Khalif Dowdy

The Get Down is a proposal for a new kind of school, a decentralized structure that stands in sharp contrast to traditional institutional models. The school’s structure and curriculum are based on in-depth study of pedagogy and analysis of urban form and are designed with historically marginalized communities in mind. Students learn in popup classrooms and through interactive exhibitions and urban interventions that meet students where they are—emotionally, culturally, and geographically. A public park is used as an education hub, allowing students to branch off and explore the city, which itself becomes an educator. Offering more small-group and one-on-one time with students and dispensing with the one-size-fits-all approach, the school provides students with mentors who help them network and explore their interests while offering them care.

The concept is both a way of reconfiguring the city and a reimagining of education. Incorporating adaptive reuse of architecture, it takes learning into overlooked and underutilized corners of New York City. The Get Down would start the process of deschooling society, an idea proposed by Ivan Illich. Ultimately, this form of pedagogy would foster the development of a new type of social fabric and instill new ways of thinking in the rising generation.