Compassion, empathy, understanding, caring; these are a few of children’s capacities that are explicitly nurtured at Salmonberry School.  Salmonberry teachers look for opportunities to tune kids in to the difficulties faced by others in our community and around the world.  Students investigate these real world issues and injustices and learn some of the skills to become critical thinkers, advocates and “solutionaries.”

A recent walk through Eastsound provided an occasion for Salmonberry’s third, fourth and fifth grade students to notice a wheelchair-bound citizen struggling to navigate some of the difficult sidewalks and steps in the village.  When they returned to class, students had questions about handicap accessibility and necessary accommodations for folks with limited mobility.  Subsequently, Grace Grantham’s Letter to the Editor in The Islands Sounder decried the challenges of dealing with limited-mobility in Eastsound.  With these two motivators – Ms. Grantham’s passionately written letter of frustration and their own firsthand observations, the students and teachers of Salmonberry’s intermediate grades class were drawn into further study.

Their first stop was the Orcas Senior Center, where Barbara Trunkey provided a beautiful lesson on the many types of physical challenges faced by members of the Orcas Island community.  She introduced the class to various types of adaptive equipment and their proper use.  Thus the students got to try out canes, crutches, walkers and wheelchairs, and learned how to use them.

The next day, the students headed into Eastsound.  Here, students paired up and were given a particular “handicap,” an appropriate piece of equipment to assist their mobility and a simple errand to accomplish.  In this way, students set off in wheelchairs to mail a letter; used a walker on their way to use the public restrooms; used crutches as they went off to return a library book.  The experiential lesson on what it means to deal with a physical handicap or mobility impairment lasted for two hours.

When all was said and done, students had a newfound appreciation for the real challenges faced by those with physical handicaps and limited mobility.  Along the way, students had positive interactions with many curious island residents as they explained their project.  They also had a lot of insights, which they hope to share with business owners, the Orcais Island Chamber of Commerce and the EPRC (Eastsound Planning and Review Comission) in the near future.  “Doors were really hard.  It’s much easier when businesses put in power-assist doors,” said Charlie Brady, age 9.  “Some places were really slick.  When I was on crutches I almost fell on the stairs up by the library,” said Tashi Litch, age 10.  “That stretch between The Kitchen and The Homegrown Market where there’s no sidewalk and cars park right on the shoulder; there’s just no way to get through there in a wheelchair,” said Solana Zobrist-Mehl, age 11.

“I really think the kids got a lot out of this experience.  To literally walk a mile in someone’s shoes is such a powerful way to develop compassion,” said Salmonberry’s Program Director Paul Freedman.  “But that experiential learning was just the first step.  We have a meeting with Grace Grantham scheduled for next week.  I would not be at all surprised if these young people now become vocal advocates for those who face physical challenges, and they have a much greater appreciation for different perspectives in general.  We work hard at Salmonberry to develop the kids’ academic skills, and there is no doubt that this is a highly skilled group.  But education needs to be about much more than mastery of skills.  We hope that the academic skills are always in service to something meaningful, powerful and personally relevant.  This is what Salmonberry School means by the phrase ‘holistic education.’”

Happy World Water Day!

Salmonberry students celebrated World Water Day with a walk for water through the village of Eastsound.  Preceding this walk-a-thon event students secured pledges from friends and family and then set out to walk to raise awareness of water resource issues around the world and to raise funds to drill wells in a draught stricken region of Niger, called The Azawak.  In this poorest region of the poorest country on Earth in some seasons children have to walk up to 35 miles to get access to fresh drinking water.

Salmonberry’s 1^st and 2^nd graders had been studying many aspects of water this year.  This study ranged from literature to biology, chemistry and ecology.  As classroom teacher, Jamie Mulliga-Smith describes it, “we have realized what a precious resource water is and how lucky we are in the Pacific Northwest to have such an abundance of this life-giving element.  When we heard about communities that are less fortunate, these young kids were moved to try and help and the adult community has rallied around this caring intention.  Soon the third, fourth and fifth graders joined in too and the whole school caught the infectious spirit of helping.”

The teachers set World Water Day as the particular date for this event and 25 walkers, age 6-11 set out that afternoon with the goal of walking a cumulative 50 miles.  When the day was over, however, these kids more than doubled this goal and exceeded 125 miles in all.  “I could have kept going,” said Ethan White, age 11.  “I wanted to jog so I could go farther but they (the teachers) said we had to walk.”  The walkers completed half-mile loops through Eastsound and teachers kept a tally of all the laps as they were completed.

Salmonberry Program Director, Paul Freedman said, “I believe that kids have an incredible capacity for caring.  We don’t need to shelter them from the realities of the world nearly as much as we do.  However, it is critical that as they learn about injustice and hardship, we also make sure there are tangible actions that the kids can take to contribute to positive solutions to the world’s problems.  Otherwise, there is a risk that kids are left feeling overwhelmed or with a sense of hopelessness and helplessness.  Instead of “solutionaries” there is a risk that they just feel guilty and depressed. The adults must support the kids’ efforts to make this world better.  Then service learning can become a really transformative experience.”

This walk was done in conjunction with the organization, Amman Imman: Water is Life, and their particular youth-based fundraising project called, Wells of Love.  Interested people can make donations through their website at http://www.ammanimman.org/

Dr. Jim Litch talks about the human spine with students Emma Freedman, left, and Tashi Litch.

In recent weeks, third, fourth and fifth-grade students at Salmonberry School have explored many aspects of the human body with guidance from their teacher Paul Freedman and two Salmonberry School parents who are local physicians.

“Dr. Jim Litch presented a terrific lesson on the structure and function of the human spine,” said Freedman. “He focused on keeping the spine and the nerves it contains strong and healthy, and on avoiding injuries when bike-riding and diving. He also talked about the diagnostic process for spinal injuries and conducted some experiments on our ability to sense temperature changes.”

In addition, Dr. Rachel Bishop led a fun and informative lesson in which students played detectives, examining a series of real x-rays for clues, according to Freedman. “The x-rays gave students clear pictures of the human skeletal system,” Dr. Bishop said. “Thanks to the Group Health Foundation for the loan of their spinal model, x-rays and other teaching materials.”

Dr. Litch is a family physician at Orcas Medical Center, and Dr. Bishop is a family physician at the Inter Island Medical Center on San Juan Island.

According to Freedman, other science lessons in the Salmonberry curriculum have emphasized the importance of a balanced diet for health and wellness. “We like to integrate strong academics with active learning to inspire our students to develop as creative thinkers and doers,” he said.

Salmonberry Elementary School students have launched a community-based civics curriculum that has recently brought them directly into the public spotlight, which has included a well-received presentation at a recent meeting of the San Juan County Council.

These 13 students, age 8-11, have followed their own curiosity about some of the current issues on Orcas Island and begun to explore some of the questions with which the adult community has been grappling: solid waste, bike and pedestrian safety, the question of the proposed Fern Street Extension, and various issues related to handicap accessibility in Eastsound.

On a recent walk through Eastsound, students noticed a profusion of litter. They, and their teachers looked for the nearest trash receptacles only to realize that there were no public cans to be found. This realization led to research. They learned about the cost of solid waste pickup and they began to devise a plan. Students formed a new organization they are calling K.E.L.P. (Kids for the Environment through Litter Prevention.) Through this organization, and in partnership with members of the Eastsound Planning and Review Committee (EPRC) these young activists formulated a plan. They would pledge to raise the funds necessary to pay for one week of garbage collection for 6 new cans in Eastsound. Then they would talk to people and try to build partnerships with businesses, non-profit organizations, civic groups and individual citizens to see if they could fin enough partners to fun a full year’s trash collection.

While they began to draft letters to potential partners including the Orcas Island Chamber of Commerce, they also took advantage of the February 7 meeting of the San Juan County Council. Ethan White, 11 and Charlie Brady 9, accompanied by their teacher Paul Freedman, put their names on the agenda for the public comments portion of the Council’s agenda. Then, after patiently waiting for their turn, in the semi-formal setting of the Outlook Inn’s Victorian Room, they stepped up to the oversized podium and confidently and eloquently read a letter explaining the nature of the problem as they see it, as well as their proposed solutions. To begin, Ethan read, “Thank you for this opportunity to speak about something that is very important to the kids of Orcas Island: Litter. We care about how our town looks. And we care about the environment. We worry about the birds and animals that might try to eat litter, and the water quality of the bay where the ground litter will eventually end up.”

After the boys concluded They received a round of applause from everyone in attendance and lots of appreciation from individuals. Later, in the lobby of the inn, the two boys received an invitation to share their ideas at the next meeting of the Chamber of Commerce Board. And they also later heard about a planned donation from the SJCC in support of the project.

“ I am so proud of Ethan, Charlie and all the kids in this class at Salmonberry,” said Freedman. I believe in part, school should be about introducing young learners to the intimate processes and practices of democracy. Democracy doesn’t only happen on CNN, it is a complex governance model that includes trying to make best possible decisions within the place where one lives. It is about entering community, sharing dialogue, and mustering the generous spirit required to improve and enrich the lives of everyone. Young people need to practice the skills of democracy and not just learn about democracy in books if they are to become effective leaders and change-makers in the future.

“This project brings together several key aspects of Salmonberry’s unique approach to education: the curriculum is determined in part by students’ interests and passions; meaningful learning can and does happen outside of the classroom walls; service learning is a critical component to education and education is not only a preparation for later living, it is about doing real work in the present.”

Later in the day, all the Salmonberry elementary students participated in a community-wide rally in support of The Exchange, Orcas Island’s re-use site. This was a fun and joyful way to show support for one part of a sustainable vision for solid waste.

Future projects that this Salmonberry class is currently working on include building bike racks for public use in Eastsound, and borrowing wheelchairs and walkers to explore the town of Eastsound with limited mobility.

Any individual or organization who is interested in pledging financial support to K.E.L.P.’s project to bring trash and recycling receptacles back to Eastsound may contact Paul Freedman at info@salmonberryschool.org or 376-6310.

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.

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 40^th and 60^th 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.

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.

The Bee Keeper

With the Scarecrow, Pumpkin Man

Another Scarecrow moment

The Man, Himself

There he is!

He’s up there!

“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 remain our most quiet, unspoken experience – a healing silence frim the cacophony of explanations.

The point is not to teach – but to evoke, to stir our desire to believe differently.

Invent as many dawns as you can.”

-Richard Lewis

I met Richard Lewis this summer in New York City.  Richard is an educator and director of The Touchstone Center for Children.  He has dedicated his 40 year career to exploring and nurturing children’s capacity for imagination and creativity.  After talking with him, not unlike the character of Mr. Plumbean in Daniel Pinkwater’s book The Big Orange Splot I was moved to explore creativity and imagination with children.  Using one of Richard’s poems, which he has used to launch all kinds of art, drama, poetry and musical projects with children, we initiated a project with Salmonberry’s intermediate class.

The work shown here is the stunning expression of 14 children age 8-11.  After some time spent in the presence of a special tree, these students used their incredible imagination to express “tree-ness.”  Then they each chose a line of the poem, “A Tree Lives” by Richard Lewis that had personal meaning to them and created the following images using a range of art media.  Enjoy!

A TREE LIVES:

IN OUR BACKYARD A TREE LIVES

IN ITS LEAVES - SPRING WINDS

IN ITS BRANCHES - HUNGRY BIRDS

IN ITS ROOTS - MOVING WATER

AND INSIDE THIS TREE - ANOTHER TREE LIVES

IN ITS LEAVES - DISTANT SKIES

IN ITS BRANCHES - SHADOWS OF STARS

IN ITS ROOTS - DREAMING DARKNESS

AND FURTHER INSIDE - ANOTHER TREE LIVES

IN ITS LEAVES - A MOON GROWS

IN ITS BRANCHES - THE SUN RETURNS

IN ITS ROOTS - A DAY BEGINS

AND FURTHER STILL - IS THERE ANOTHER TREE?

ANOTHER TREE LIVING INSIDE?

A TREE LIVES

]]> http://salmonberryschool.org/828/feed 0 http://salmonberryschool.org/759 http://salmonberryschool.org/759#comments Sun, 04 Sep 2011 17:39:18 +0000 Paul http://salmonberryschool.org/?p=759

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 staff of five awesome teachers plus specialists and volunteers, our expansive and established grounds, and 32 incredible children spanning ages 3 to 11, and I am awed.

This week, as I once again shook off  some serious first-day jitters, now so familiar to me, (I figure this is my 39^th “first day of school” 20 as a student (not counting graduate school) and 19 as a teacher.  Yikes!)  I remarked again and again to other teachers, on how sweet everything seemed, and they echoed this assessment.  Reuniting with these kids and these adults in this place was magical.  The children universally seemed to return to school with excitement, and an expectation and spirit of engagement, collaboration, support and trust.  These children came ready to learn and hungry for adventure.  Parents filled the classrooms, porches and grounds, also full of expectation and in no hurry at all to get on with the long-awaited Sept.1, “Independence Day.”  The teachers fell immediately into the now-so-familiar roles of passionate instruction, loving nurture, and continuous reflection.  In the intermediate grades classroom study ranged from the calculation and comparison of densities of different liquids, to a discussion and journal writing assignment about what it means to be human – this is third through fifth graders, mind you, in their first week back to school!!  A majority of classrooms would be working on getting names straight and playing “get to know each other” games at this point.  Many whispered adult conversations during recess focused on how individual children seem to be settling in socially and emotionally, while kids delved into their rich vocabulary of cooperative games.  At the end of the day on Friday, a spontaneous game of “blob tag” erupted.  All were included, and boys and girls of different ages held hands and ran together shrieking with laughter.  What an incredible canvas on which to begin the art of a year of growing and learning together.

I spent much of this summer meeting and talking about educational theory and practice with a wide range of educators from across the country at various conferences, both big and small, as well as personal and professional meetings.  Now to carry all that talk, theory and this vast expanse of perspectives back to Salmonberry, my home base gives me pause.  I feel blessed and privileged to work in such a place.  This is truly a school and an environment that untold dedicated educators are dreaming of, longing for and working towards.  Some educators I speak with have trouble believing such a place is possible, others are making it happen in their own communities.  But Salmonberry School has definitely achieved a national reputation as an oasis of humane education amidst a troubled landscape.  Progressive educators are actively seeking out models of how education can be done in a way that honors rather than wounds children, and engages and nurtures natural capacities for learning and growth, rather than coerces and manipulates them into narrowly defined and standardized areas of achievement.

Educational activists everywhere are seeking to find ways to balance academic excellence with experiential education that has personal relevance and meaning for the learners.  They are wondering how can we imbed creativity, critical thinking, self-reflection, passion, compassion, and caring into a rigorous approach to education.  How can we keep kids’ experiences human-scaled, built solidly upon a foundation of deep and positive personal relationships that recognize and value individual uniqueness – rates of development, learning styles, and interests?  Small schools that achieve these lofty goals are few and far between, and Salmonberry School, despite any blemishes or imperfections we might have, is clearly one such very special place.  It is not an exaggeration to say that Salmonberry in many ways realizes “an ideal” of holism within the educational alternatives movement.

This week I feel so proud of where we’ve been and where we are now as a school community.  Parker Palmer wrote, “Education at its best – this profound human transaction called teaching and learning – is not just about getting information or getting a job. Education is about healing and wholeness. It is about empowerment, liberation, transcendence, about renewing the vitality of life. It is about finding and claiming ourselves and our place in the world.”  I am awed, as always, by the children at Salmoberry, inspired by the teachers, their passion and their care, buoyed by the love and attentiveness of parents, and blown away by the magic of it all.

Here’s to a wonderful second decade!

- Paul

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.  The conference also served as Paul’s MA graduating residency from Goddard College, and helped Salmonberry to locate itself within the landscape of educational alternatives and specifically, holistic education.

In subsequent months and years Dr. Marshak and Mr. Cameron formed a partnership.  Marshak joined the Board of Self-Design, an educational initiative which uses a powerful paradigm for home-based instruction in British Columbia.  Cameron continued to serve as the organization’s E.D.  At some point, Marshak conceived of the idea of a graduate school that would use principles of Self-Design and bring awareness of this approach to adult learners interested in continuing their own education, or starting their own post-modern schools or learning centers.    He pitched his idea to the WA State Regents accompanied by all required supporting materials.

Recently, The Self Design Graduate Institute has been approved and is beginning to enroll students.  Paul Freedman, whom Marshak has referred to as the “spiritual godfather” of the program, will serve on the founding faculty.  His first class is called “The Joys and Sorrows of Leading a Post-modern School”

Speaking about this project, Freedman says, “It’s an exciting development.  I am so happy for David and Brent and I hope it will bring their important work to many people.  I am honored to be serving with such a distinguished faculty including my mentor, Ron Miller, and a number of other folks whose work has a prominent place on my bookshelf.  We’ll see how things develop, but I believe there is definitely a place in the post-secondary landscape for another progressive and holistic educational alternative.  And, of course, it’s just what I needed – another project!!”