Peace Valley School is a non-profit, private secondary school for 12 students ages 10 and up. The school is located on a 5-acre farm (Odd Duck Farm) which is home to our founder/director’s family, a young orchard, a market garden, 14 happy chickens, 6 sheep, a dog and a cat.
Learning takes place everywhere, but the heart of the school is the loft in the farm house, which was specifically designed to be a classroom from the start.
The one room, one farm model was developed by Molly Lord-Garrettson. Here, students are empowered to see the world and make a difference.
At Peace Valley School we encourage all learners to make education
real. To do this, we learn by working together on real-world
projects to solve universal problems. By practicing healthy
communication to solve a common problem through inquiry, we can
garner a sense ofresponsibilityinstead
ofentitlement. We can become perpetual learners with the
courage and life-skills that entails. We can discover who we are
and help each other grow. We can be the change we want to see in
the world.
OUR CORE VALUES
Community*Integration*Foundations*Vocation*Stewardship*Creativity*Daily
Practice
COMMUNITY
Peace Valley students practice working as a learning community and
participating in our local and global communities. In practice, all
12 students will do many things together as a collective, in teams,
in pairs, or supportive groupings. Many tasks are more fun
when shared, including the tasks of learning and practicing what
you have learned. With allowance for independence of thought
and spirit and an understanding that sometimes doing things by
yourself is what is best for the person and the project, a focus of
the school will be on working together to make the world
better.Another aspect of community, which coincides with all other
core values listed here, is that of participating in, and caring
for the community by participating in ways to help others around
us. This can mean volunteering to help those in need, working
on a public project such as a community garden, park, or road
clean-up, volunteering for community groups, or creating our own
public works project as a school–it is important to participate in
the world which we occupy and build positive relationships within
our community.
INTEGRATION
One way we make education real, is by combining many different
approaches to thinking for problem solving. The idea is to
look at a concept from the scientific, philosophical, literary,
musical, artistic, social/historical as well as other perspectives
as an integral concept, not several separate courses. This
makes all curriculum more student-centered and realistic. It
also allows for a student to take a social justice approach to
problem-solving, and to question authority while applying its
principles. Many aspects of each project or learning path will
include an interdisciplinary reflection.
FOUNDATIONS
Certain sets of skills and knowledge (like math, grammar,
vocabulary, and scientific principles) must be practiced to be
mastered. A student’s individual learning path will be set
with many chances to practice that information which is necessary
before applying it to problem-solving or creative activities.
As integrative and realistic as our curriculum is, a sound
knowledge base is the foundation upon which integration
rests. The next core value, Vocation, addresses ways in which
we can practice these skills while aligning them to a student’s
individual passions.
VOCATION
Our curriculum of integrated individualized education is largely
student led. At Peace Valley, we believe that the higher
purpose of education is to aid young people in exploring their
interests and passions. Therefore, vocation will be a
centerpiece. The student can work all foundational and
integrational aspects around an interest. Most of the
school’s resources will be spent helping students follow their
dreams. This means mentors, community courses, internships,
and anything else related to the student’s interest. An
example is Molly’s 13-year-old niece who, for a few years now, has
a very strong interest in horses and large animal veterinary
practice. Why not focus the study of science, literature,
mathematics, history, and anthropology on this interest? Not
to mention art, husbandry, and writing? Any human will excel
at something in which s/he is interested. At Peace Valley, we
believe while we practice life skills; that practice should be
meaningful to the individual.
STEWARDSHIP
A part of each school-day will be spent caring for and maintaining
our surroundings. The garden, farmhouse, workshop, animals,
vehicles, landscape, compost, meals, school room, all are part of
the student’s practice in responsibility. Simple tasks of
clearing space, putting away tools for others to use, and mending
what we’ve broken are important to keep us present, engaged, and
compassionate. Chores will rotate based on need, interest,
and integration with other learning.
CREATIVITY
The culmination of community, integration, foundations, vocation,
and stewardship is in our practice of creativity. At Peace
Valley, students learn to make, upcycle, repair, or re-function
something instead of buying it at a store. This goes from
growing food, learning to make garments and other useful items,
having artisan woodcrafters, weavers, potters, chefs, master
gardeners, be a part of our community so that students, should the
whole infrastructure dissolve or should they just choose to model
their lives in a way that doesn’t include (or limits the use of)
malls, amazon.com, grocery stores and the like, will have the
skills necessary to live independent of the mainstream American
ethos of consumption. This will be where students can make
something to demonstrate what they have learned as well.top
DAILY PRACTICE
At Peace Valley, we believe that developing, nurturing, and
maintaining the mind-body connection is essential to
self-discovery. Students will participate in a daily physical
practice such as Yoga, Qi Gong, Tai Chi, Capoeira, Aikido, Kung Fu,
or other physical arts that connect the mind to the body. Our
School will provide a master for whatever practice the student
prefers. If competitive or other organized sports are an
interest to the student, the school will foster a relationship with
a team or coach at a local school or community group. While
daily training for a sport is a wonderful way to use the body, a
focus of the school group is to maintain the mind-body connection,
so integrating that into daily workouts will still be a focus and a
mentor relationship will be present for this purpose.
Source: National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Peace Valley School cost?
Peace Valley School's tuition is approximately $10,000 for private students.
When is the application deadline for Peace Valley School?
The application deadline for Peace Valley School is rolling (applications are reviewed as they are received year-round).
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