In my tenth grade year, I was accepted into the TERRA school program. Its premise is based on the African proverb "It takes a village to raise a child" and it encompasses aspects othrwise not taugh in school, such as religion, environmentalism and much much more. It's a program that immerses you in itself, having separate terra classes and being isolated from the rest of the school and having a class of 30 people who you see every day in every class. It was tough, but it was worth the journey. I wrote a little about it and I'd like to share it with you:

It feels like a sort of injustice that Terra is limited to only a school year of ten months. It went by so quickly. Today was the last day of school. I took one last look at my beloved room 307, knowing that this was the last I’d ever see of it as a part of the 2005 terra movement. Ten months ago, I looked at that room with doubts, regrets and fears. Doubts of whether or not I should have joined, Regrets that I shouldn’t have come; that I should have been with everyone else in a NORMAL classroom, Fears that I may not fit in or that my grades would lower. At the beginning of the year, I was profusely antisocial and openly pessimistic about the people around me, school, and life in general. Terra showed me that life is worth living; that life is about being open-minded and trying new things. You progress and grow spiritually that way.

The year started off, and it was really awkward. We were all divided in our social cliques and you could cut the tension with a knife. I was thinking that it would always be like this. Everyone here wanted to branch off and become friends with everyone, but we didn’t know how to do it. We were willing, but we were afraid; we were unsure. Hell, we weren’t even sure about what we were unsure about. All we knew was that each of us felt stuck in a room with thirty someodd people; all of whom we know absolutely nothing about. It wasn’t exciting, it was new. Not whimsical new, mind you; frightening new. None of us could quite grasp what the hell we’ve gotten ourselves into.

Everyone had different reasons for joining Terra. Some wanted to branch off and away from the social confines of sophomoric high school cliques; other jackasses just wanted to go on the trips cause it meant good times and no school. Some of us joined because of both, and others for completely different reasons that to this day elude me. We all soon learned that the trips were more than just good times and no school; and that what we’ve gotten ourselves into would change our very outlook on life.

Yes, the Terra school program has school trips, and we do daytrips that have the goal of helping people in our community, and yes it makes you feel good; but what really makes Terra so great is that it isn’t limited to the school program. You’ll soon learn that Terra is a movement; a philosophy upon which to live. Terra is a way of life, a progression of life, and a positive outlook on life. Terra is a family of thirty people with three teachers as parents. No, Terra is more than that. It’s an inexplicably wondrous thing; whatever it is. And the friendships you’ll gain will be strong because of the foundation you have of being with the same people for ten months (ONLY ten months. It goes by really quickly).

I love Terra and the people I experienced it with. I now look upon room 307 with fond memories, with great love, and with eternal gratefulness. To put a price on Terra is like putting a price on something you can’t touch. You can’t buy friendship or strong bonds; you can’t buy love or camaraderie. You can’t buy incredible memories. Terra is priceless and timeless. My Terra school year may be over, but the movement has only begun for me. I’ll miss you, room 307. Take good care of next year’s Terra movement.

Sounds interesting.

I'm a little weary about religion being taught in the school (unless it was all religions).

I do feel that the current school system HAS to change.

It is purposely set up to prolong the students start in the "real world". It gives us absolutely NO tools for how to survive in the "real world". It makes people drop out or at least no try very hard.

Right off the bat, it turns our children into conformists. It's the foundation for the paradigm that "you need a school education to be successfull". It teaches kids a false history and it teaches them what's "important" (i,e, stuff that THEY teach you) and what isn't important (stuff they don't).

Funny it is that all the REAL important/practical stuff is what they don't teach us.

But it makes perfect sense. They don't want us to be SMART. They want us to have the skills for the jobs that they want us doing (which is getting the rich even richer, while the masses do all the real work).

This does sound very interesting. Do you think you could tell us a little more about the kinds of things you learned and the methods in which they taught them? Expand a little on the trips?
Im into Montesorri and its a different form of education that is unique and special and effective and Im always interested in learning other communities of its sort.

Although I do go to a catholic school, The school itself as well as terra's teaching criteria is very liberal. We did about two units on world religions, and whenever we do a project or discussion or assignment of any sort, our teacher prefers it if we researched the opinions of not only the church, but of leaders of other religions as well. Also, I always filled everyone in on some tidbits of other religions when the opportunity came up in class. Diversity and acceptance was indeed nurtured in Terra.

Also, Our teacher told us right off the bat that school is a way to prepare us for jobs, but only the conventional, office-type jobs. School typecasts us into being society's cattle; and he intended for Terra to sort of "Free a flock", or at least have some social cattle free-range for a little while. It's changedmy opinions about a lot of things without any drivel or brainwashing and it truly was a great experience.

I hear that other schools have Terra-like programs, but there's very few that do, and none of them have the same name. There's a school that has a program similar to Terra, but I forget if it's in montessorri or what it's called.

On trips, we learn basic camping things: how to set tent up, how to cook and what to cook (while being aware of what little space you have in your bag and the nutritional value), but we also have a spiritual aspect to it. We get back in toush with nature, and there's a sort of primordial instinct to try and coexist with it comes into play. We have rules as such, like "Leave no trace" in which we try to leave the places we settled in like there was no one there. Also, we have journal write ups: Pre-trip, Post-trip, and During the trip journal reflections. I've found that the more you write in them the more you realize how much it changes you.

i totally agree with these comments of yours, firefly. the current school system rewards those that are motivated to do well and those that are good memorizers. i think school should teach more practical hands-on learning at the secondary level -- social/work-related skills. CAPP, co-op, or work experience tries to do that, but doesn't do it well enough.