Community and Team Work

The ability to work as a team is a powerful and vital experience. We accomplish so much more together than we do alone. How many of the problems in the world could be solved if people learned how to live and work as a team with a common aim?

Running River is a community of teachers, parents and children. We use multi-aged classrooms and parent involvement to create our own model of a village. The children feel their classrooms to be a community, but also the school as a whole. Throughout the year, the entire school participates in projects (such as hatching chickens, theater events, all-school hikes and camping trips) and engages in service projects such as sponsoring a sister school in Uganda or cleaning up a local creek.

There are many opportunities to engage in teamwork. These come in many forms, such as: helping each other climb a rock, playing games, making a meal together, building a fort, choreographing original dances, solving problems collaboratively, doing scientific experiments, service projects, or fundraising.

Rituals are a glue that hold communities together. At Running River we use daily rituals to start the day, start hikes, begin our democratic councils, spend quiet time alone, express gratitude before meals, and end each day.

The focus on community and teamwork brings us back to one of our greatest needs as humans: to know that who we are and what we do matters, and that we can make a difference.

Teamwork is truly what makes a successful community.