Christen Parker-Yarnal

This week so many things happened at school. It’s a dynamic environment that’s structured around healthy human inter-action and inner-action - and it’s purposefully and powerfully not pre-planned. The days at school have their predictable elements: our Mini Morning Meeting, Restorative Justice Committee (RJC) problem solving sessions, usually a meeting or discussion scheduled by students, maybe a tour, always chore time, and then each afternoon the gathering of one’s things for parent pick...

This week I was struck by a seemingly simple act - a student walking around with a blindfold she made herself. She said she wanted to do it for better body awareness. She started just in the Community Room, getting herself to the kitchen, and later branched out to the front door landing and the front steps. What I see in her chosen blindness is trust, care, and fun. I received her permission to share this reflection and the photos I took when she absolutely couldn’t have known I took them -...

This week we went to Venetian Pool, as proposed and organized by a teenage student. There’s a little snack counter next to a covered seating section between the restrooms and not far from the pool. Since Staff can monitor the vicinity without having to be directly in the eating area, when students asked to go purchase snacks we happily told them to go with their chosen buddies. I stopped by the table of a group ranging in age from 5 to 10 and one of the students exclaimed, “It’s like we’re...