This is Paul, a STEM guy with a beard and a new-found passion for Self-Directed Education. Paul interned in the spring of 2022, and was bowled over by what he describes as the balance of freedom and responsibility he witnessed among the student body. He appreciates the decentralized power structure of our school and the opportunities here for students and staff alike to integrate and balance work and play. Paul has significant background in administrative work and in education, primarily doing STEM projects with students of all ages. In his free time Paul has been hiking the Catskills and the White Mountains, and is starting to look northwards towards the Adirondack State Park, and he is keen to try some traveling abroad.
Opportunities
At Zena Democratic School, we pride ourselves on offering our students endless opportunities; they are free to pursue their interests, dabble in this and that, or to fall head over heels into a subject without interruption – for as long as the interest remains, or to follow it wherever it may lead.
But the most valuable opportunity we offer students is the time and space to discover who they are. Students at ZDS have time to be, to think, to talk, to play, to discover what they enjoy and appreciate and, equally importantly, what they don’t enjoy or appreciate. We offer an opportunity to practice crucial skills such as motivation, persistence, articulation, and humility, to be part of a democratic community, and to experience acceptance, cooperation, recognition, and celebration. This unstructured time is where the real beauty of the ZDS experience lies and where the most important learning usually takes place.
However, many people do love content and instruction, and there is plenty of organized and formal activity at school. Students often organize this on their own, or with the assistance or leadership of a Staff Member, but they may also request the Programming Clerk to facilitate whatever kind of instruction or activity they’d like to have, from basic reading instruction to skateboarding lessons to sex education; every topic under the sun is theoretically available for our students to explore and to receive instruction upon.