This is Keeg, a classic playground dude, obsessive wielder of sticks and miscellaneous cudgels, and a professional big brother. He’s one of our newbies this year, and he’s learning fast, like a Russian bot. He is figuring out how to get along with the other dudes and share space and resources, and he’s doing beautifully.
At home, Keeg raises bunnies, and his little brother. He tells us Rocco the bunny is lazy and eats too much, and both bunnies drink too much. Luckily, it’s only water they’re drinking, but they’re drinking it qat such a rate that Keeg sometimes finds himself filling her bowl every fifteen minutes. Get that girl an electrolyte! Keeg keeps his room clean so he won’t trip when he sleep-walks, and his greatest fear is putting his fingers down the drain. He worships tacos and loves pranking his mom (although he almost made her trip recently and he’s thinking about that lot). As for that little brother, he does make Keeg mad sometimes, messing up their shared room and sitting in Keeg’s spot on the couch, but ultimately they have a lot of fun together and there is a lot of sweetness, like when Keeg was hugging on his bro without a word exchanged this morning at school.
Keeg prefers to be hiking in the great outdoors. He loves roaming around our campus with his stick-wielding pals, checking stuff out. His fashion is distinctive – leather jacket w/crocs, and his look is completed by his fun mop of blonde hair. He brings sweet, frolicsome energy to our community. He takes pride in his perseverance – he never gives up. Keeg, we are so happy you’re here, playing and growing and enjoying life! Thank you for taking care of your bro and your friends and for being open-hearted and willing to keep learning every day ❤️
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.