Wolfie

This is Wolfie, a pack-leader who’s not only tall for his age, his personality is super-sized too; it’s a good thing he has the time and space to grow into himself here at HVSS! He’s a creator – of things, jokes, ideas, and friendships. While I was interviewing him for this profile, in fact, he was building a delicate cardboard and paper mace and describing his idea of perfection. He said, “in order to be perfect you have to have some imperfections, especially at the beginning, and you get perfect by working with them. If you start off perfect you’re really just a blank slate. You have nowhere to go…” He spun his mace around to test it out and joked, “I only make weapons, never anything that might benefit humanity,” then became philosophical again: “the thing with working with cardboard is, I never let myself get attached to anything, because all of it inevitably breaks.” He briefly gazed out the window, then said, “I don’t do much philosophy anymore; I don’t want to give myself an existential crisis.”

At home Wolfie likes when it rains so he has an excuse to hang with his dad and go down YouTube rabbit holes together. He has a bearded dragon with many, names, such as Beef Taco, Beardo, Beef Patty, Chestnut, Meaty Boy, Old Meaty Boy, Beef Ball, Meat Ball, (anything round or made of meat). He has a hidden talent too but he can’t remember what it is.

Our school seems to fit Wolfie like a glove. He says he doesn’t ever want to sit at a desk “or anything like that.” He wants to be a comedian and make people laugh for a living. He likes people, and he says his favorite thing to do at school is “hang out! With anybody. Just – hang out!” He would like to help make some changes to our judicial system, however; he thinks that it might be worth a try to settle everything through mediation, and he also wonders, “what if kids just resolved their problems on the spot?” He says, “it’s so nice, I like it here. I like the idea that if I put in the initiative I can do a lot of stuff. I’m going to organize a fencing class.” Wolfie, you rock dude, thanks for hanging with us and making our community richer and more interesting every day.

Parents’ experience of the school is a crucial factor in determining their childrens’ experience of the school. Children of parents who work hard to understand our philosophy, communicate with staff, attend events, and connect with the community usually get the most out of our program.

At Zena Democratic School, rule infractions and interpersonal conflicts are resolved using sophisticated restorative justice tools.

Age-mixing is one of the most potent developmental experiences at Zena Democratic School.

Each student aged 14+ is automatically enrolled in our High School Advisor Program;

Screens are allowed at school, with restrictions.

At Zena Democratic School, a Cooperative (coop) is a group of like-minded students and staff who organize around a common interest, like music, art, or sports.

At Zena Democratic School, the jobs of administration and maintenance are divided into roles called Clerkships;

Every student and staff at Zena Democratic School is assigned a cleaning job by the Physical Plant Clerk.

Students may receive a diploma if they elect to undergo our internal diploma process.

Zena Democratic School is located on a parcel of 67 wooded acres in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains in the Hudson Valley region of New York State.

Zena Democratic School is a direct democracy; each student and member of the staff has an equal vote in managing all aspects of the school’s operation.