August 2019 Newsletter

Towering sunflowers and fresh organic vegetables fill our garden, awaiting the returning students. The amount of growth that can happen in a short period of time is astounding. We can’t wait to see how the students have also grown over the summer! It will be fantastic to see you all during Work Week.

Work week is Monday, August 26th through Saturday, August 31st. This year we have several big projects, the most important of which is the remodeling of the kitchen. We also need to paint one third of the big room, fix the stove pipe, and landscape. There are also smaller projects like the typical yearly cleaning. If you are a parent with a trade agreement remember that time spent during Work Week counts toward your amount owed and cleaning counts as double. Of course, we will also feed you. Moe will be making his annual chile stews.

The first day of our regular program is Tuesday, September 3rd. Remember, If you don’t have a signed enrollment contract for this year, please make an appointment with us in order to complete the registration process. Tuition will remain unchanged from last year.

This summer Iku and Moe met with 250 participants from 27 countries and another 500 Ukrainian educators for the 2019 International Democratic Education Conference in Kyiv and Vinnytsia, Ukraine.  We had a wonderful time renewing and deepening friendships and making new connections with democratic schools from all around the globe. There were sessions regarding a visiting teacher program, so we might have more international visitors in the future.

The 2020 conference will be in Nepal, October 15th through the 20th. We were not planning on going but if enough students are interested, we will consider going. It will be an amazing conference. Then in the summer of 2021, the international conference will merge with the regional conferences and Summerhill School, for a big festival in England to cerebrate their 100th anniversary. That’s right, Summerhill School, a democratic boarding school, has been in continuous operation for 100 years!

This year we will start an ongoing project to reduce the carbon in the atmosphere by planting trees.  If you are able to donate saplings or if you know someone who can, please send them our way.

Education is not merely acquiring knowledge, gathering and correlating facts; it is to see the significance of life as a whole. To understand life is to understand ourselves, and that is both the beginning and the end of education.

                                                                                                                                                                        – J. Krishnamurti