This is Best Friend; shes speaks in -ishes, loves boiled eggs, drinks lots of milk but calls it, “melk,” and has a Russian Blue cat named, “Blue,” which she says she “knows is basic, but he’s cute.” Her favorite thing to do at school is gymnastics, and boy can she do them; she’s usually standing on her head, or rolling around on the ground. Gracefully. And, just the other day, I was down at the supermarket, walking down an aisle, and a pair of sneakers went flying by at eye level. I was like, whoa, who in the world is doing that in here?! It was Best Friend, stilllllll cartwheeling. In a safe and responsible fashion. Ish. Best Friend is also a photographer – she’s got that good eye – and I hope she’ll take some cute pics of me for my next profile picture soon. Best Friend was here when she was 3 – her grandma was staff – and now she’s been back for a few years, and we’re deeply grateful for that. She’s so sweet to our little ones, generous with her friends (hence the nickname), and I swear she makes our halls brighter, like literally brighter, with her smile, which lucky for us she seems to wear all the time. Ish. But that’s better, t would be weird to smile ALL the time. So thank you, Best Friend, for being our friend too, let’s boil some eggs and have a glass of melk real soon.
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.