School of the Mountain

Young farmers are a species in the way of extinction. We lack good education in the countryside. We also lack economic opportunities, health and wellbeing. We believe the cornerstone for generating regenerative thriving ecosystems is education. Families save all their lives to send youngsters to study outside, where they receive not so good education, and they almost never return. This is a tragedy, economies and human resources get depleted. We need to connect the next generations with their purpose in life, and their territories, to create thriving ecosystems aligned with territory particularities and personal, family, and community vocations. It is urgent to create a model of education which makes rural life viable, while taking care and regenerating ecosystems. We provide such connection through a learning environment for all life which focusses on doing, being and community. This is a replicable model for Latin America and the Caribbean rural communities. 

There is a lack of education offer in rural settings that equip young farmers with the skills to thrive in their territories, while at the same time connecting them to a sense of purpose which relates to balanced and regenerative relationships with our environment. Most young farmers leave towards cities rural. In LatinAmerica more than four fifths of the population now leave in the cities, and it is estimated that in 2050 90% will live in the cities. This dynamic not only affects rural development but has a great impact in the continent overall, as cities get overcrowded with all the problematic this entails, rural areas can not sustain their needs, and try to do so with practices which causes even more degradation to the environment. If young farmers can fulfil their purpose without needing to leave, if they do so aligned with their vocations and the territory particularities, and if all of the above is done weaving more just relationships with urban settings, there is hope not only for the rural areas but for the cities. We believe that the education we want to provide will be the cornerstone for achieving all of the above. 

We have been living in this bio region for the last ten years. We are aiming to build a solution for this bio region of Tominé, for its young farmers and families, which can be replicated elsewhere.  We have been involved in several projects all aiming to generate viable livelihoods for young farmers (from a yoga project for woman farmers, a wondering rural cinema, TEDx events at the countryside, farmer markets, and implementing SOLE (Self Organized Learning Environments) among other. We have come to realize that if we don´t achieve an integral learning environment which cultivates wholeness, all the other initiatives or attempts to tackle the problematic wont perdure. Since last year we have been holding meetings with the community to understand if there is a need for such initiative, and to map both participants and prospect partners. We have been refining our model based on this meetings and interviews both to young farmers and parents. We believe the solution we propose addresses their needs. We are designing it also taking into account that those needs and the systemic conditions will change over time, and we will need to constantly redesign and validate. 

We believe that we can create a great school, one which connects farmers since they are very small to their territory, a school based on an ecocentric - soulcentric approach which provides spaces and experiences for deep connection with themselves, the community, and the territory.

We want to create a learning ecosystem for all life, we believe in the richness of learning in community and that providing spaces for alignment with our nature, gives tools to find our place in the world, this is key to develop sustainable, resilient and abundant communities.
We want to build an ecosystem which fosters local development creating opportunities for all. We want to forge an alternative business model where education is not a business and sustainability is achieved through the integrated creation of business units which provide opportunities for learning and thriving.
The school has three axis: Being (where we develop our connection with ourselves, imagination, perseverance, intuition, mindfulness, academic excellence, resilience), Doing (where we provide spaces to learn skills aligned with personal and territorial vocations including agriculture, food, arts, hospitality, sports, music, woodwork, natural building techniques among other), and Community (where we develop conditions towards articulating the individual, family and community towards common purposes, this includes circular economy, governance, activism, local political involvement, service, celebration, passage rites, among other aspects).
We start with the little ones 1.5 years old and provide a learning ecosystem for children and teenagers initially, with the involvement of all family and community. Through doing and common ventures all community has a role on sustaining the school and moving the community towards ecosystem, cultural and economic regeneration.
This model can be replicated elsewhere, which needs to happen for building a new rural order where farmers can thrive. It is focussed on the particularities of bio regions, and provides connection within bio regions when replicated, creating active networks that can shift systems.