{"id":45,"date":"2009-01-19T21:42:55","date_gmt":"2009-01-19T14:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/msmichetti.edublogs.org\/?p=45"},"modified":"2009-01-19T21:42:55","modified_gmt":"2009-01-19T14:42:55","slug":"is-it-easy-being-green-my-visit-to-green-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adriennemichetti.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/19\/is-it-easy-being-green-my-visit-to-green-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Is It Easy Being Green? My Visit To Green School"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just over a week ago, I had the pleasure of visiting Green School<\/a>. Green School is a new educational venture in Bali, Indonesia, and is the vision of John and Cynthia Hardy (yes, that\u2019s John Hardy<\/a> of John Hardy designs<\/a>). If you don\u2019t know anything about Green School, know this: it is a school with an ambitious and idealistic mission and vision. It is really worth checking out their website<\/a> if you\u2019ve not done so before, as my post will not go into background, history, or other details about the school. If nothing else, watch this 3 minute video, which succinctly shows the vision behind the school:<\/p>\n

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I have written about the Green School on this blog before, but back then<\/a> I was writing about a desire to visit and a missed opportunity. Shortly after that post, then-director Brad Choyt<\/a> sent me a kind e-mail inviting me to visit the next time I was in Bali. Green School also graciously posted a link to my blog on their website, an act I sincerely appreciate. I stayed in touch with Mr. Choyt since then, and so when I knew I was going to be in Bali<\/a> for a yoga retreat<\/a>, I sent him an e-mail. He responded immediately and plans were made with the Admissions Manager to arrange my visit.<\/p>\n

January 9th arrived and I made my way out to Green School with a new friend* from my yoga retreat. Ami, the Admissions Manager I had arranged the appointment with, met us at the parking lot. She was friendly, inviting, knowledgeable, and accommodating. Our tour began on the west side of the campus and ended on the east side \u2013 the campus is divided into east and west, separated by the gorgeous Ayung river. It\u2019s a beautiful eco-friendly campus filled with unique and sustainable ideas for living: compost toilets, hydropower, permaculture, you get the idea.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019m not going to write about what the campus looks like, what they\u2019re doing there, or why they\u2019re doing it: you can find out all of those things by visiting their website and doing some quick Google searches. But I will highlight some of my biggest highlights, insights, and concerns. It was a pleasant, educational, and insightful visit. Keep in mind as you read that I approached this visit not only from a holistic educational perspective, but also from an experiential teaching-learning perspective; I frequently asked myself, \u201cHow would I teach if I worked here?\u201d\u00a0 Please also keep in mind that this post is not<\/strong><\/em> intended to “report” on Green School’s progress in any way. My purpose is to share what I saw and experienced in my first visit (hopefully of many) to Green School, and to share what were for me some of the highlights, insights, and some of the Big Questions I have had since returning to Hanoi.<\/p>\n

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Sustainable Structures, Sustainable Living and Learning<\/h3>\n

One of the first questions I asked Ami was about the unusual structures we had seen upon driving into campus \u2013 what looked like giant bamboo yurts. She informed me that they were indeed bamboo yurts, and were staff and faculty housing. Whoa! Now that is something I had not seen before. I really wanted to go back and take photos, but couldn\u2019t \u2013 staff were on vacation and had not been informed that a visitor would be around taking photos, so it was a no-go. However, upon returning to Hanoi, I have discovered that theflattestcat<\/a> has photos of these yurts posted both on an old blog<\/a> and his Flickr photostream<\/a>, so go check \u2018em out. (They\u2019re not licensed under CC, so I can\u2019t reproduce them here.)<\/p>\n

Green School classrooms are\u2026 well, they\u2019re not classrooms in the traditional sense. However, they\u2019re not classrooms in the metaphorical The-World-Is-Your-Classroom sense, either. They are somewhere in between. Made of bamboo and hardened mud, they are essentially covered open-air structures, each with a cooling space. They have fans, blackboards (yes), desks, shelves, cubby spaces for storage, and more. Green School also has wireless all over campus including classrooms.<\/p>\n

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While all of this \u2013 housing, classrooms, offices made of bamboo and mud — looks really cool and I love the idea of a structure made from sustainable materials, it raises practical and logistical issues:<\/p>\n