Here at The Village School, we are a community. In our mixed-age learning environment, awe-inspiring moments are happening all the time. I have witnessed our oldest learners inviting our youngest learners to play games. I have witnessed learners cheering each other on when they reach their goals. I have witnessed budding friendships transform into deep loyalties, and individuals with a common cause uniting to take action and create positive change. All of this is beautiful. These are the moments we love to hear about—guides and families alike. Still, our TVS community is composed of more than just these moments.
In addition to these more straightforward instances, I have seen learners navigate truly challenging conflicts with one another and even with themselves. I have seen learners wrestle with change and experience frustration and anger when they fail. I have listened to stories of personal hardship and seen learners pull inward when they are hurt. Already, learners are grappling with their identities and the roles they play in our ever-changing world. Why am I sharing this? Can’t we go back to talking about the harmonious games played between the oldest and youngest learners?
I’m sharing this because conflict, failure, hardship, and struggle are a huge part of why TVS is a true community. We don’t shy away from the difficult—in fact, we run toward it. In learning how to work through conflict, learner relationships, empathy, and self-advocacy grow stronger. By understanding that failure is normal and essential for growth, learners persevere and cheer each other on in the process of becoming. In sharing their stories and contemplating their roles, learners discover what they are passionate about and what they can do to make change. Every learner’s step and misstep, achievement and failure, is met with the promise of a community to support them both when they fall and when they soar.
During the first session of each school year, every studio creates a studio contract. The studio contract is a learner-created document that outlines the agreements each learner promises to uphold. Adventure learners were tasked with this challenge during the first week of the session. They began building the contract by making their thinking visible with the Making Meaning Thinking Routine. First, learners were separated into small groups, and each group received a piece of chart paper with one of the following words: community, learner, or trailblazer. Next, every learner wrote a word they associated with the main word on their chart paper. Then, each learner chose another learner’s word and expanded on it by writing a phrase. Learners drew lines connecting their words and ideas. Based on their collective input, they created the following contract:
- Keep the studio clean.
- Take responsibility for my education.
- Treat everyone the way they want to be treated.
- Be respectful to others, their boundaries, ideas, and things—and NO body shaming.
- Be accountable for yourself and others.
- Always try your best and produce your best work.
- Be kind and patient with others.
- Have a growth mindset.
- Stop means stop, and no means no.
- Come to school ready and prepared.
This document reflects what our TVS learners want for our community—a community that celebrates, supports, learns, and holds itself to a high standard. It is also aspirational—we understand it may not always be followed, and when it isn’t, that’s when learning and growth occur. What more is there to say? Only this: building this kind of community is both a challenge and a constant effort. It takes trust, perseverance, time, care, and a whole lot of hope. Based on my experience with the TVS learners so far, it is well worth it.
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