Page 20 RAIN 1May 1976 Cold Sprin·g Bridgehouse Voluntary School High on the Columbia Gorge an 80-acre work/study agricultural community is in the works-The Cold Spring School for Elementary Agriculture and the Performing Arts. Designed as a residential community which would meet the educational needs of its children, its living systems curriculum will teach the ways and means of renewable resources with a labor-intensive focus on the planning, distribution and study of efficient food usage. · , 1 Classes will include problems and solutions in world hunger, techniques in sustained renewable land use and production increase, apiculture, stone sledge navigation, tree-food crops and tree production (seeq,nursery, breeding), greenhouse construction and management, and water development and irrigation. Early emphasis will be placed on construction of a pilot project in extracting protein from broad-leaf sources and separating the' toxins and crude fibre along the lines developed - by Dr. Romanconte, Baker, Oregon.. The 10-year-plan is to take the energy of kids involved in cooperative agricultural work/study ~nd produce a surplus of food which could then be distributed to cooperating schools in areas beset by hunger. The program's developmental .history began in 1973 at creator Hank Patton's urban homestead on Portland's N.E. fringe. The Bridgehouse Voluntary School of the Homesteading f\rts offered a square-r_neal exchange to anyone willing to invest one hour of concentrated effort. One hour earned a . square meal in Bridgehouse's communal kitchen; 2 hours earned a night's shelter; 100 hours, a 10-speed bike. 'Apples; honey, produce and tools were exchanged as well. Kids who refused to attend public school regularly earned their square meal exchanges at Bridgehouse. Drupouts dropped in, logging 5000 exchange hours in the first nine months. Hank financed the exchange system himself until the YMCA provided funds for exchange items earned in beekeeping, gardening and greenhouse projects by th~ir summer program partici'pants. That fall, Sacajawea Elementary Principal Joe Williams., invited Hank to bring his energy currency program into the public school system. There Hank developed a living systems resource center complete with microscope~, algal cultures, chickens, an aquaculture tank. The conscious use of waste materials pervades the room: geometric shapes constructed from recycled industrial waste·, an aquacul,ture tank that knew a previous life ii} a brewery, a garbage can composter. Philosophy gears the program toward finding the very tangible balance between the needs of the child and those of society. Given the basic premise that all children are curious and • will naturally probe, push, question, think, what remains is merely to encourage him/her to inv,est the energy in a productive manner. Energy invested in living systems bears fruit. -g: 180 enthusiastic first-sixth graders dispense with required o curric!ulum at twice the normal rate in order to work on their f chosen projects. A basic resource center agreement holds that ~I ·1 no one works on a project that he or she does not enjoy. ComQ) mitments to subject area are made slowly and carefully, ·for ~ . once made, the project must be completed before any other ~ work can be undertaken. The heart of each child's study is his 0 field book, an individually created loose leaf book bound with :::, Chicago screws, containing observation, documentation, transcriptions, drawings, collected materials and periopic handouts from the staff. (Latest insert, "Fleshy Fungi," will be available from Sacajawea at an as-yet-undecided price.) Quantum econics (ecology/economics), the energy currency of the program, is an attempt to create a model economy which promotes the kinds of habits, attitudes and usership • which enables humankind to pass resources on to succeeding generations increased in value. One Q = a_n hour of concentrated effart inve_sted in increasing the fruitfulness of the earth. It's an elementary unit of human enterprise, an expression of worth which stresses the interrelatedness of man with nature in an economic way. Thus it is an attempt at a real growth economy whose growth is confined to systems that are alive. The Q may be exchanged for young plants, l,iving fish specimens, 'more time in the resource center or a field trip. Severi concentrated hours (7Q) completes a project earning one full 'school day in the field, exploring the student's research topic. The 14 subject areas include: birds, trees, fresh water, insects, the farm, weather, and a natural information service. Exercise in the basic skills becomes an ongoing process, as kids must read their sometimes technical transcriptions, learn unfamiliar vocabulary and compute mathematical records of their' research. ' Demonstrated responsi_bility ea~ns increased responsibility. Students learn that time invested in living systems tends to create more time, food and resources. Presently each of the 180 students at Sacajawea is slated for a half-hour per week in the re·source center, which is conditional upon completion· of all assignments in the regular classroom. However, as efficiency increases and Qs accumulate more rapidly, some students earn as much as 1-1/2 hours per day in the center. Next year's plans indicate an expansion of the Sacajawea program. Through salvage of Portland's classic Lord & Burham •bent glass ,greenhouse, the living systems of the resource center will move into a more dynamic space. Funds will come from Portland ~ublic Schools, Program Change Objective (PCO) mechanism, with construction to begin in June, contingent upon the school establishment's decision. Students will gain the opportunity to become physically involved in actual food production and potential marketing through the quantum currency. The Cold Spring facility- will also be available to Sacajawea students two days each week for field study.
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