A Typical Day
By Beverli Haroldsen What is a typical day at AVA? At first glance, it doesn’t exist. Our days don’t fit in a tidy little package to be placed in a day planner. No master schedule stands as sentinel, passing down arbitrary Read more…
The Importance of Community
By Ryan Busenbark This past year has brought many challenges with the pandemic. I was bummed when the school year ended early and I’m sure many students shared that feeling. As a school community, we were able to get together Read more…
“Imagination Encircles the World”
By Debbie Ayala In 1968 Dr. George Land developed a test for NASA to find the most innovative and creative engineers and scientists. It worked and the test was so successful that Dr Land began to wonder how someone would Read more…
A Place to Find Your Place
By Megan Bean As a staff member of Alpine Valley Academy, I’ve been able to see many kids start at the school, and it’s always interesting to see how they respond to this new, strange environment. At a typical public Read more…
Our Students Live Civics
By Mark Cluff There are going to be discussions on improved civics classes and lessons during the Utah Legislative session now under way after all that has happened in our county over the last year. It is felt that students Read more…
A Week of Monopoly
Before working as a staff member at AVA, I worked for many years as a math and physics tutor. I tutored people of various ages and skill levels, ranging from grade school children to undergraduate college students. I always enjoyed it; helping people understand concepts that previously mystified them was engaging and rewarding. Unfortunately, my main takeaway from all those years of tutoring was that lots of people really dislike math. At best people find it dreadfully boring, and at worst the mere mention of the subject is enough to enrage or drive people to Read more…
Lunchtime Vignette
…This is lunchtime. It can happen at 10:30, 12:00, 1:00, or even 2:49 in the afternoon. It can happen once a day or several times a day – part of the natural flow of a typical day here at Alpine Valley Academy. Lunchtime can come in and out like a sudden thunderstorm or be like a lingering day at the beach with vacationers coming and going, vendors hawking their wares, or flighty birds swooping in for an occasional crumb. Though not repeated with the clockwork of ocean tides, lunchtime has its own Read more…
Recent Unschooling Convert is “Electrified” by Visit to a Sudbury School
After reading Dr. Peter Gray’s “Free to Learn” two years ago, writer and educator Jeffrey Howard became a convert to unschooling (or “Natural Learning”, as we like to call it). As a former mental health professional, he likes to explore how we Read more…
Sugata Mitra’s Version of Natural Learning
In this remarkable video, Sugata Mitra makes his bold TED Prize pitch (which he won). He summarizes his version of what we call “Natural Learning” like this: “We need to look at learning as the product of educational self-organization. If Read more…
The World’s First Truly American School to Launch in Utah
We, the founders of Alpine Valley Academy, believe that to preserve freedom and self-government in America, we must preserve them in the hearts of our children. We’re doing this by creating freedom-based schools where self-government is a way of life, Read more…
