John Hardy and his wife Cynthia conceived the 'Green School', an amazing educational village amongst the jungle and rice fields of Bali in Indonesia, to spread their vision and ideas on sustainable living through an alternative education system to locals and foreigners. Hardy explained, "We are building Green School to create a new paradigm for learning. We want children to cultivate physical sensibilities that will enable them to adapt and be capable in the world. We want children to develop spiritual awareness and emotional intuition, and to encourage them to be in awe of life’s possibilities.”
Green School sits on 23 acres of lush green, tropical landscape. Bali’s terrain ranges from volcanoes and jungles to reefs, rivers and the ocean, turning the school into an amazing ecological classroom. Open space surrounding the school, has been planted with organic fruit, vegetable gardens and rice paddies. The school is constructed using natural and renewable material primarily bamboo. The bamboo classrooms house students from pre kindergarten to 11th grade. There are about 300 students currently. The Heart of School houses the library, the administrative offices, and a few classrooms.
The school’s mission statement reads “Empowering global citizens and green innovators who are inspired to take responsibility for the sustainability of the world.” The administration is always on the look out for finding new ways to incorporate sustainable energy. Cynthia would like students to incorporate physical interaction with the land: “Kids will take responsibility over pieces of land,” Cynthia says. “They will work the land, cultivate seedlings, plant the seedlings, weed the rice fields. When the rice is fully grown, they will cut it, thresh it, take it to the mill. They will see brown rice and compare it to white rice. They will look at the weight, the cost, the world price versus the subsidized price, how many hours it took to make, how nutritious it is. Students also learn how to make soap from coconuts, chairs and charcoal from other natural resources." Their vision aims at complete, sustainable learning experience revolving around what is naturally available on Earth, and using that to both create and conserve.
Green School’s goal is that students will be endowed with academic skills and global awareness, taking with them ideas of possible ways to continue developing the planet in sustainable ways.
Green School - Sustainability features:
* Structures are built from renewably, locally sourced bamboo, from the roof and walls to the blackboards and chairs. Roofs are made of alang-alang thatch.
* Working towards using 100 percent renewable energy, using photovoltaic panels, a micro-hydro-powered vortex generator, and bio-gas (methane extracted from animal manure) instead of bio-diesel.
* Bamboo sawdust is used to power the water heating and cooking systems.
* Walking paths are constructed with stones, rather than cement or asphalt surfaces.
* The roads are volcanic rock and walkways are gravel
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| John and Cynthia Hardy |
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| Green School |
