The Oak Grove School
High school students learning outdoors. Students and staff school-wide follow Safely-on-Campus
The Oak Grove School was established in 1975 by the Krishnamurti Foundation of America (KFA). That year Krishnamurti wrote the following statement of intent, which later became the “The Intent of the Krishnamurti Schools”
The Intent of Oak Grove School – By J.Krishnamurti
It is becoming more and more important in a world that is destructive and degenerative that there should be a place, an oasis, where one can learn a way of living that is whole, sane, and intelligent. Education in the modern world has been concerned with the cultivation not of intelligence, but intellect, of memory and its skills. In this process little occurs beyond passing information from the teacher to the taught, the leader to the follower, bringing about a superficial and mechanical way of life. In this there is little human relationship. Surely a school is a place where one learns about the totality, the wholeness of life….
.
Inspired by this intent and statement of philosophy left by the school’s founder J. Krishnamurti, the mission of Oak Grove School is to assist students in developing those qualities of mind, heart, and body that will enable them to function with excellence, care and responsibility in the modern world. In addition, it is the intention of the school to offer a place where the whole community can inquire together into the perennial questions of humankind and explore an approach to life that is whole, mindful and intelligent. Learn more at oakgroveschool.org.
The young are inheriting a complex world. It is a world in which rapid technological progress goes hand-in-hand with environmental, social, economic and political crises. Must the young take the world as it is, accepting an education that enables them to ‘fit in’ to society, or can they learn to question deeply what they see and respond creatively out of a sense of personal integrity that enables them to meet whatever life may bring?
Our children will face a future that we can hardly imagine, one that will require them to adapt, change course, change jobs, make room for the new and hold multiple perspectives in play. A traditional education that simply requires students to take in information and retain it for testing just won’t do. We are increasingly called upon to recognize ourselves as members of an inter-dependent world community with responsibilities to the whole, not just our small part. As our founder J. Krishnamurti pointed out – we are the world.
We feel passionately that students need an approach to education that captivates student interest and helps them develop the life-long practices of self-discipline, hard work, commitment, and stick-to-itiveness as well as those more subtle practices of looking at problems from multiple perspectives, grappling with ambiguity and recognizing that the truth of things needs deep and abiding exploration. For that reason our curriculum offers opportunities for inquiry and project-based learning and we augment traditional testing with authentic assessment practices such as portfolios, demonstrations of learning and exhibitions. Our teachers are facilitators and coaches, emphasizing depth over coverage, and our students are empowered with self-responsibility and ownership of their own learning.
At Oak Grove School we are committed to educating young people to meet life as a whole. Academic excellence is absolutely necessary, but equal importance is given to an ongoing inquiry into the way we live our daily lives. Within the caring environment of Oak Grove School, students are encouraged to reflect on their own thoughts, feelings and actions and on those of others. Oak Grove offers a setting where students and staff can learn to live and work together harmoniously and intelligently. This process is liberating, for with growth in awareness and understanding of our behavior we can discover the immense potential of life and our possibility of living it to the fullest.