What’s New

Steve Schaefer's class deciding which historical periods to study Students at The New School have a strong voice in the design of their classes. This is apparent in Steve Schaefer's second semester history class where students are defining the historical periods they want to learn about, based on their families' histories. For several weeks students explored their family trees through the website Ancestry.com. They were particularly looking to uncover the time frames and countries from which their ancestors immigrated to America. (Two students discovered family records going back to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries!) Students are now narrowing [...]

A major goal of The New School is to help young people identify their passions and gain the confidence to actualize them before and after high school. Students are encouraged to weave their interests into their coursework throughout their time at the school -- and this is particularly true during senior year. Senior Projects are a significant undertaking that students must complete in order to graduate. With ongoing guidance from their Faculty Advisors and roundtable committees of students, faculty and parents, seniors design projects that engage their talents and interests while challenging them to grow in new ways. [...]

In February, four students and TNS Teacher Marylyn Wentworth spent over two weeks in Peru during a recent Intensive. (They had spent the first semester learning about Peru's history and culture, and planning the trip.) The group was based in the city of Cusco, which was the historic capital of the Inca Empire from the 13th until the 16th-century. Each morning the students were immersed in learning Spanish at a Spanish language school; during the afternoons they assisted with the school's after school program for children living in poverty. And of course they visited Machu Picchu and other amazing sites [...]

Students on the England Intensive have been journaling about their adventures --- below are some excerpts. Led by Language Arts teacher Christine Knowles, the group so far has visited The Tower of London, The British Museum, Globe Theater, Stratford-upon-Avon, Oxford, Windsor Castle, and lots more! FROM SOPHIE: Essentials such as bathrooms and caffeine were accessed before deciding to go to the Tower of London for the rest of the day’s activities. The tour started with a projected short film talking about all the families that had lived in the fortress and how they were all related/connected. It began [...]

The TNS community was recently treated to an evening of performances by a dozen students in Theater Class. Under the direction of Paul Dervis, students performed a variety of scenes adopted from plays and books that showcased the acting skills they had acquired over the semester. After the performances students answered questions from the audience. Paul, who is an accomplished playwright, director and film critic, loves teaching at TNS (this is his second year at the school) and is such a proponent of the school's philosophy that he joined the board of directors. We hope he will continue [...]

Students in Peter Berg's Ecological Sustainability class recently visited nearby Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve to learn about the importance of estuaries and the biotic and abiotic factors that comprise them. The Reserve consists of 2,250 acres of protected land, a restored saltwater farm called Laudholm and is a natural refuge for wildlife. The Reserve contains a composition of plants and animals not found elsewhere in Maine. The purpose of the class is to examine how the principals of sustainability intersect with the sciences of biology and ecology. In these photos, students are comparing salinity levels in different pools within [...]

TNS student Wyatt recently attended the AERO (Alternative Education Resource Organization) conference in New York with Principal Peter Berg and others from TNS. While there he interviewed Dr. Peter Gray (photo) and Jerry Mintz, both nationally known figures in the alternative school movement, to get their perspectives on holistic education, as offered at schools such as The New School. The purpose of Wyatt's interviews was to gather information in order to complete a “Gateway”. Instead of using the grade designations of freshman, sophomore, junior and senior, TNS has three “Phases”. Advancing to the next Phase involves completing Gateways -- structured [...]

The New School kicks off every school year with a two day retreat that helps students get to know one another, learn about democratic decision-making at TNS, set goals, and develop "agreements" or principals that the community will abide by over the coming year. This year's retreat took place at Lions Camp Pride on Merrymeeting Lake in New Durham, NH. Principal Peter Berg shared two comments from other adults on site at the end of the retreat: "These are the deepest conversations I have had heard in a long time. These kids are really aware." -- Lifeguard.  "I am impressed by the [...]

The following description was written by a parent at The New School who accompanied a group of TNS students to Iceland in May. View more photos from this unforgettable trip here. For over a year, nine TNS students planned, raised funds for, and finally in May, embarked on a trip to Iceland as an annual Intensive learning experience that is a hallmark of education at TNS. The students immersed themselves in hiking and photography in one of the most beautiful and untouched places on the planet. The landscape was almost inexplicable at times, from the dramatic cliffs that were the [...]