A Different Boarding School that Made a Difference

Two of the most satisfying and exhausting years of my life

My wife Rhonda and I worked at a unique farm school in the Adirondack mountains in upstate New York from June 1990 through June 1992. We taught school and served as house parents to eight children in addition to two of our own. The descriptions and events in this posting relate to the years we served there.

At 6 AM it is time to get all the children out of bed and ready for morning chores. The children range in ages from eight to twelve in grades four through eight. Everyone does morning chores including the house parents/teachers. Adults and children are assigned to chores based on a rotating roster published and updated throughout the school year. While one parent and two children are left to clean and tidy the house, the others are assigned to different duties on campus. Barn chores consists of letting the horses and other animals out of the barn and feeding them, mucking their stalls, milking the goats, working the compost system and collecting the eggs from the hen house. Those assigned to the kitchen work with the cooks to prepare the morning breakfast and prep the food for the day. A group is also assigned to clean, tidy and ready the classrooms for the school day. After chores, faculty and students clean up and meet in the dining room for community breakfast before the start of school at 8 AM.

During a short twenty minute academic break in mid morning, children sign up for out-time activities offered after school. Teachers and staff all have to offer out-time activities, a variety and range that may include knitting, hiking, horse riding, farm activities, impromptu acting, rock climbing, story telling, capture the flag, ice skating, skiing, tennis, etc. These change every day and reflect the personal interests and expertise of the adults as well as the work needed that day. The supervising adults would decide on the maximum number of children their activity could accommodate and would post the signup sheets before the morning break. The morning break is always a little noisy as children rush to find out what is being offered and crowd around to sign up.

After the morning break classes continue until lunch at noon. Children sit at designated tables for both community lunch and dinner. Seating is rotated weekly as are table job assignments. There are jobs to collect the food from the kitchen, serve the food, gather the dirty dishes, return them to the kitchen and then load them into the kitchen dishwashers. During lunch the school head and staff members update the community on current and upcoming events.

School continues after lunch until 3 PM when out-time begins. The out-time activities probably offer the best experiential learning opportunities year round for the children. When out-time ends at 5 PM, the children have the one discretionary hour allowed them during the day. They can be on their own without direct supervision or structure. Houses and classrooms are out of bounds but they may use the library, gym, fields and open areas to be alone by themselves or in pairs or groups. While adults walk the campus during this time, the children are very good at organizing themselves, looking out for one another and keeping out of trouble.

Just before dinner, all children complete their evening chores on campus before cleaning up and meeting for the evening meal. After dinner everyone heads home to their individual houses. House parents carve out time for homework, tutoring and any necessary counseling. There are no TV sets anywhere on campus. Children talk, listen to music, read or write letters home before getting ready for bed. Lights are out at 9 PM.

Other than the daily routines described, Wednesday is Home day. There is no out-time on Wednesday and children head to their houses when school ends at 3 PM. There they receive, send out and organize their laundry for the week. All the children’s clothes are tagged with their names and laundered on campus. Wednesday is also eat-at-home night. House parents receive a recipe and ingredients for the evening meal and everyone in the house helps to prepare the dinner. Wednesday nights are special. It is when the “family” sits down for their weekly evening meal.

During the weekends, various events are organized. Sunday church goers are encouraged to attend by like minded faculty who drive them to church in the school bus. Other groups accompanied by adults use the weekend to hike up one or more of the 49 peaks in the Adirondacks. Children who remain on campus have the opportunity to partake in a number of activities including horseback riding, lake swimming, playing field or indoor games, or using the wood and hobby shop.

On certain special days during the year, there is no school or only a half day of school. The children are involved in all the following activities. Chicken harvest day is when the farm chickens are slaughtered, scalded, plucked, cleaned, cooled, packaged and frozen for future use. Science teachers use chicken harvest day to teach chicken anatomy to the children. The number of vegetarians on campus soar the day after chicken harvest. During potato harvest, the potatoes are dug up from the field, cleaned and cooled before storage. There are a number of maple trees on campus that yield quality sap. On sugaring days these are tapped and the sap boiled down to produce maple syrup in the sugar house. The most enjoyable of the special days are the one or two days the whole school takes off to go ski-ing at White Face mountain.

As teachers and house parents, we worked six days a week from 6 AM through 9 PM. We had a day off once a week. Once a quarter we had a long weekend, which meant we were off on both Saturday and Sunday! Faculty meetings were held once a week at 9:30 PM in the dining rooms after the children were asleep. It was certainly hard and exhausting work but very meaningful and satisfying work as well.

We saw children change right before our eyes. Children who arrived at the school troubled and belligerent developed into different and responsible individuals. One small-statured child who only kept to himself and refused to speak when he arrived, began speaking and interacting with the other children after a few weeks. We saw his confidence and self esteem grow as he started accomplishing things he never tried before. At the end of the year he won Mountain Cakes — the award for logging the most miles climbing up the peaks in the Adirondacks.

The regular and predictable daily routines, the structure, the opportunities to engage in a variety of activities, the knowledge that they were doing real work in helping run the school, the sense of community, the loving adults around them and the family structure of the houses were like a healing balm for the souls of many of these children.

I personally learned more about children in my two years at this school than from any education or psychology course I took. I still count my two years there as the most exhausting, productive and satisfying years of my life. When we left the school to teach overseas, I truly appreciated and took advantage of my weekends and the blessings of a lighter workload. I also very willingly accepted additional responsibilities or late hours at school. They always dwarfed in comparison to my hours and responsibilities at that special boarding school.

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