Our Program

Courses | Service Learning | Shared Work | Sustainability Projects
Wilderness Trip | Supplemental Activites

"For the past three months, I have been living and breathing the kind of education that I have sought, the kind that will open up doors for me and change my life forever.  I have been pushed to the edge both mentally and physically, but have never been tempted to shy away from it.  I have given up the traditional freedoms of a high school teen in order to discover what true freedom looks like.  I have learned from my fellow students as I have from my teachers, because we all live, eat, play, struggle, and work together.  I have experienced the joy and burden of self-government, and I refuse to hand my education back into someone else's hands.  I have never before felt the same sense of empowerment and joy in the work that I do, because it is my work, and I have chosen to undertake it."
~Jesse Bradford, Fall 2005

The academic program is the core of the student's experience at the Woolman Semester.  Students bring curiosity and a desire to be challenged to the program, and are rewarded with a learning opportunity that is different from a typical education in both intention and content.

The central tenet of the Woolman education is that learning happens through inquiry. Exploration takes place in multiple environments throughout the day, from energetic discussions of poetry and literature in the Peace Studies class, to an afternoon field lab examining plant diversity in the Ponderosa pine forest on campus.  The Wilderness Week and the Service Learning trip offer off-campus, interdisciplinary opportunities for the students to interact with each other and with the unfamiliar. Both in and out of the classroom, students learn to take leadership roles in facilitating both their own learning and that of their peers.

At the heart of the Woolman Semester are the themes of peace, justice, and sustainability.  Students are challenged to think about world issues such as economic globalization; water, oil and resource management; the War on Terror; democracy movements; and others, by critically looking at history and events today with an eye towards how positive change has been created by individuals and movements.

Students explore these issues while building reading, writing and speaking skills that serve them well beyond the boundaries of the semester. Students practice public speaking daily in both formal and informal contexts. Texts are read and digested in the evenings alone or in company with other students, and then explored to new levels in classes where both the students and teachers act as guides. Writing skills are practiced extensively, with clarity and concision encouraged through drafts and peer editing.

The social justice-oriented themes often spill outside of the boundaries of the classroom as current events unfold in the world around us. Students have the opportunity to speak on the local radio station about issues that concern them. It is not uncommon for the whole school to attend rallies, city council meetings on academically relevant topics, or to present research at various local fairs and forums.

Learning goes far beyond the classroom at the Woolman Semester, as students actively engage in the community as we strive to walk our talk. In fact, every aspect of the Woolman Semester is in some way related to the curriculum and our vision of peace, justice and sustainable living.