How this Climb Began

There’s lots of beginnings that brought the founding of this school into my life, but the one I’d like to focus on here is a conversation I had with a member of my son’s mental health team on a random spring day. My son and I arrived to meet this person after school. I don’t even really remember what I’d said about my son’s school day, I’m sure I was sharing some type of struggle. There was always a struggle to share when it came to school and my son. What made this day different is that this team member mentioned how similar school is to prison.

In the days and weeks that followed I couldn’t get that out of my mind. It was something I’d never considered, but once I went down that rabbit hole I saw how true it is. I spent time looking this up on Google, and ultimately found the book “Free to Learn” by Peter Gray. While reading this book I was introduced to the Subduby Valley School (https://sudburyvalley.org/) . My eyes were opened to so many things, and I wanted more than anything to provide something different, because as someone working in education, I’ve seen first hand that the traditional model of education is failing a lot of kids (in addition to causing those working in the profession to burn out).

The other piece of this that I feel is important to take note of is that for years before this, in the MANY meetings I had with staff at my son’s schools (there were 5 in his 8 years of traditional education), I often found myself saying “I don’t care if he learns anything academic while he’s at school. What good will any of that academic knowledge be if he ends up in a prison cell because he doesn’t have the social skills to manage the difficult situations in life?” In all the times I’d said this, I’d never considered that I already was sending my son to a prison-like place. I realize now how true it is. School is like prison, and I honestly don’t want that for any child. There is a better, more freeing way to learn, and that’s what The Everest School is all about.