Salmonberry is a “Showcase School”

by Paul on December 9, 2011

Recently, IDEA, the Institute for Democratic Education in America named Salmonberry a “Showcase School” and invited us to become a member of this organization as well.  This honor has moved me to explore further the meaning of the phrase “democratic education” as well as the work of IDEA.

IDEA was founded a year and a half ago with a mission to “ensure that all young people can engage meaningfully with their education and gain the tools to build a just, democratic and sustainable world.”  They do this by employing a wide range of strategies.  The one most relevant to us at Salmonberry is that IDEA “showcases the bright spots.”

“IDEA is committed to showcasing what’s working in education.  Like curators at a museum, we review and spotlight what we think deserves a larger audience.”  And this is where IDEA’s interest in Salmonberry comes in.

IDEA defines democratic education as “learning that equips every human being to participate fully in a healthy democracy.”  This is a few shades removed from the way the phrase “democratic education” has been used by free schoolers, unschoolers and progressives during the last several decades.  It is more in line with a newly emerging sense of democracy being put forth by Parker Palmer in his latest book, Healing the Heart of Democracy: The Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit.

In this book, Palmer writes, “(democracy) is the ancient and honorable human endeavor of creating a community in which the weak as well as the strong can flourish, love and power can collaborate and justice and mercy can have their day…(it is) rooted in the commonwealth of compassion and creativity.”  Palmer correctly positions the need for community at the center of the democratic “experiment.”  We must recognize and embrace difference and diversity and find a way to elevate humanity for all.

Palmer goes on to point out that at the core of healthy community is the workings of the individual human heart.  “The heart is where everything begins: that grounded place in each of us where we can overcome fear, rediscover that we are members of one another, and embrace the conflicts…(it is) the heart’s alchemy that can turn suffering into community, conflict into the energy of creativity, and tension into an opening toward the common good.”

I see Palmer’s holistic vision of democracy fitting beautifully and seamlessly with IDEA’s clear and pointed activism and with the heart of Salmonberry’s work with young people every day.   Today I am very proud to be closely associated with a school, Salmonberry, that is considered worthy of highlighting to IDEA.  I am beginning to fathom the depths of a “healthy democracy,” and what its implications could be for education.  IDEA is undergirding their passion and change-making activism, with a “soulful” understanding of democracy, and this aligns well with Salmonberry’s perspective on education and wholeness.

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Paul’s Back-To-School Chat

by Paul on October 26, 2011

A few people have asked if I could post the contents of my talk about the Salmonberry Program.  Here it is:

Exciting Times

These are exciting times to be involved at Salmonberry School.  I remember eight or nine years ago, when Lydia Miller and I both attended a PNAIS (Pacific Northwest Association of Independent Schools) governance conference.  I recall embarrassingly and apologetically responding to questions about Salmonberry.  Where is it?  How many students?  What kind of school is it?

Just a week ago I attended another PNAIS conference and what a striking difference a few years can make!  I was able to proudly and confidently answer these kinds of questions, but more often I found that I didn’t have to.  Large numbers of attendees said they knew of our little school, that they had visited our website, and that they had heard such good things!

This summer when I attended the AERO (Alternative Education Resource Organization) conference in Portland, I was warmly greeted and congratulated by a lot of progressive educators who knew of our recent holistic education conference, as well as the celebration of our tenth anniversary as a school.  I received so many expressions of kinship, support and admiration.

This year, much more than ever, I see Salmonberry mentioned in the national discourse around educational alternatives and progressive and holistic education.  For example, Salmonberry was recently listed as a “Showcase School” in the “eduvation library” on the website of IDEA (Institute for Democratic Education in America.)  We are regularly contacted by teachers, educators and adult students who are eager to see firsthand a powerful educational initiative that has clear, well-articulated and high ideals, and actually lives up to these ideals in the form of a dynamic child-centered holistic program.

So, what is it that makes the Salmonberry program so unique?  More than anything it is the fact that in this top-down, standardized and standardizing dominant educational paradigm, here is a small school that takes seriously the radical idea that education should be about nurturing individual learners’ capacity to reach their full potential.

And when you take that position seriously, when you really make an effort to step into the shoes of a child and see the world through their eyes, and feel it with their heart, many practices naturally follow:

-Salmonberry is a place where parents are truly welcome as critically important collaborators in the educational mission of the school.  If we are looking through the child’s eyes, how could we not include parents as integral players?

-Salmonberry emphasizes Arts, broadly defined, and the arts play an integral and integrated role in the program: fine art, music, craft of many kinds, dance, and theater all have an important place here; they are among the many languages of the child and therefore must be present.

-There is a richness, a texture and a three-dimensionality and a depth to the curriculum;

-Students spend more than one year with a teacher, as it takes time to develop meaningful relationship and mutual understanding;

-There is a focus here on self-knowledge and reflection, on mindfulness, on critical thinking, creativity and innovation, and community;

-There is a culture of caring, of craftsmanship, beauty and quality of work;

-There is a sense of humor and fun and spontaneity that is ever-present;

-Kids are allowed and encouraged to move physically and interact with one another in meaningful ways;

-There is a flexible pacing to student progress.  Having skills not between the 40th and 60th percentile is not considered a pathology to be diagnosed and remediate, but is recognized as another indicator of the wonder and uniqueness of the learner.

-And we are academically outstanding, excellent, rigorous and supporting of high student achievement (I used to be hesitant to admit that – as it can imply a lack of focus on other areas, but there is no doubt Salmonberry is academically excellent and this is in no way inconsistent with a child-centered approach.)

But of all the many traits and aspects of the Salmonberry program, two related characteristics stand out to me as crucial and defining features of the Salmonberry experience.

First, there is at Salmonberry an intimacy to the learning environment and experience.  This is in part evident in the low student:teacher ratio and small class sizes, but it’s more about an approach that values uniqueness, reaches towards meaningful differentiation of instruction, addresses multiple learning styles and intelligences, strengths and interests and is always embedded in deep personal relationship.

And second, a Salmonberry education is one that engages learners by providing education that is meaningful and personally relevant by using an emergent and experience-based curriculum.

And although it’s wonderful that we are enjoying a surge of recognition and appreciation on a national level, I believe that we are still one of the best-kept secrets right in our own backyard.  This is why we need everyone here to continue to support the school in every way.  Please share your testimonials with friends and neighbors.  Lets spread stories of our children’s individual growth and transformation and how it was nurtured at Salmonberry, with many many members of the broader Orcas Island community.

And in addition to supporting the school through your monthly tuition payments, which is absolutely huge, of course, please let’s be intentional about building increased momentum in terms of rolling up our sleeves and joining together in all the support work that a small tuition-funded school like this requires.  I urge you to continue to volunteer joyfully, donate generously, pitch in enthusiastically with fundraisers and community events.  Your child’s experience is truly enhanced and deepened as you parents dig your roots down into this fertile soil.

Thanks for all the support you already give towards your child’s growth, as well as that of the school.  And thanks as always for your trust in allowing us, Salmonberry’s teachers, to witness and nurture the process of your children’s unfolding.

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Fall Festival 2011

October 19, 2011

Once again, Salmonberry School hosted our annual fall festival.  This year’s festivities included rides on the miniature donkeys, a fall journey walk, candle dipping, apple cider pressing, and pumpkin-roll relay races.  What a terrific day to connect with the entire Salmonberry community.  Happy Autumn to all. He’s up there!

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A Tree Lives

October 7, 2011

“Letting our everyday intelligence go mute: to feel the intelligence of what surrounds us. Take a tree, a flower, a blade of grass – and study their stillness.  Become their stillness; aware only of the air your imagining begins in. There is something in our learning – which begins and ends – without words Often the poetic must [...]

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Salmonberry School: Decade 2; Week 1…aaand…ACTION!

September 4, 2011

Salmonberry officially began it’s second decade this week, and this milestone leads me inexorably toward reflection and introspection about this amazing project.  I remember so clearly the first gatherings of eight 3 and 4 yr-olds in rented and borrowed spaces around the island.  Now, I look around and see our three lovely classrooms, our incredible [...]

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Salmonberry Graduate School?

June 26, 2011

Well…it’s not exactly a Salmonberry program, but…back in 2007, Salmonberry hosted it’s first Holistic Education Conference.  At that event, two dynamic speakers served as Keynote presenters.  The first was Brent Cameron, author of Self Design: Nurturing Genius Through Natural Learning. The other was Dr. David Marshak, author of Common Vision: Parenting and Educating for Wholeness. [...]

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UKULELES FOR ALL!

March 21, 2011

Salmonberry’s intermediate class introduced ukuleles to all students as the newest part of our expanding music program.  Teacher, Anita Orne, spent a good deal of the first class helping everyone get tuned up.  Though the kids did manage to learn their first three chords and play a rousing rendition of “Skip to My Lou.”   [...]

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Intermediate Class Plants Trees

March 21, 2011

In an effort to fulfill our school’s pledge to plant trees for each Christmas tree sold at our December fundraiser, Salmonberry’s intermediate class made a journey to San Juan Island to continue our work with the San Juan County Land Bank.  The SJCLB is engaged with its largest habitat restoration project in the Beaverton Valley [...]

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Early Childhood Program Open House and Tea January 20th

January 10, 2011

A “catered” tea, and an “expert”-led afternoon of crafts and fun for 2-5 year olds and their parents.  The “experts” and “caterers” will be Salmonberry School’s Kindergarten class.  These children (along with their teacher, Linda Ellsworth) invite the Orcas community to an open house on Thursday afternoon, January 20, from 3-5 PM.  Salmonberry School is [...]

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Winter Spiral Walk

November 19, 2010

Winter Candlelight Spiral Walk December 11th at 3:00 pm Oddfellows Hall Eastsound Co-hosted by Salmonberry School and Orcas Montessori School Come walk the evergreen spiral, light a candle and transform the darkened room into a tableau of light. This is an opportunity for children and adults of all ages to experience a quiet reverence for [...]

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