Community Development
New years are for new beginnings, expansions, and returns. We begin our year with an expansive breath, and we take a look at the world around us. In the farm new chicks were born, roosters found new homes, bunnies were born unexpectedly. Like the farm, our educational capacity expanded and we welcomed new families from around the world while celebrating the temporary return of our seasonal community members. Life Project, as a community cornerstone, seeks to meet the needs of our local community which vacillates seasonally. As we joyfully admire the seasonal whales and migratory birds, we are greatly honored to support the complex social bonds created in seasonal community connections. The friendships created between our annual students and their seasonal traveling peers, is developing a complex network of children who are connected to their local environments and are personally invested in peers, and by correspondence, their communities across the globe. We want to extend our gratitude to the long term community for the hospitality that helps our newer and seasonal community members integrate into our local context and feel welcome.
Community Development is one of the Core Values of our Life Project Community. We spend the first quarter of every year, diving into the best principles and intentions of community development within our local context. We explore this value across subjects and it becomes the overarching theme guiding our collective learning experience, as it is woven into our regular circle intentions, written reflections, and shared gratitude rhythms. Together, students lead our discovery of what Community Development means to them. This year we celebrated the many unique individuals that make up our community and recognized how Community Development is “working together to create something beautiful.”
To support the complex social-emotional learning of our students, we are excited to welcome new anthroposophical leadership to our evolving team. With a focus on students transitioning from our early years into middle years programs, we are prioritizing designing the most gracious support available to students within this tender developmental age of change. Our students are enriched by the therapeutic services that are made available to them on a consistent basis. This quarter saw the expansion of our therapeutic offerings to include Expressive Art Therapy. In need responsive sessions, students are supported to unlock the creative potential within, giving them confidence to bring that spark into all aspects of learning, and thus forward all areas of life.
Our Community Development quarter culminated with a celebration of expression at our student Showcase. There were exhibitions of animation projects along side media presentations. Students were given the opportunity to get on stage reciting poetry from significant lessons and valued traditions. Students performed a play they had improvised, developed, rehearsed, and did character study around. All while they explored the elements that make a community. Our music students shared different cultural songs using instruments they had made, learned and collaborated in playing together. The audience cheered and supported each other as students took turns having their moment of expression.
And then began the Exhale. The next morning, students quietly and with their families, were guided through a teacher facilitated New Beginnings Ceremony. One parent said, “Life here has it’s challenges, but then we get welcomed into a ceremony like this and we remember Why. We remember Why we are here and Why it’s worth it.”
Community is built through consitency, while having openness to those who come and go. It strengthens when we accept and honor our diversity while joyfully integrating all the aspects that make us whole. Trust is established over time and marked by regular rhythms of celebration, connection, and reflection.
Spring is a worldwide time for celebration. At Life Project, we are enriched by the individuals and families who weave their sacred and meaningful spring celebrations from around the world. In the New Beginnings ceremony, the culmination of our Community Development Quarter, we ceremonially honored the elements, witnessed new life and a sweet baby surprise from our rabbits. We affirmed each other, and anchored prayers. We observed the balance of the equinox and reawakened our sense of wonder. Together we honored the land and strengthened our family connections. With vibrant Holi color, we celebrated our uniqueness and convergence within community. The reverence that is brought to the educational process surrounding not just a student, but the entire family, is foundation of our transformational approach. We prioritize togetherness, a collaborative childhood, belonging.
We get to Build something Beautiful together.
With joy we share that the Panther Pavilion is being gently integrated into our learning schedule as our upper years students and teachers, eagerly anticipate the induction of all of the new classrooms. The students are so excited to see their plans to scale and are even more excited when they envision their time with friends integrating their lessons in the the new lounge situated between the new art and literacy classrooms. We are all excited to see what emerges from our upper years students, as they continue to grow into a space designed to meet the needs of their social, emotional, and educational maturity. Thank you to all the contributing angels who have made this vision a reality!
But we still have further to go. Would you take a moment and learn more about the buildng project? If you are inspired by the work we do kindly Contribute and Share our story with your own community.
Special thank you to Jaime Hausler Photography for capturing these special moments.