying rent, interviewing "employees" -- everything a real business is required to do.
The currency of this small town is Garehime Gold, which students earn and invest. The businesses make money by selling their wares. There's a Walgreen's, a Peter Piper Pizza, a Green Thumb garden center and a post office that sells stamps and stationery. There's even a Garehime Travel Agency.
Summers plans to go global. At the beginning of the new school year in August, students will begin an imaginary cruise to Italy, and then continue on to different ports around the world.
Summers figures that by the time her students enter the real workforce, many of the job opportunities will be in other countries. She wants the students to sample a taste of other cultures.
The concept behind Garehime Heights is called a "curriculum of life" that seeks to empower students to achieve the skills, knowledge and confidence to become productive citizens and lifelong learners by engaging them in a "brain-compatible" learning environment.
Shouldn't all schools be "brain compatible"?
Of course. But Garehime takes the basics -- reading, writing and math -- to another level.
In school-speak it's called "Integrated Thematic Instruction," which is based on research on how the brain best learns.
Summers says students learn best through meaningful, relevant education. When they learn a basic skill, they need to immediately apply it. That can be done by filling out a worksheet of new words or math problems or -- in Garehime's case -- applying it to a real-world experience such as a business.
Chances are that the student will better remember applying it to "business" than doing a worksheet.
Summers sees other benefits to this type of instruction. Attendance and achievement are up, and there are fewer discipline problems. Kids want to come to school. Teachers are motivated and excited.
"It's brought our school together," she says.
Summers started a similar program when she was at Jacobsen Elementary before taking over at Garehime. A few other local schools are following similar models.
Although Garehime is located in a fairly affluent area, most of the research for the instruction method was done at at-risk schools. The concept works well in those schools, Summers says. People think students in new schools such as Garehime are getting all the necessary lifeskills at home, but many aren't, she adds.
The school recently hosted a program to encourage business and professional people to lend their expertise to the students' enterprises.
Summers says the goal is to teach students to do their personal best. They may not reach the top, but they'll know they've done well.
Garehime Heights sounds like a model city.
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