Small Schools Coalition Education Blog
Public Land Sell-Off: Why Small Schools Must Teach Environmental Stewardship Now
A new amendment proposes the sale of up to 258 million acres of federally managed public lands across the American West. These lands — overseen by the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service — include forests, deserts, and wilderness areas that serve not...
Regenerative Schools: Thriving Learning Communities
Last fall, some high school students and I had the good fortune to travel to California’s Central Valley for some ranch life. Learning that a nearby farm was practicing regenerative agriculture, we planned a side trip there. The kids were curious to know what...
Growing Across Generations: The Great Campus
“The future enters into us, in order to transform itself in us, long before it happens.” — Rainer Maria Rilke (Letters to a Young Poet) Years ago, our school held a fundraiser called “Get Outside” so we’d have more resources for learning outdoors and in the natural...
Peace Education: Lessons from the Underground
When Baran Yousefi describes her school years in Iran, she speaks softly, as though the story came out of secret rooms. Her teachers had to keep their names off lists. The government might close the school at any time. They couldn’t advertise or put up a website; word...
The World’s Coolest Schools!
Creating learning environments can be a wide-open world, a Grateful Dead improv. Or it can be militarily rigid, maybe for some cause. Some seem highly inefficient by our standards, and yet completely adapted to their native cultures, and those schools can be colorful...
Guarding the Flag with Rogelio
By Friday afternoon last week, the campus flag at The Grauer School was a mess. It was twisted and tangled high on the pole, and I got the call first thing Saturday to try and get it down. I arrived early, still in a wetsuit from the dawn patrol surf session, and...