A Resource Center for All: Upattinas School and Resource Center
by Sandy Hurst
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Since 1971, to those who know the name at all, Upattinas School has meant a place where children and young adults learn through play and experiences in a different and innovative way that used to be described as an alternative school. Upattinas was developed as a family cooperative in southeastern Pennsylvania near the town of Phoenixville. Before the word "holistic" became a way of describing what we do, the families in the program wanted for their children all that holistic education currently describes. During the 1980s, as people were becoming increasingly alarmed about their children's schooling and less and less able to afford private education, a number of families approached Upattinas in their frustration, asking for some kind of help with keeping their children at home. In response, the school welcomed people into its community, helping them to explore options for learning and loaning books and materials to help that process.
At the time, Pennsylvania law was not uniform, so home schooling permission could be granted only by the Superintendent of Schools of each locality. Now the law allows home schooling, but it includes many requirements and does not assure that the student will be able to either use materials or graduate from their home school district. One of the important functions that is currently performed by the staff at Upattinas is to work with and stay friendly with the people in the public schools who have the power to give consent to our home education families. Lately, some of those people have been known to refer their young people to this program so that they can support them in graduating from high school.
Upattinas is an open community governed democratically by all of its participants. It welcomes all people who find its beliefs compatible and useful in their lives. Every member of the community is invited to join in the governing of the programs, either through becoming members of its fifteen person Board of Directors, or through joining committees or interest groups in any of its many component programs: full and part time day school, individual classes or workshops, sports teams, summer camp, home education support and field trip programs. Each age group within the ongoing day programs governs itself through its group meetings. Every two weeks there is an In School Meeting which includes all the people at the center on a day to day basis. When an issue arises that will affect everyone at the center, this group of people, including students, staff, and parent helpers, holds discussions, makes proposals, and makes decisions based on either consensus or, very occasionally, a vote which must represent a 2/3 majority in favor of the proposal. This meeting advises the Board of Directors, which has final responsibility for major decisions concerning money or over-all policies that might affect all the programs or the buildings and grounds. The Board is elected from among all the constituents of Upattinas and represents students, staff and parents, including home educating members. It runs by consensus.
The campus includes seven and one half acres of woods, fields and stream surrounding an old stone house and a large gymnasium/classroom building. On any day at Upattinas, you will find about eighty young people on the campus. They will be from about five to about eighteen years old and they will be both working with and cared for by certificated teachers and qualified parent helpers who are there to facilitate activities already introduced by the children and to suggest other activities they think the children might like to pursue. This is not to say that the children are always being overseen by adults. They may be out in the woods together in small groups or making a fort in the trees, or creating a play in which they are the only directors or designers. Although there are regular classes available at Upattinas, no person is ever required to go to them.
The yearly schedule is designed taking into account what the staff knows about the incoming students. It is revised several times at the beginning of the year until as many people as possible are satisfied. It will always include the usual basic subjects as well as many things that are very alternative in nature such as Transforming World Views or Survival Skills. There is a fine line between not coercing people to learn or participate in something, and encouraging them to try new things and then to follow through the difficult parts of the learning. We find that, because of our trust in each other, our young people come to what is often thought of as conventional learning by themselves, when they are ready. We are not concerned about time lines or "rubrics." We offer many activities and people who are wonderful resources for learning and doing all kinds of interesting things. We also offer workshops designed to support parents, both of students in the school and people who are educating at home.
At this school young people learn about the environment, not only through reading and talking, but also through actually doing farm work in a local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) or helping to repair riparian zones damaged by housing developments in the area so that a pristine stream will not be destroyed. They work on community gardens in the city, join a local Waldorf program making gardens to be shared by mentally challenged people, and participate in meetings of local environmental groups.
Rather than trying to provide everything for its students, Upattinas encourages them to participate in their local community centers, libraries, helping agencies, sports clubs; and in private lessons, dance classes, college classes or real jobs. Our position is that children are learning all the time and everywhere they are, so we welcome their evaluations of that learning for credit toward graduation. They are limited only by their imaginations and energy.
On many Friday mornings students and teachers can be found having a discussion around coffee and cocoa at the cafe run by the Coatesville Cultural Society, a community theater in a nearby town where people of all races and ages come together to present a unique blend of traditional and improvisational performance as well as challenging each other in chess or sharing their poetry. People from this organization also come to the center to teach African dance and drumming, which includes as many as twenty-five dancers from the youngest children to teachers and parent helpers, and as many as fifteen drummers and percussionists.
The staff of Upattinas School and Resource Center is always open to the contributions of family members and friends who volunteer to participate either in teaching or helping with projects. If enough students ask for a class in something not already available among our community members, the staff will search for a teacher who can come on a per class basis.
Travel is an important part of this community school. Students and teachers may be found visiting other schools or sleeping on the floors of family friends so that they can have more time to explore the museums and neighborhoods of cities like Washington and New York. They take cross country camping trips that may include adventures such as hiking, back-packing, rock climbing or rafting; or they join the Appalachian Trail Hike for a month of intensive living and survival skills. And they can always be found at the Annual Spring Conference of the National Coalition of Alternative Community Schools.
Included in the programs of Upattinas is Nomugi Open Community School, an alternative school in Yokohama, Japan which was designed to follow the principles of Upattinas. Each year students from this program come to the United States to school in an effort to help them grow and to develop their self confidence. This program grew out of the need of young people in Japan, who have chosen not to be in conventional schools, to have a satisfying and nurturing program. Students who come to us are placed with families so that they will learn English and be exposed to new ways of thinking about their education and their alternatives in making life decisions. Independent students from other countries are also welcome.
Although Upattinas provides a very open and free program on its campus and encourages people to consider an "un-schooling" approach in their home education, our families also include people who choose more structured schooling at home. Sometimes these families send their children for a day of play or to take a class in a foreign language or participate in a sports program. A lending library of textbooks and materials is available as is the opportunity to work with staff in terms of their questions or concerns about legal issues or appropriate contexts for their children's learning. The staff includes people who concentrate on the Home Education Program, keeping up with resources available, keeping records for individual children, doing counseling about jobs, college or military service. High school students who are studying at home may meet with their contact person every six to eight weeks or consult with them either by phone or email. Students who live too far away may be doing all their work at home and sending it to a contact teacher who updates records and makes suggestions or comments about work submitted.
One of the unique services provided by this Home Education Program is that of reviewing and reinstating people who have, for various reasons, left school before they graduated. It is not unusual for a person who is in his or her twenties or thirties, even older, to join the program in order to develop the credits needed to graduate from a licensed high school. We are very careful to advise people about the many other ways to "get an education" or get the credentials necessary to get on with their lives. But there are some places in which the lack of that high school diploma is a limiting factor. My father-in-law was one of the most intelligent, well-educated men I've ever known. He was always frustrated and limited in his ability to climb the salary ladder in his field of work, simply because he did not have a high school diploma. The GED would not have been enough. On the other hand, many students at Upattinas have used their college credits for high school completion, even as they continue on in college. They also often by-pass their last year and begin college early. It is not uncommon for a student to take a year off to either work or travel before finishing his or her high school experience. This, of course, also contributes to experiential learning and becomes part of their portfolios of credit. In essence, taking a year away from the school is not really taking a year off. It is creating another alternative experience.
Graduates from the Upattinas School and Resource Center programs can be found in all kinds of colleges and universities and working in many different kinds of jobs. They are Peace Corps Volunteers, musicians, teachers, dancers, plumbers, builders, travelers, parents, environmentalists, forest rangers, movie makers, home makers, car mechanics, painters, photographers, computer technicians and programmers, business owners and glass blowers.
Upattinas is funded largely by tuition, which is kept as low as possible while keeping the programs solidly funded and staffed. There are many scholarships and work trades available and the children of teachers receive free tuition. The gymnasium is rented in the evenings and on weekends throughout the winter for basketball and indoor soccer. This also contributes to the funding. It is the policy of the center that every program must contribute the funding necessary for its own staff as well as contributing to the general fund. Community members may propose a new program to the board. Any new program must be philosophically compatible with the center and contribute to the life of the whole. There are, of course, many projects to be funded. When people really want something they may take it on as their special project. On the day before a recent holiday the children of the lower school program, with the help of their teachers and parent helpers, earned more than six hundred dollars toward the playground they are designing. There was honey from the bees in the back field; greeting cards from the drawing class; candles, jewelry, ornaments and wreaths made with the help of high schoolers and parents. The children made the cookies and parents and high school students brought a gourmet pot luck lunch. And there was a wonderful impromptu songfest led by a father who joined his daughter for the day.
This kind of ownership of projects and classes and activities is the essence of a community based on creating from day to day a place of joyful learning. It is not without its problems and heartbreaks, but nothing that includes everyone, for better or worse, is without its own troubles. Community at Upattinas means sharing with and caring about everyone, no matter how small or large, young or old, who wants to join us in our journey.
For more information, contact:
Sandra M. Hurst, Director,
Upattinas School and Resource Center
429 Greenridge Rd., Glenmoore, PA 19343
610-458-5138
upatinas@chesco.com
www.chesco.com/upattinas
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© Copyright 2000. Sandra M. Hurst - All Rights Reserved.
upatinas@chesco.com
www.chesco.com/upattinas