The Front Porch School - Asheville, NC. 1993-1995
After leaving Earlham College in 1990, I moved to Asheville, North Carolina. There I found myself surrounded by a community of educated, intellectual adults who did not feel comfortable putting their children into the local school system; a system which had not been updated or innovated for about fifty years. Because there was no realistic alternative in Asheville, many of these parents decided to pursue home-schooling. After living in the area for a year, word got out that I was the product of a full fledged K-12 Waldorf Education, and that my family has been active in Waldorf ed., for many years. Waldorf schools, i
n some circles, represent the ideal alternative education, being classical, spiritual, artistic and thorough. In a world where alt education is rare, Waldorf Schools also enjoy a wide-spread visibility along with Montessauri education. But there was no such option in or anywhere near Asheville.
In the fullness of time, a group of pro-active parents asked me to tea, and proposed that, having been educated in a Waldorf system, perhaps I would be willing to start a Waldorf School for their children? The answer was no, for many reasons, however, this interaction enlightened me to the educational drawbacks of the area, the amount of children being home-schooled, how far apart the children lived from each other, and the need for culture and socialization in these home-schooled children's lives. These parents needed help! They were doing their best, but they were all too busy to create an integrated model that drew all the proper elements together. This started my positrons colliding at a rapid rate, and within a month, I had approached Kate Hyde, a talented teacher and innovator, with the idea for an supplementary educational program which would bridge the gap between culture, socialization, and education for the home-schoolers in the area.
The Front Porch School was a successful and radical two-year program which focussed on 11-13 year old girls. Kate and I created a curriculum based on both our experiences of alt ed, as well as what we saw as necessary for the education of young girls blossoming into womanhood. FPS began its three-day per week program with excercises, and a morning verse, recitation, and word games.
Kate, a high math major who'd left Harvard because she didn't hold with their teacher's program, had the girls learning the history of money, math and counting, teaching the logic of numbers, as well as that of spirit, by introducing Thoreau, and how one can never imprison the mind, only the body. As well, she took them out into the streets of our sunny, quiet neighborhood, to read and create maps in chalk of our surroundings. I had the girls writing essays on books such as Calvino's The Baron in the Tree's and Jean Stratton Porter's A girl of the Limberlost. I taught them how to how to write well, debate, sing, and how to create their own textbooks with illustrations and essays. We sewed and knitted, had a daily chorus and vocal classes, took hikes, had guests lecture from many sectors of the community, cooked all day on their birthdays, and gave regular recitals to show the parents what they were learning. We taught the girls that they could follow and trust their hearts and minds, and that they could question us and anyone else, anytime.
Note: Ten years later, Kate Hyde has gone on to do groundbreaking work by founding a permanent solution for the needs of Western NC parents with her life's work in education The New Classical Academy now in its second successful year and the only alternative private school in the Asheville area.
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