Grit.
The short: All of our students work their a** off to sell handmade wreaths for travel cash.
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The long: This project is easy to undervalue. When leading, challenges and frustrations are so inevitable you may as well welcome them! I think we’ve embodied that spirit and been better for it the last few years. We’ve endured schooling through pandemic times, real estate nightmares and so on. The reason we have the fortitude to carry on when so many others have quit is key to understanding what we are sculpting here at Opt Out.
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We fully acknowledge and understand the cushy little 90’s-Bozeman-kid lives we lived growing up (not so unlike the lives our students) were thankfully laced with just enough *purposeful* adverse experiences and supported challenges to prepare us to handle hard things as adults.
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The reason we ask our students to go hike in to the woods for several days, clip boughs, drag back giant trash bags of greens and wrestle them into stunning holiday wreaths is so they experience the physical sensation of hard work that leads to a beautiful product/service that makes people happy. This makes them happy! They feel proud and unlock a new level of belonging when they begin to work together as a team to decide how to best spend their earnings. Seemingly, the results are sheer magic!
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But they’re not. They were manufactured via a carefully constructed, supported, developmentally appropriate real life project that took a literal village to orchestrate!
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The process takes weeks. Adults show up in the woods to spend hours supervising the safe use of pruning sheers, dragging sleds around and encouraging tired kids. Businesses buy wreaths. Grandmas donate craft supplies and break out their hot glue guns. Parents coach children through awkward door-to-door sales and deliveries. “Student Centered Learning” requires a framework of time, effort, and collaboration and yet, it is worth it every 👏🏼 single 👏🏼 time.
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We could just ask parents to write checks. Have students write support letters. Sell cookie dough. We’ve certainly done these things in the past! They simply do not produce the same experience. THIS is what I mean when I say ‘experiential learning’. This is what you should expect to encounter when enrolling a student. It’s messy and hard, and … it should be. 💚 #grit
(adapted from Instagram post)