Where We Are Going
In building a school, there is an on-going interplay between a bigger vision, and the day-to-day reality, between where we want to go, and where we are. Part of our work is to remind ourselves of, and articulate, where we are headed. This allows us to do several things: 1. To ensure that we are currently building the systems to support our future desires, 2. To refine and clarify our vision, and 3. To identify potential resources, partnerships, people and programs with similar ideas. We are proud of the progress we have made in our first two and half years, and see our current programs and projects as a solid foundation for our bigger goals.
Central to The Sage School is a blend of skill-based courses combined with long-term core projects. Students dedicate time each day to math, Spanish, and writing, and then work on trimester and year-long projects that integrate multiple disciplines, cover larger topics and are designed around specific developmental stages. These topics include issues such as land use, the impacts of agriculture, family histories, and ancient civilizations.
Here is a glimpse of where we are, and where we are headed:
- Service - Every week, each student does two hours of service. We have done work with The Hunger Coalition, The Animal Shelter, Hospice and Palliative Care, Sagebrush Equine Training Center for the Handicapped, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, and various other organizations. Our goals are to offer focused and intensive project based volunteerism, and, eventually, to be one of the largest service providers in the valley.
- Language - Our language of study is Spanish, which we do each day. In 2011-2012 we are initiating a program in Otavalo, Ecuador. We aim to have every senior class spend the final 2-3 weeks of their high school career immersed in Spanish, as well as in Ecuador's social and environmental project opportunities.
- Trimester Away - Knowing that adolescence is a time of exploration, we are looking for ways to develop ideas like "Trimester Away," where each student spends one trimester away from school, gaining further diversified experience and wisdom. Ideally, this would be a partnership between other interested schools, where our students would get to see different parts of the country, and visiting students would get to experience our part of the West.
- Independent Study - On Fridays, our students have the option to do an Independent Study, in which they work with a local practicing expert in a field in which they are interested. We have had students work with the radio stations, interior designers, professional photographers, and extreme skiers, and hope to institutionalize this program in such a way that each student will get to fully explore his or her ideas and interests while they are still in high school.
We also have our sights set on larger ideas that will require more significant partnerships, resources, and infrastructure. These are programs and projects that will help each part of what we do- create developmentally appropriate and meaningful learning experiences for our students, generate opportunities to work with our community, and develop a strong financial model. These projects are exciting. They are bold. And they will take time.
Long Term Projects:
- Engineering and Design Lab - We are developing an Engineering and Design Lab that will be a central element of the 6th and 7th grade. Envisioned to engage students in the structure, function, creation, and repair of anything to which they set their minds, we have started this program with simple sets of tools to repair our bikes. Fully built out, we see this as a true Laboratory of Invention.
- Science Kitchen and Culinary Workshop - We are creating a Science Kitchen and Culinary Workshop. With grant money to initiate this program, our 8th and 9th grade students integrate cooking and chemistry, and tackle problems such as: Why do onions
make us cry? Why does meat change color as it cooks? Is this the same reason that fruit browns when we leave it out? In Science Kitchen, we examine the chemistry, biology, physics and math that underlie the cooking process. Students are exposed to the interdisciplinary world of science and develop an appreciation for the myriad chemical processes that are involved in cooking. Fully realized, we want Science Kitchen to develop into a Culinary Workshop with a student operated café, functional commercial kitchen, and a place to produce value added products. - Food Science and Production - We are expanding our Food Science and Production program. Our current building has a 2400 square foot greenhouse. With grant money, we were able to install a solar thermal array to heat fishtanks and plant beds, and we are now growing 23 varieties of tomatoes, Tilapia, lettuce, and basil. We have sold our produce at the Farmers' Market, and will continue to sell tomatoes to restaurants into the late Fall. Ultimately, we want to expand this program and look for ways to generate more revenue, through producing eggs, wool, cheese, or simply increasing the amount of fruit and vegetables we produce.
- Social Enterprise - Social Enterprise is evident in each of the above. Social enterprise is the process whereby we create products for the greater community, or develop programs that increase our exposure and awareness. We are intending to develop enterprises around food production, around our design lab, and through our science kitchen.
Building The Sage School is about designing our programs as best we can, while staying focused on our mission and our vision. Designing what we want will require that we stay flexible to learn as we go, and that we are responsive to opportunities as they arise. One magical element of highly functioning systems is emergence...
Emergence is the distinctive property of systems. It is the characteristic of groups in relationship that develop from those very relationships. No one individual or entity can manifest emergent characteristics, as they are the requirement of working together. The best one can do is plan the partnerships well by striving to understand the characteristics of an area, selecting partners who are already functioning, and then give them the space and resources to organize in the strongest possible manner. Dedicating our vision toward education and collaboration sows the seeds for emergence, creating something beyond the limits of our initial dreams.
