The core of the "Virtue School" will be education related - the main
task being to "know thyself": questioning who you are to find depth and
meaning - within a supportive communal framework. Secondly, it will be
about creating community. Actually, the "students" will be designing,
constructing and maintaining everything in their community (including
the school) themselves.
At first I was only planning small-scale - a "permaculture farm school"
where the "school" would be kind of an extra-curricular thing - and a
community could gradually develop around it. After going to Peru,
however, I have the message that I am going to build an entirely new
school system: one that creates and maintains its own self-sufficient
community -- and gradually expands to build a network of such
communities. Once it becomes successful, the network of communities
will expand and go global. I have the feeling that this is what people
are longing for today, but they don't know how to go about it. My goal
is to bring those creative energies together and let them go...
One of the main curricula will be Permaculture. From the beginning the
students will follow a Permaculture Design Course and the designing
will start from there. I have also been thinking that in the beginning
we could start with an essential survival course: learning to get your
own safe water, build temporary shelters, start fire, get food, etc.
Eventually, that can expand to conserving food, building storage areas
for water and grain; also shelters for animals can be built; while also
building permanent housing & developing the garden areas. Another,
task will be designing self-sustainable energy for the community. The
goal is to be off-grid.
The
school will allow the students to shape and create their own
curriculum. I would love to have something like this happen (a school
in Russia - though I don't like everything about it - see some critcisms here):
"[...] Schetinin developed a model school for the future where ordinary
pupils, without much help from adult teachers, cover the whole 11-year
curriculum of the compulsory school system in just two years and get
official bachelor’s and master’s degrees from accredited universities
by the time they are seventeen. During their education, these children
have designed, built and decorated their campus all by themselves. Here
even a ten-year-old girl is capable of building a house, doing splendid
drawings and cooking meals, not to mention knowing ballroom dance steps
and mastering the fundamentals of Russian martial arts. Without any
advertisement, there is already a waiting list of over 2,500 hopefuls
for an unexpected opening.
"Schetinin points out that the standard compulsory school system
intends to prepare children for their social roles in life. His school
is not preparing anyone for anything, because life happens every moment
that we are alive. So instead of preparing children for something, they
are allowed to live in each present moment. When you ask Principal
Schetinin about what his secret is, his only answer is: “I do not have
any secrets! The only thing that is different at my school is the
approach we treat Human beings.” As a professional educator Shchetinin
never took anything for granted, and asked himself the question: How
come children are so inspired to learn and absorb all information like
sponges when they start in the first grade and then by the ages of
eleven and older learning becomes much more difficult for them within
the compulsory school system, while their creative abilities tend to be
extinguished by that time? During his pursuit to find answers to his
reflective question he stared experimenting with different approaches
for education and schooling. By trial and error over two decades, he
derived this extremely powerful concept for this school:
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Also,
like this one:
Tamara
(ignore the song)
It's an international school at an ecovillage - "Tamera" - in Portugal.
You can find more info on Tamera here: http://www.tamera.org
I don't like everything about it (Tamera, the school), but I like that
the kids are learning practical things and learning how to survive -
how to be autonomous/self-sufficient within their community: in
ecology, food production, technology and building their own houses from
readily available, natural materials.
It kind of brings together a lot of ideas of Permaculture....
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Here"s another example...
Green School in Bali
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I'd like to integrate art, architecture, music, science and gymnastics
(dance), theater, performance; together with healing: the earth and
society... (bring in healing methods like shamanism, Chinese medicine
(Tao, acupuncture, martial arts), Indian medicine, herbalism,
homeopathy,...)... And lots of meditation...
Right now, I"m just looking for support, like-minded people. I have the
feeling everything is going to come by itself once the message gets out
there...