I sit here in one of the new grey office chairs and listen to the voices outside the door. There are little girls playing a pretend game in the Kid Nook; they are giving precise instructions to each other as to how to play the game they just made up. The voices continue. I [...]

A British documentary recently profiled Sudbury Valley school. Here’s the video link.

Although at times Fairhaven School’s ideas may seem new, people have been thinking- and writing- about nature and democracy for some time. After posting my previous post (“Spring Is Building”), I found myself reading Walt Whitman’s collected journal entries, Specimen Days and Collect. Among many other things– it is Whitman, after all–this book details both [...]

No season explodes with activity quite like spring at Fairhaven School. Some field notes:
The newly chartered Garden Corporation has already tilled a plot in the backyard by the millstone, planting greens, potatoes, onions, and marigolds. Steady rains have eased their watering burden. Taking advantage of the state of Maryland’s discounted native tree program, the School [...]

RECIPE FOR SUCCESS

Sunny April day
Three students, two alumni, two parents, one staff person
Gloves, boots, trash bags, donuts
Forms filled in with pledges from friends and family
Dollar bills and checks

Drive about a mile from the school
Tramp in the brush and by the river, picking up other people’s trash
Broken glass, cans, paper, [...]

One day last week I made my way up the stairs to record my arrival on the attendance sign-in sheet. At the landing, one of our youngest boys looked me in the eye, holding up two quarters. “Hey, Mark, I’ve got to go downstairs and pay my attendance fine!” (At Fairhaven, people who forget to [...]

Like their counterparts at other schools, Fairhaven’s students get excited when it snows. Here the similarity ends, for our students can act on their excitement and go outside! So it was this week.
After one snow day at home, Fairhaveners returned, many with snow suits, gloves and sleds. The boy with the orange parka and the [...]

Perhaps more than any other quality, presence defines Fairhaven’s students. Sitting in the Chesapeake Room on a sunny Saturday in February as our eight potential graduates declared their intentions to seek diplomas, then fielded questions from assembled parents, staff and fellow students, I could not help but notice this shared trait.
One young woman is [...]