The Friday before Halloween, we had a lively campus full of creative costumes, storytelling, decorating pumpkins, pizza, candy, and a high school scavenger hunt! Enjoy this short Halloween video.
Continuing with what has become a yearly tradition, elementary and middle school Spanish teacher Eva has created a colorful Día de los Muertos altar by the Main House. This week, students have decorated sweets to add to the altar and are also placing photos there of loved ones who have passed away. Also displayed is student artwork created in commemoration of this tradition.
Why does Oak Grove have so many rocking chairs around campus? The benefits of rocking chairs are not just for lulling infants to sleep or helping the elderly gently relax. All people benefit from rocking. Research shows that the rocking motion engages the parasympathetic nervous system and releases endorphins to self-regulate the brain state.
The California Department of Public Health approved our COVID-19 mitigation plans to allow in-person instruction for our high school and middle school students.
The 2020 Peace Day Universal Declaration, as set forth by the United Nations, reads: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person.” Rather than holding an all-school event on our campus, as we have done in previous years, over the last week our teachers have been celebrating this year’s Peace Day within the classroom curriculum. Although an anti-bias curriculum is woven throughout everyday learning at Oak Grove, teachers are dedicating more explicit time to anti-bias activities and discussions.
Our anti-bias approach to curriculum aligns with Krishnamurti’s directive to examine our own conditioning. Given the depth and complicated nature of the problem, looking at how we (I) actively engage in image-making, biases, and prejudices, it takes courage and vulnerability to confront these issues in an educational setting.
The idea is not that we rid ourselves of biases, which is likely not possible, but for each of us to understand our own thinking. We must understand our own conditioning, how our own biases, our own image-making, contributes to conflict, to the suffering of others.
For children to grow aware of, even resistant to, conditioning, they must feel safe and understood. They must be able to ask practical and perennial questions alike, engage in rigorous intellectual explorations, and nurture the awareness of being sensitive to the world outside them, as well as the world within. Once we understand our own thinking, we are able to see how that thinking can unconsciously guide our actions.
As eloquently stated by John Lewis, “We in the movement decided to actualize our belief that the hatred we experienced was not based on any truth, but was actually an illusion in the minds of those who hated us.” Without justice there can be no peace.
See what Krishnamurti has said about image-making.
Jodi Grass
Head of School
Our first Parent Education workshop in the series of the year looked a little different, but the content was equally impactful. Organized and facilitated by High School history teacher Will Hornblower, Parent Education Workshops have been an incredible resource, and have recently been made available to the greater community.
On Thursday, May 28, 2020, the Ojai Chautauqua formed a panel to discuss this question in front of a live streaming audience.
In the words of the Agora Foundation: These are unprecedented times, and it’s unclear whether the worst is behind us. A vast majority of schools, at every educational level, have ceased on-site programs for the remainder of the school year. Many schools are also hesitant to set any definite plans for fall 2020, with so much still uncertain. In the meantime, most public and private institutions have moved to online learning and alternative approaches, with varying levels of success.
What is the best thinking in online learning, and where are schools finding success? How are institutions looking at structural change in order to stay viable and effective? How are leaders thinking about the future intersection of K-12 and higher education? How will fields that have in-person practicum requirements fulfill their training? What are schools that rely on international students planning to do next school year? Will job training reorient to high-demand fields on a national scale?
Panelists:
Jodi Grass – Head of Oak Grove School
Erika Beck – President of CSU Channel Islands
Paul Lazenby – Director of Mother of Divine Grace School
Tiffany Morse – Superintendent of Ojai Unified School District
Moderator: Tom Krause, Board President of the Agora Foundation
Ojai Chautauqua (external link)
In recent years, a greater global understanding of both environmental concerns and the measures necessary to prevent them has occurred.
The coronavirus has wreaked havoc worldwide, from social distancing to overcrowded hospitals, to over 88,000 deaths across the nation. But even in darkness, there is light, and even in the worst tragedies, there is always a bit of hope.
When one of my family members asked me to explain my quarantine experience in one word, I said “grateful.” I chose this word because quarantine has made me aware of how much I had taken for granted, such as a loving school community, relationships with people, physical touch, fresh produce, my family having stable jobs, nature, and oddly enough, toilet paper!
CONTACT OAK GROVE
Oak Grove School of the Krishnamurti Foundation of America
CALL: 805 646 8236
EMAIL: info@oakgroveschool.org
MAIL: 220 West Lomita Avenue
Ojai, California 93023-2244
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Oak Grove School does not discriminate on the basis of any individual or group identity characteristics, such as but not limited to race, color, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, national or ethnic origin, differing mental or physical abilities, or family structure in the administration of its educational or admissions policies, employment practices, scholarship, and other school-administered programs. View the unabridged policy.
