Connections

Our aim as educators is to cultivate Connection and Responsibility to self, humanity and the planet.

Through these connections, a child grows from conception and complete dependence, to becoming fully independent, free, consciously responsible towards himself and the world in which he lives, and capable of fulfilling those responsibilities. We are living in a time of increasing health deterioration, the promulgation of war, and the destruction of the planet’s natural resources. How can education be a remedy? How can we help children experience that who they are and how they live matters? Every child has the seed of potential to know and fulfill their gifts and capacities to participate fully and joyfully in attunement with life. What is needed is a continuum of education that tends each child’s seed, at every stage, with all the necessary nutrients, to produce a strong, vital, knowledgeable, human being, centered in the heart and able to confidently meet life’s challenges. Along this path these elements must be addressed:

Connection to Self: Love of Life and Search for Truth

• Self-knowledge: awareness, acceptance, observation, understanding and expression of self
• Contemplative practices to contact inner calm
• Time for inner reflections on life’s meaning and bigger questions of existence
• Physical fitness: experiencing the body’s potentials and capacities, and understanding how to create the foundation for life long health
• Supporting the pursuit of self-motivated and self-directed passions and interests
• Self-discipline and energy management

Connection to Humanity: “Love is the most powerful force in the universe.”

• Multi-cultural, multi-age, multi-generational education that fosters respect, tolerance, and appreciation for human diversity
• Learn skills for all arenas of communication
• Develop both leadership and team skills
• Participate in all the Arts: Theater, Music, Dance, Art
• Contribute to classroom, school, local, national and global Community through work, play and service projects
• Creating the village: connecting school and home through parent involvement and parent education

Connection to the Planet: Peace from Attunement with the Oneness of all Life

• An integrated, balanced, complete, challenging academic curriculum including authentic choices for all students
• Provide stewardship experiences: caretaker and guardian of the earth and animals
• Develop a personal relationship to nature through play, exploration, quiet time, hiking, camping and earth education
• Learn to access, infuse and make use of qualities and invisible sources of energy available in the natural world
• Gain an understanding of the causes of global environmental decay and take part in the solutions
• Understand the interconnectedness and workings of all life’s cycles: earth, water, air, plants and life/death
• Learn life skills for simple, sustainable living: agriculture, animal care, handcrafts, cooking, carpentry, fixing, cleaning, organizational skills