Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress; working hard for something we love is called passion.
Simon Sinek
School would be year round in The Third Option Educational model, divided into four 13-week “quarters”, then further broken down into two 5-week “tracks”, with one Interim Week in between, and a two-week break at the end.
Of the eight 5-week Tracks, two would be set aside and specifically designated as ‘Payback Tracks’. One Track would be a Community PayBack Track, which might involve helping others at school [tutoring, childcare], problem finding and solving within the local or regional Community, or business opportunities to make money through work or innovation. The second Track is for National and International Payback, called the Peace Project, where we replace Mandatory Military Conscription with a more Democratic form of ‘civic duty’.
The six remaining ‘Work Tracks’ each year would be sure to focus on the most essential human needs: regenerative and vertical farming, healthcare, communication, energy, computer hardware and software, important science and engineering, building systems, transportation, and the like. The school’s role in helping with the Essential Needs of the Community would be a large part of how kids would ‘pay back’ their education, but kids would also have two ‘Personal Tracks’ —a mental discipline, and a physical discipline—specifically designed to accommodate their personal growth, and it would be the school’s job to deliver on whatever each kid decides to pursue. Typical choices would be in some form of the arts (mental) and a particular sport (physical), but kids can shop around each year and try new things, or even eventually ‘double-up’ on one discipline, if they are particularly gifted in that area.
The Interim Weeks would be used for students to socialize through team-building events or inter / intra – school challenges. Some would purely be for fun and a chance to socialize and bond with peers; these would be run by the students. Others would be more serious, like Community Projects, Boot Camps, Political Forums or Debates, or team-building competitions. This Interim Week would also offer a chance to catch up on projects-in-development, whether they are in the ‘work track’ or the ‘personal track’ categories.
Finally, it should be noted that the school would remain open during all of the two-week breaks, and accommodate students and the Community in whatever capacity necessary to that particular Community’s specific needs. We are not trying to create or maintain cookie cutter kids, communities, or schools. We are going wherever the people need us most.
