User:Merbabu/Green School, Kul-Kul Campus

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The Kul-Kul Bridge 4.JPG

The Iconic Kul-Kul Bridge

Children at Green School

1 Introduction
2 Green School's Vision
3 Influences
4 History
5 What are people saying
6 Dig more

[edit] Introduction

Green School at Kul-Kul campus is an independent school for students in Preschool and Kindergarten through Year 8 in Bali, Indonesia.

The school will open its doors in September, 2008 offering a holistic education to local as well as international students. Instruction will be in English with Bahasa Indonesian and other languages offered. All aspects of the school including its curriculum, campus, and economic model are founded on sustainability.

The goal of the rigorous curriculum is to enable students to become more curious, more engaged, and more passionate about their education and our planet. The School expects its dedicated teachers and inspirational learning environment to help every child succeed.

International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years and Diploma Programs are planned, and the School will also seek accreeditation from the Council of International Schools (CIS).

The school is located in Sibang Kaja near both Denpasar and Ubud in central Bali. The campus is eight hectares and is divided by the Ayung River. The entire campus--as well as the bridge spanning the river--is built from local bamboo.

The campus is filled with native plants and trees such as bamboo, papaya, cacao, coffee, and ginger. The campus will be powered by a number of alternative energy sources, including solar, bio-gas, and an innovative hydro-power vortex generator.

The school is the brainchild of John and Cynthia Hardy who wanted to make a lasting gift to the people of Bali.

More information about the School including its on-line application, may be found on its web site: www.GreenSchool.org

[edit] Green School's Vision

Green School seeks to ignite a passion for learning, inspiring its students to be curious, self-motivated, enthusiastic participants in their education both on the campus and within a global community.

Drawing upon a rigorous curriculum that educates the whole student with unique opportunities to link learning to life, we provide the foundation for life-long moral and intellectual growth.

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Extra-curricular Activities

[edit] Influences

We believe that academic intelligence offers virtually no preparation for the turmoil or opportunity life's vicissitudes bring. Yet even though a high IQ is no guarantee of prosperity, prestige, or more importantly, happiness in life, our schools and our culture fixate on academic abilities, ignoring other intelligences--particularly ones that develop moral fiber and character--which largely determine our personal destiny. Emotional life is a domain that, as surely as math or reading, can be handled with greater or lesser skill, and requires its unique set of competencies. And how adept a person is at those is crucial to understanding why one person thrives in life, while others may not. Emotional and spiritual aptitudes are meta-abilities, determining how well we can use all of the other skills we have, including raw intellect.

Of course, there are many paths to success in life, and many domains in which other aptitudes are rewarded. In our increasingly knowledge-based society, technical skill is certainly one. There is a children's joke: "What do you call a nerd fifteen years from now?" The answer: "Boss." But even among ‘nerds’ emotional intelligence offers an added edge in the workplace. Much evidence testifies that people who are emotionally adept - who know and manage their own feelings well, and who read and deal effectively with other people's feelings - are at an advantage in any domain of life, whether with intimate relationships or picking up the unspoken rules that govern success in organizational politics. People with well-developed emotional skills are also more likely to be content and effective in their lives, mastering the habits of mind that foster their own productivity.

[edit] History

Green School founders, John and Cynthia Hardy, have been residents in Bali for more than 30 years and recognize a unique opportunity to create something truly inspiring and outside of the structural, conceptual, and physical limitations of many traditional schools. Working with them are a talented team of educators, architects, and other professionals.

John and Cynthia Hardy
Green School Founders
John Hardy, a Canadian art student who was as creative as he was intuitive, made his way to Bali in 1975. Intrigued by Balinese craft traditions, he settled there and began producing jewelry with local artisans. Cynthia, an American who would years later become his wife, muse, and business partner, arrived in Bali in 1982, as a stopover on a round-the-world trip before she started law school at Berkeley. She stayed in Bali and started a small jewelry business of her own, which, owing to her talents in analysis and logistics, became successful in its own right. This right-brain/left-brain pair were destined for one another and in 1989, their professional collaboration turned out to be magical. Together they started a jewelry business that today is one of the top luxury jewelry brands in North America alone.

One of the keys to their success is that they have done well by doing good: the John Hardy brand is internationally respected for its platform of ‘sustainable luxury.' From the beginning, John and Cynthia's approach to business has been about making jewelry while being enormously respectful of Bali's land, environment, people and culture.

The things they care about personally–ecology, preservation of local culture and traditions, social responsibility–have manifested themselves as company mantra. From its pioneering efforts using bamboo for its construction needs instead of cutting down hardwood trees, and offsetting its carbon emissions through the reforestation of an island off the coast of Bali, to the women's mud wall cooperative it started to preserve a moribund part of Bali’s craft heritage, the organic farm on its compound from which it feeds its 750 workers daily and the midwife project which educates its workers about natural childbirth options, the principles of sustainability have guided the company's environmental, social, and economic business practices since its inception.

Almost twenty years of working together has yielded more than an exemplary business model: it has resulted in two very special daughters, Carina and Chiara, now 11 and 7, respectively. They benefited from not only the marriage of John and Cynthia’s complementary yin and yang, but also of their parents’ intense involvement in their education. A combination of Waldorf schooling, home schooling, and extraordinary life experience has given rise to two young girls that are curious and gifted – intellectually, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. John also has two remarkable children from a previous marriage, a daughter Elora, 26, and son Orin, 19.

Like everything else in John and Cynthia’s life, it became their mission to share with others the educational benefits that they were fortunate enough to provide their children, and School for Life is the realization of that vision. It represents the synthesis of their collective life experience, a magnificent manifestation of learning that involves more than pure academics, which incorporates craft, culture, cultivation, and entrepreneurship in one place for a long-term dream of life-long learning.

Thus, Green School will extend across a series of bamboo structures designed by John and a talented team of architects. Like everything that John builds, Green School will have minimal impact on its site, becoming a school in harmony not only with the land but with John’s sustainable design philosophy. And to make this project truly come to life, many talented educators, engineers, builders, permaculturists and other dedicated individuals have come together from all over the globe, united by their passion for making the world a better place now and for the next generation of students.

[edit] What are people saying

"Well, this is my second visit to Green School. I was at Green School when it was really green, when it was just coming out of the ground. I’m back now and it’s about half done and I’m really excited to see it when it’s completed. I think it’s a fantastic concept. It’s been designed with a real vision in mind on how to educate young people about the world they’re growing up in and how to make it a more sustainable place. And so I’m really looking forward to visiting again once it’s up and running." –Thomas L. Friedman, USA, 28 March 2008

"Wow! This place is amazing. Architecturally stunning and beautifully situated, the Green School is a model for all things possible in education. Global faculty, balanced curriculum, community involvement, family-based housing and a vision for developing the next generation of great thinkers and leaders." –www.bambooleague.com, April 2008