Zena Democratic School

Twenty years to the day! On 6.14.04, Hudson Valley Sudbury school held its grand opening, and was in session for two weeks before going on summer vacation. Today, 6.14.24, we just had our final day of our first year as Zena Democratic School. We are so pleased to report that, after twenty years, the school is better than ever! The community is strong, the morale of the staff is high, our students are happy and thriving, and we all love the place with a tender ferocity 🔥 This school is such a blessing, special in its ordinary humanity, beautiful in its extraordinary boldness. Thank you to everyone who has worked so hard over the years to make this what it is! Have a summer!

Wow, what an eventful week at Zena Democratic School! So much love is in the air as we wind down the year. And gratitude, and the grief of saying goodbye. It is so nice to have space to experience and hold all that emotion and to just enjoy being together during these last couple weeks of school. This week we had two major field trips and one of our major annual traditions. Big groups visited the marine biology center at Norrie Point, where the crew donned waders and netted fish to identify species, dissected owl pellets, and inspect and learn about turtles; they had a lot of fun in the mud. On Friday another big crew headed out to Six Flags; I haven’t seen them yet but I have received an update here and there and one photo (included), and initial reports are that people had a blast…Thursday night we had our Diploma Candidate Celebration, always a beautiful moment when we get to hear from and celebrate our graduating seniors and have a peak at the culmination of Self-Directed Education. We’ll have a dedicated post celebrating our graduating class next week! Thanks to all our parents who showed up to support and celebrate! As seen in the photos, we also had some major driveway chalk action, recorded songs for our slideshow (thank you, Rich), played some really fun ultimate frisbee, and had nonstop gaga ball (which got muddy). We also feature in our photos one of our Diploma Candidates holding (just some) of the menstrual products she got donated to People’s Place and Family of New Paltz. This place is so special; thanks to all who make it what it is! Have a good weekend everyone :)

Another great week is in the books at Zena Democratic School! It is so nourishing and SO MUCH FUN to be a part of a school that practices freedom grounded in community rather than sets and series of prescribed curricula. We are so grateful for it. It was a celebratory springy kinda week. Some pictured highlights included: big jump rope outside 🪢🏃‍♂️, a lot of four-leaf clover action 🍀, a super-sweet birthday party 🎉, staff head-stands, an impromptu game of musical chairs in the kitchen 🎶🪑, and a David(s) v Goliath game of tug-of-war. Thank you so much to everyone who makes this place what it is!

✨🙌🏼✨OPEN HOUSE✨🙌🏼✨ Tomorrow, Saturday, May 18, 1:00-4:00; come check out our unique school!

Hey everyone, please have a look at this amazing act of service one of our graduating seniors is doing rn! Thank you for your support :)

Zena Democratic School is a safe, relatively low-stakes place to roll in the mud of life, make mistakes, see what that’s like, and figure out how to respond, and what to do next - without the direct management of parents. As staff, we work hard to maintain a physically and emotionally safe environment, but we’re prepared to allow students to make mistakes and to learn, over time, how to manage that. If they don’t get to practice that now, what will happen when they leave school and home and suddenly need to figure that out? Our students graduate knowing that mistakes are a part of life. They know they will make them, they know how to own them, they know how to repair them, and they know it’s okay.

This week we are feeling especially grateful for being a part of a school where the big point is to just be human, together, to see what that’s like, and figure out how to get along and love and support each other even when that’s hard ❤️. In this community, the full range of emotions is welcomed - grief, anxiety, anger, and other tough ones are not judged or subtly judged; they are allowed their own space alongside the joy, affection, and effusive silliness we witness so often here ✨ So much happened this week! So much is always happening…we had more woods walks and wildflowers (pictured) 🌸, we learned about poison ivy and other dangerous/risky elements of our landscape that we can manage with knowledge and skill 👹, conversations about friendship and its challenges and comforts ❤️‍🩹, big pickup soccer games three days in a row ⚽️⚽️⚽️ (such a natural mood enhancer for office-weary adults!), our lilac bushes were at peak blossom 🪻the gardening crew planted strawberries 🍓 for future years and annual flowers 💐for right now (pictured), the student-led gymnastics class kept up its amazing energy and enthusiasm 🤸‍♀️, Wayfinder was in the house ⚔️, a ton of hilarious yearbook creativity 🐲, some very interesting cooking projects 👨‍🍳, including homemade farfalle 🍝 and a past dough made from reconstituted ramen noodles, along with wild-foraged pesto,, big outdoor games like Banana Slug Tag 🐌(pictured), lots of sweet outdoor hangs 🏞️(pictured), a packed school meeting (pictured) that featured a difficult debate, RC supporting students to resolve problems beautifully (pictured) 👩‍⚖️ and our resident Magnetile Master created a Magnatile Zeppelin (pictured). Thanks to everyone who works hard to build, maintain, and protect this special and unique place! Have a weekend 🙌🏼

While this quote is quite true, please don’t tell your kids - we wouldn’t want to spoil their fun. But, it can be reassuring for parents to remember that play is indeed the ultimate learning modality, and children generally have an innate desire to play constantly, from the moment they open their eyes in the morning until the moment they finally close them, in exhaustion, in the evening.

In their play, children make meaning, construct causal maps and world models, develop counterfactual reasoning and theory of mind, and cultivate a whole host of other physical, intellectual, and emotional attributes and skills.

Different types of play – symbolic, rough-and-tumble, locomotor, etc., lend themselves to particular types of learning. And it all happens naturally – as a matter of course – while young people simply follow their instincts, pursue their passions, and enjoy their lives.

At Zena Democratic School, we provide as much time and space as children want to explore and enjoy their play, and we are always impressed at the learning which it produces.

Want to learn more about our amazing school? Our next Open House is coming up...join us on Saturday, May 18th in Kingston! Visit our website to learn more. And please RSVP if you plan to attend. We hope to see you soon!

{Image is a graphic, which reads: "Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning." — Fred Rogers}

It was a beautiful and somewhat bizarre week at Zena Democratic School 🤔; we had splendid spring weather ☀️🌿, a nearly-biblical scourge of spongy moth caterpillars 🐛 (pictured) which caused half of us to break out in a mosquito-bite type rash 🤕, and the normal range of remarkable and deeply human activities that make up the core of what happens here - navigating relationships, connecting with friends, supporting each other, having interesting conversations, having fun, and exploring life 👶🏼👧🏽🧒🏼👦🏼🧑👩👨. The mysterious, whimsical, and controversial porch goose made a big splash 🪿 (pictured), two of our diploma candidates took their adventure down to DC to check on the constitution 📜 (turns out it’s not actually “living”) (pictured), new computer games were created 💻 (pictured), pop-up outdoor offices popped up (pictured), babies learned to read 👶🏼📖(pictured), chess was nearly-constant ♟️ (pictured), and a new chess set was added to our collection 🤙🏽, the office was poppin’ (pictured), many items were baked in the kitchen 🍪, the garden was thoroughly weeded 🌱, a wild turkey was butchered (literally) 🦃, friend groups reflected (with the support of RC) and made agreements about the culture they want to cultivate for their group 🙌🏼, School Meeting created a policy allowing “unattended and apparently abandoned nerf darts to be collected and kept by anyone,” 🤭, and there was a really interesting workshop for students about the philosophy and goals of the school and how to talk about them. Thanks everyone for all your support, have a good weekend ❤️

The concept of school itself implies that the purpose of a child is to become an adult. But this assumption is not only gloomy - it’s wrong. A child’s purpose is to be a child, just as an adult’s is to be an adult.

At Zena Democratic School, we do not undertake to train children to be adults, and we don’t compel them to ingest a large academic curriculum; certainly, our students often graduate with weird holes in their “content knowledge,” but this hardly seems to hold them back. Such holes are far, far easier to fill than, say, a hole where there should be confidence, enthusiasm, or curiosity.

You will rarely find our students bent over textbooks with furrowed brows, diligently training for their adulthood; it is much more likely you will find them fulfilling their own purpose, being who they are today, meeting the world as children.

The wonderful irony is that children who are supported to live this way develop gracefully into competent adults as a natural consequence of having been fully a child.

{Image is a graphic, which reads: “To take children seriously is to value them for who they are right now rather than adults-in-the-making.” — Alfie Kohn}

Want to learn more about our amazing school? Our next Open House is coming up...join us on Saturday, May 18th in Kingston! Visit our website to learn more. And please RSVP if you plan to attend. We hope to see you soon!

Join us tonight!

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88149656348?pwd=cWFpV3JCM1ZucmlKcjBpd0hmYzBaUT09

Passcode: ZDS

This week in review we have some beautiful photographs to share from a guest student photographer ❤️📸. She did such a nice job capturing the community spirit and abundance of friendship that is the heart of our activity here, and which is so central to meaningful human life ❤️🫀🤗. Many of her photos are from our school-wide photo experience on Thursday. She also focused on some of the youngest members of our community 👶🏼🐣🐯, this afternoon’s car wash, which was put on by two of diploma candidates to fund their adventure to DC 🏛️🇺🇸💸, and caught a good one of a student scoping out a moth 🦋. So much depends on the weather, whether we notice it or not, and the vibes this spring week were very high indeed. It is so fulfilling and beautiful to be a part of a school like this, which deeply honors childhood and prioritizes belonging and connection. Thanks to everyone who make this place what it is ☀️🤩✨ Have a beautiful weekend, we’ll be back for more on Monday 🤙🏽

One of the most precious aspects of attending Zena Democratic School is being supported to develop organically. Children here are not separated into groups based on their date of manufacture and compelled to develop at the same rate; rather, they associate with whomever they chose to associate with, often their developmental peers, whatever the age, and they develop their capacities when they are ready and internally motivated to do so.

We believe that humans have a natural drive to be competent and cooperative, and when they are provided with a healthy, safe human habitat, they will develop all the skills and tools they need to accomplish that, as well as cultivate and deliver their own unique gifts to their community.

{Image is a graphic, which reads: “The age-based standards children are held to are essentially fake. There’s no Law of Nature that says a child must read by X age or count to 100 by X grade. Children naturally learn different things at different times, and their lives are not ruined by a peer having learned something first." – Idzie Desmarais}

Week in review! Another week of bold, human-centered education is in the books at Zena Democratic School 🦖This week we witnessed some beautiful instances of friends supporting friends through hard times and so many rich interdisciplinary discussions every day! Our wood-splitting crew 🪓🪵 got out to replenish the fire circle woodpile with ash and cherry (pictured, no students ran the chainsaw 🤗), the hammock village was in full swing (pictured), the current staff baby was hanging out, cared for and loved by all, pickup soccer was 🔥🔥🔥, there were woods walks featuring students getting on a first-name basis with the community on our landscape (bluets, saxifrage, liverwort), folks got cracking on making pages for our famous yearbook 😎 (pictured, weird poses to be used in photoshop collages), some outdoor gymnastics 🤸‍♀️ (pictured), the Strategic Planning Committee worked on revising the Vision Statement for the school, as well as our philosophy of self-direction, our foraging crew met some new friends, including the famous “ramp” (pictured), and School Meeting ran through Thursday and Friday(!), filled with vigorous debate. As always, we are deeply grateful to be a part of a school that is more community than training facility, more village than institution, and as much heart and soul as brain. Thanks to all, and have a good weekend!

OPEN HOUSE Tomorrow! Saturday, 4/20, 1:00-4:00. Join us :)

It is essential in life to find what lights us up. Everything else comes after. When our fire is lit, we are capable of incredible things, including joy, fulfillment, and genuine altruism. We are capable of fulfilling our destiny and delivering our gifts to the world.

Children who are supported to pursue their interests, to follow their inner voice and their intuition, and to carry out their ideas, become adults who know who they are and what their purpose is.

The ideas of children may not always align with our own, but we are wise when we remember the idea itself is not what is most important; what’s most important is the discovering of the idea, the feeling of excitement and internal motivation, and the experience of self-knowing this process incurs.

{image is a graphic, which reads: "Young people are completely capable of concentrated effort over long periods of time if what they are doing is their own idea." — Elizabeth Jones and Gretchen Reynolds}

Want to learn more about our awesome school? Our next Open House is coming up...join us THIS Saturday, April 20th in Kingston! Visit our website to learn more and RSVP.

This is Ninetta, an old-fashioned kid with an old-soul and a lot of fresh, bright energy. She’s an absolute joy to be around; she’s supportive of everyone around her, inquisitive, articulate, engaged, and deeply wise - and still totally her age, completely a child, immersed in the world of wonder and excitement. She reads a ton at school, mostly fantasy, hangs with friends, and participates in the community in myriad ways. She’s on our Resolution Committee for example, and she’s enjoying that work a lot. She says, “we find a resolution that everyone involves thinks is just…it’s really important to have a committee with students on it to deal with these things rather than just an adult who reprimands the children.” She recently collaborated with a friend and a Staff to teach an Engineering Challenges Series at school, which she also enjoyed, although she says, “I never realized how difficult it is to get people to be quiet!” The egg-drop was her favorite challenge. Ninetta is pretty enthusiastic about life, and she gets up to a whole lot. Recently she appeared on Radio Kingston talking about the school, she noted Aikido as a favorite activity from school this year (“it’s fun, and useful”), and she’s participating with our Spring Foraging group. She loves ZDS; she says, “Living in this community is just so interesting...I really like it…Every day there are different problems to solve and conversations to have…[this school] is less about reading, writing, and arithmetic, and more about real life, like running a business, teaching a class, and dealing with living in a community environment…my favorite aspect of school is having the freedom to be and to do what you want, and ironically that’s also the most challenging part of the school, because it means you have to make choices, and do things for yourself.” At home Ninetta rides a unicycle, hops around on a pogo stick, and builds fairy houses. Ninetta, thank you for bringing so much bright energy and deep care to our community; it is such a joy to share this time and space with you!

It was a very wet week here at Zena Democratic School 🌧️🌧️🌧️, culminating in a bonus pick-up soccer match ⚽️ in a downpour this afternoon (pictured). Rain makes for a bustling indoor campus, and it can be challenging to find a place to do your thing 🤷; but rain this year is very welcome for some of us; our Spring Foraging group will be starting up next week, and if we continue to get good hydration we may have improved odds for a good morel season 🍄‍🟫! This week at school some of our graduating “seniors” were working on their thesis statements, musing on the benefits of experiencing boredom 🤔 (it allows the dust of distraction to settle and allows the true self to emerge), living in a community (it’s fun, and fulfilling, and supportive ❤️), and other ZDS themes, we found a map of the school (pictured) 🗺️ which clearly shows the cartographer’s priorities (the building is tiny and all the outdoor areas are exaggerated), the Art Coop took a trip to check out the collection at the Dorsky 🏛️ (pictured), we had a new student business take advantage of this week’s fire circle to offer freshly baked cookies 🍪 for sale there (pictured), our dishwasher survived 🧼 again (pictured), and created a system to help ensure everyone cleans their own dishes, our student librarian kept up his superb work (pictured) 📖, we got our old pottery wheel back in action 🏺(pictured), the Strategic Planning Committee took a deep dive on diversity and got one step closer to a final draft (pictured), there was a pop-up sidewalk chalk workshop (pictured) 🎨 and we welcomed our staff Paul back from two weeks of trekking in Peru 🏔️! As always, writing up this week in review has filled me with gratitude for being a part of this unique school that is really more of a community or a family than an institution. It is so special; thanks to all who work so hard to make it what it is ❤️🌈🦄 Have a good weekend :)

At Zena Democratic School, children can go outside, where their rambunctious energy so often belongs, at any moment of any day; they can stay outside all day long if they want to! Many problems young people encounter indoors simply vanish when they go outside. It is hard to overstate the benefits of fresh air, sunlight, vigorous play, physical challenge, and engagement with the natural world, especially for young people and at ZDS, we would never deprive our students of an opportunity to experience that nourishment.

Want to learn more about our awesome school? Our next Open House is coming up...join us on Saturday, April 20th in Kingston! Link to learn more and RSVP in comments.

{image is a graphic, which reads: “Children cannot bounce off the walls if we take away the walls.” – Erin K. Kenny}

Yesterday Charlie, Matthew, and two students joined Amy Brown White, host of Beyond the Classroom, at Radio Kingston to talk about Zena Democratic School! Check out the recording, link in bio. Thank you Amy and Radio Kingston ❤️

We’re back in session here at the Hudson Valley’s boldest little schoolhouse after a week off 🥳 There was a lot of joyful reuniting and friending 👯‍♀️. It was a short week, and included a day of heavy rain 🌧️ , which precipitated a high-energy indoor day and frankly caused a couple headaches 🤕! We spent a lot of time working on skills around sharing space and figuring out how to channel our energy appropriately when we’re all stuck inside together ⚡️. We had a really interesting School Meeting that extended into Friday and included a lot of students who previously haven’t participated much before. It takes time to figure out how to do democracy, but it was still pretty great to see new and young students beginning to use their voice and their political power within the organization 🏛️. Winter offerings have officially ended, but there was still plenty of formal programming, including bonus session of S*x Ed., which we have been doing with S*x Savvy Hudson Valley (the students have really loved that class, reporting that they have learned a lot, the instructor is deeply knowledgeable, and they’ve felt totally comfortable asking questions) a Reading Lesson from an Orton Gillingham expert 📖, a Gymnastics Pop-up organized by a 7 yo and a 9 y 🤸‍♀️ and there’s always more…there was a cool jewelry sale put on by the Art Coop) 💎💍, selling all their hand-made jewelry. Unfortunately, this is our only photo this week, because our in-house photographer was away and many of us were stuck in meetings all week! But it was still great to be back in this place that feels so much like home to so many of us in this school community 💗. Everyone have a good week out there and we’ll see you after the eclipse!

At Zena Democratic School, we have the time and space to focus on finding healthy ways of dealing with feelings. Our Resolution Committee works carefully and tenderly to find ways forward from every boundary crossing, large or small. We believe this is one of the most important aspects of learning to be human, of building a regenerative community, and of creating a viable future for this planet.

Considering Zena Democratic School for your family? Enrollment for next year is open. Want to learn more about our educational program? The best way is to join us at an Open House. There's food, campus tours, a super cool playground, and so much more!

The next ZDS Open House is April 20th! RSVP today - see link in comments.

Students, parents, alumni, and staff members will be available to give tours of the campus, discuss the school, and answer questions. There will be a panel discussion with students and parents starting at 2:00pm along with good snacks, art supplies, and our awesome playground. 🤗

ZDS Open House
Saturday, March 2nd
1:00-4:00pm
Kingston, NY

Come check out Zena Democratic School!

Another week of liberatory and pro-human being education is in the books at Zena Democratic School 👱‍♀️🌈The diversity and richness of activity of free humans living within supportive community is at once beautiful, bewildering, and energizing, and exhausting 🤾‍♂️🕺🏼🧜🏻‍♂️🐲🐋🌮 So much happens all the time here, so many storylines always unfolding.This week wood splitting was a big highlight - a small group gathered to learn how to safely split firewood with a maul 🪓🪵. Their process for figuring out how to engage a potentially risky activity safely was fascinating - first they catastrophized, thinking of everything that could go wrong - and then they went through their list and, with the support of their instructor, created safety protocols for everything. (see pic) We also had a young student pass a motion at School Meeting to hold a “style week” right after break 👗 - she was just in the office designing a flier (see pic!) Winter offerings were wrapping up, a big highlight was the engineering challenges class’ egg drop 🥚🪜, we also shared our new programming structure with a self-directed school in California 💻, there was a cute game of Magic Babies who squish each other (see pic), the Robotics crew 🤖 was super psyched about the various things they’ve learned to code (see pic), a senior worked hard on writing the story of her education 📝, some students recruited an older student with animation skills to make a movie of them sword fighting 📽️, there was a robust conversation at School Meeting about how to manage Play Fighting at school 🤺, we also discussed some potential renovations to the building 🚜, there was a field trip to collect native seeds to plant at school 🌱, there was a really challenging but really cool conversation that came out of a Resolution Plan made for a group of boys who had made insensitive comments 🗣️, and student businesses have been off the chain, baked goods and lunches especially 🧁, We are so deeply happy and grateful to be able to have a school that is less about schooling and more about expanding, deepening, and connecting! Thanks so much to everyone who makes this place so special and unique 💎🌊🌅

This is the fundamental gift of being raised in a self-directed school: the time, space, freedom, and support, to develop a deep sense of self. This sense of self becomes the basis for everything we do in life. If I don’t have a deep sense of self, where are my decisions coming from? Who, exactly, is making them?

Want to learn more about our educational program? ZDS Open Houses are the best way to learn more about the school, and our next one is Saturday, April 20. Students, parents, alums, and staff members are available to give tours of the campus, discuss the school, and answer questions. Visit our website to learn more or RSVP. We hope to see you there!

Here is a pic of one of our students on a mountain overlooking the city of Kobe, Japan. This guy organized himself a trip to visit two self-directed democratic schools in Japan! Right now he is visiting the Makkuro Kuroske school in Ichikawa. He has been hosted by several different families and attending school daily. His reports to us are terse, but he says his hosts are extraordinarily generous, and he’s learning a whole lot and experiencing many new things. He is one of three students this year to strike out and travel the world to visit other like-minded and like-hearted schools; all three have largely made these connections and organized their own experiences, with some support from home base at ZDS. We are quite proud and impressed, and we’re grateful they’re connecting us more closely with our world-wide allies!

Another week of beautiful freedom grounded in community is in the books here at Zena Democratic School 🌈✨🎇. It is so satisfying to watch young humans develop a deep sense of self by focusing on what is genuinely important to them, and to develop self-worth based on a sense of belonging and on their own inner journey rather than on, say, completing tasks set for them by authority figures 💞 Here are some of the highlights from this week: we had a very sweet moment when one of the younger members of our community raised her hand at our Community Assembly to announce she had “scored ninth place” at her swim meet 🏊‍♂️ the crowd went wild 👏🏼! We observed another younger student patiently and persistently working to throw a rope tied to a plastic dagger over a tree branch in order to create a “booby trap” (they got it eventually!) The photography class experimented with chemistry and exposure time as they made contact prints from negatives 📸, painting class turned out some impressive work 🖼️ the Engineering Challenges Class built balloon cars and held a balloon car race 🎈, a student cooked lunch for whoever wanted it TWICE, including a very good chili if I do say so myself 🍛, there was a cool terrarium-making workshop , some big crochet triumphs 🪡, all the staff participated in pickup soccer ⚽️, School Meeting got some good work done 📜, and we were joined by one of our Trustees for the Wednesday Fire Circle 🔥⭕️. She had this to say about it: “The Fire Circle was at a beautiful spot in the woods. I had such a nice time seeing the students playing and learning. One student was the fire keeper. It was so interesting to be quiet and observe the group dynamics. Everyone seemed to realize that acting as a community benefitted them as individuals. It felt like everyone respected each other, the fire, and the woods. The atmosphere of calm, peace, safety, and fun left a deep impression on me.” Thanks so much to everyone who makes this place what it is 💎🌈🌸 Have a good weekend :)