The Meeting School
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Coordinates: The Meeting School (TMS) is a co-ed boarding school for grades 9-12 based on the practices and principals of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). It is located in Rindge, New Hampshire, USA on a working organic farm with 142 acres of field and forest.
TMS prepares students with life skills as well as academic knowledge. 30-35 students participate in small classes, community living, growing food, and caring for farm animals. Students are engaged, at a highly empowered level, in community decision making.
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[edit] Philosophy and Purpose
The Meeting School is a community-based school where students live together with faculty on a farm. It emphasizes the principles and practices of the Religious Society of Friends.
The school depends on each individual to accept responsibility for his or her own growth, and to participate fully in the life of the community. The emphasis is to acknowledge and nurture the unique worth and insight of each person in the community and to co-exist with compassion and harmony in daily living, learning and decision making. The underlying philosophy is to undertake joyful living with emotional, intellectual, physical, and spiritual integrity.
Like most Quaker communities, the school and community promotes simplicity, honesty, mutual trust and respect, the dignity of physical labor, care for each other and the earth and the peaceful response to conflict. They believe they are called to seek and to live with divine guidance both individually and collectively.
By providing this kind of nurturing background for secondary students, the hope is that community members will eventually enter into the wider world and contribute profoundly to the lives of others and strive to exemplify a deep sense of compassion and justice.
[edit] History of the school
In 1955 a group of Quaker educators found a shared concern, envisioning a school that would educate the whole person, where Quakerism could be a way of life, and where students could become inner directed rather than outer directed. Consulting with other Quaker groups throughout 1956 and ’57, and traveling through Europe and the United States to become familiar with innovative schools and colleges, three families came together in Rindge, and began their experiment. George Bliss, with his wife Helen, had taught at the Westtown Quaker boarding school, and was then executive secretary of the New England office of the American Friends Service Committee. Joel Hayden, with his wife Ruth, had been a professor at Antioch College in Ohio, while Robert Hindmarsh, with his wife Thera, was an agronomist who advised farmers in Deerfield, Massachusetts. They settled on two converted farmsteads, land that had been farmed since 1771, and opened their doors to students in the fall of 1957.
[edit] Academic program
The Meeting School year includes three trimesters of classes, with the Intersession block falling between the Winter and Spring terms.
The Meeting School does not use grades, but a pass/fail system of credit with detailed written evaluations.
Classes are organized around the traditional academic subjects of math, writing and literature, social studies and history, sciences, and the arts. Within these subjects, however, teachers and students work together to approach learning in ways that are creative, relevant, authentic, and hands-on.
Classes, which meet in faculty living rooms, range from 3 to 12 students, with most classes falling around 5-7 students. Class meetings are informal with opportunities for all voices to be heard. Projects and choices give students the chance to take ownership of the subjects they study. Teachers are committed to flexibility around different learning styles, paces and goals. Teachers and students value the chance to make personal connections and relationships a part of learning.
Classes at the school also include electives based heavily around the necessary work of the farm, or around outdoor skills and experiences. Some students use class blocks for mentorships with faculty who specialize in farm work, cooking, or repair work.
The curriculum also emphasizes social justice applications. Peace Studies is a required course.
In the school's 2008 newsletter, it was announced that energy studies had become more of a focus and that students were encouraged to think of how fossil-fuel dependent America has become for it's economy and way of life. Students are persuaded to think about how our society would function without fossil fuels and what kinds of skills are necessary in a society without fossil fuels. Other modes of travel than gasoline powered vehicles were encouraged for a recycling program, for instance. The School community (which includes trustees) are currently discussing ways to have less and less of an ecological footprint.
Self-exploration and healthy life skills are also taught at the school; all students must take Health and Sexuality.
All students are encouraged to learn to speak Spanish.
[edit] Farm program
The Meeting School farm is a cornerstone of the experiential learning at the school. Based on the principles of ecological stewardship and sustainable living, working and living on the farm offers an avenue to educate young people about land care and food production.
Working with animals and the land, and growing and raising much of the actual food that is eaten, is an unrelentingly honest and authentic experience. Students learn very practical skills, work as team members, and enjoy the fruits (and veggies) of their labor.
