“Let’s have fun now!”
Those words are the death knell of having fun. Trying to orchestrate or otherwise ram gaiety down the throats of a group undermines the essence of fun.
I believe fun requires a sort of tension. Maybe fear and anxiety, or some state of uncertainty. This is necessary to lose oneself in a moment.
And so it is with our boarding school that took flight almost two weeks ago. Get a load of the following excerpt, penned by Owen, our Guidance Counsellor, in trying to describe what’s going on at school to the uninitiated, a beautiful account of the blissful tension between stress and fun:
“The line-up for breakfast buffet breaks out into a rowdy display of dance moves as students compete to show off their “stylish” wetsuits. Lessons, meals and activities are punctuated by the sound of raucous laughter.
The shenanigans then flow into compulsory courses.
In English, they made movie trailers, debated media literacy and began the course novel: a dystopian tale called “The Uglies” where everyone is made to look similarly pretty in an effort to avoid discrimination. Thus far the course director – Tony – reports that the biggest challenge is getting students to STOP reading, writing and discussing things. Next week students launch into a unit on persuasion.
The math course focuses on financial literacy. Much to their delight, students spent the first day outside engaged in a series of games to review basic math skills, before getting busy with a stock market challenge. In the weeks to come students will visit a local supermarket to test their skills in budgeting and take a trip to the bank to learn about account options, savings and loans.
The final piece of the academic puzzle is the “Boundless curriculum” designed to help students hone their skills at – forgive the oversimplification – being human.
Under starry skies, students sweat it out in the fitness program; cooked a kick-ass chicken parmesan; learned to plunge a toilet; practiced changing tires and debated the Syrian refugee crisis with far more passion and civility than our Prime Ministerial candidates. Next week they will begin to raise 15 chickens from field to table as we get up close and personal with the food system”
And there you have it. Our students are being flooded with new experiences and having the time of their lives.
Until next time,
