Farm School
A day program for ages 14-18.
Our farm school program is based on the Montessori movement, which emphasizes real work as a basis for educating adolescents. Traditionally, Montessori “Erdkinder” programs are carried out in a full-time boarding situation, complete with traditional academic studies.
Our program provides the applied, practical aspect of the Erdkinder curriculum. Academics are the responsibility of each student’s family. Class size is limited in order to facilitate deeper exploration and to maintain, as much as possible, a familial character.
Farm School is situated on our historic 286 acre farm in Barre, Massachusetts. The farm is located at the end of a 1/4 mile private road, with views into neighbouring Oakham, New Braintree, and Hardwick. The farm is home to our family, as well as Oberhasli goats, Hereford pigs, Blue Slate turkeys, Orpington chickens, and American Buff geese. We also seasonally graze a herd of Jersey cattle for a fellow farmer. We wild harvest fiddleheads, apples, cattails, grapes and berries. We have the largest stand of birch trees for syrup production outside the state of Alaska, as well as a grove of maples. There are 30 acres currently in hay, which provide supplemental and winter forage for our livestock and for neighbouring farms. Vegetable, fruit, and grain crops provide food for CSA members and for our animals. There are trails through 100 acres of woodland, a stream with beaver dam, and a small pond.
Farm school fosters faith, community building through mutual respect of fellow participants and farm visitors, and an intimate understanding of a distributist economy, and responsible stewardship of creation through holistic management.
Our days begin and end with prayer and group meetings, which we call “Chapter”. Chapters are an opportunity to preview and review the day’s activities and challenges, and to share solutions and ideas. This encourages students to think clearly and critically, to speak eloquently and confidently, and to be courteous and persuasive. Prayer underscores the faith on which this farm was founded and under which it operates. Occasionally, we will have special blessings by priests or deacons, for particular feasts, or for important events in the life of the farm and its people.