Education can't save us.
We have to save education.
~ Dr. Bettina Love
Before we speak to this design, we must deconstruct what education and school mean in order to better understand education’s role in building regenerative culture. Education itself creates culture. It is how we embody, pass down, and share information. The purpose of vitality-centered educational design is to grow and maintain vitality, starting with the individual, eventually creating more vital communities and culture, where all people are connected to the vitality within, between and around them.
Education is not school. Education occurs constantly; it is how we learn and live. “School” is a particular context where education occurs. We all go through “school” in some form as we go through childhood, adolescence, and for some, even further; which means that education is the greatest cultural leverage point we have to create regenerative culture. Springhouse is a prototype of Sourced Design, the home of the model, and a school where vitality-centered development is supported in an individual, a community, and a culture. It is where we learn to be builders of regenerative culture, including learning how to share this model with others.
When human development is supported in ways that intentionally take care of life, we call this vitality-centered educational design. This design has four components and supports us in our development over time:
A vitality-centered educational design intentionally takes care of life and fosters vitality in a person, community, and place, eventually growing a culture that thrives. This design supports vitality-centered development, beginning at the center of the model with the individual. When vitality-centered development is supported in a person, we cultivate personhood. When supported in a community, we build beloved community. When we practice this in place over time, we align more closely with how the Earth works and from that alignment, we remember the wisdom that the Earth has to offer us. This remembering can inform, and must inform, human social and cultural design.
Vitality-centered educational design begins with supporting development in the stage a human being is in. In each stage, a person has what they need to support them in fully inhabiting this stage of development. A person’s transition is marked by a community-initiated rite of passage to honor the growth of the individual and their passage from one stage of development to the next. Defining qualities of vitality-centered educational design include:
Curriculum is different from the design and is not only applicable to a school setting. We do not only teach and learn in schools. Curriculum is how we teach and learn, specific to people and a place, and vitality-centered educational design informs curriculum with the purpose of taking care of and fostering vitality. The specifics of the curriculum created from this vitality-centered educational design are unique to the people creating it in their places. Springhouse has a curriculum that can be used to inspire or even to replicate when it comes to bringing vitality-centered education to a context. However, it is important to note that when this model is practiced by a community seeking to grow vitality, what rises from that community will be unique to that community and place.
This educational design prioritizes the knowledge needed for adolescents and adults to build a vital culture in the following categories – Self, Culture, and Earth – as they relate to regenerative culture-building. Find the vitality-centered educational design areas of study for teens and adults here.
Springhouse: A Living Example
Vitality cannot be defined, but we still know its presence. We know when we feel alive, and this does not mean happy. We feel our lives in all kinds of ways. Vitality-centered education is about coming to know deeply the gift of this life and taking care of it.
Springhouse is an example of what is possible when vitality is at the center of educational design. In 2013, from the rich community and landscape of Floyd, Virginia, and the care of those who deeply longed for a more vital and creative culture, Springhouse emerged. Now with a vibrant and devoted community to tend to it, Springhouse thrives as an exemplar in vitality-centered education.
Springhouse envisions a regenerative culture where all people are connected to the vitality within themselves, their community, and the Earth. Our mission is to awaken a vitality-centered education that empowers people to courageously respond to the world's emerging needs. Springhouse offers a day school program for adolescents, coming of age programs for pre-teens and teens, adult development programs that strengthen our communities, and a network of support for vitality-centered practitioners globally.
At Springhouse, we have seen what happens when vitality is placed at the center of the design. Awakening vitality within ourselves, and within the community, strengthens our capacity to courageously respond to the world's emerging needs. In a place where vitality is at the center, the love is palpable. Creativity, resiliency, and connection (to name a few) are more readily accessible. At Springhouse, learners of all ages actively engage in experiences oriented around vitality, like building a 22-foot sailboat or organizing community conversations on race. All involved know that becoming more vibrant and courageous people is what the world needs. With a vitality-centered educational design, success ultimately is determined by a learner’s (no matter the age) continued commitment to respecting and cultivating life in themselves, their communities, and with regard to the Earth.
Education is not school. Education occurs constantly; it is how we learn and live. “School” is a particular context where education occurs. We all go through “school” in some form as we go through childhood, adolescence, and for some, even further; which means that education is the greatest cultural leverage point we have to create regenerative culture. Springhouse is a prototype of Sourced Design, the home of the model, and a school where vitality-centered development is supported in an individual, a community, and a culture. It is where we learn to be builders of regenerative culture, including learning how to share this model with others.
When human development is supported in ways that intentionally take care of life, we call this vitality-centered educational design. This design has four components and supports us in our development over time:
- Knowledge: Learning from others about the relationship between self, culture, and the Earth in the context of degenerative and regenerative culture;
- Fortification: Developing ways to fortify ourselves in the practice of this model;
- Practice: Practicing the skills needed to build life-giving culture, and
- Reflection: Regularly giving and receiving feedback to learn and grow.
A vitality-centered educational design intentionally takes care of life and fosters vitality in a person, community, and place, eventually growing a culture that thrives. This design supports vitality-centered development, beginning at the center of the model with the individual. When vitality-centered development is supported in a person, we cultivate personhood. When supported in a community, we build beloved community. When we practice this in place over time, we align more closely with how the Earth works and from that alignment, we remember the wisdom that the Earth has to offer us. This remembering can inform, and must inform, human social and cultural design.
Vitality-centered educational design begins with supporting development in the stage a human being is in. In each stage, a person has what they need to support them in fully inhabiting this stage of development. A person’s transition is marked by a community-initiated rite of passage to honor the growth of the individual and their passage from one stage of development to the next. Defining qualities of vitality-centered educational design include:
- Centers life and fosters vitality, starting with the adults designing the curriculum who commit to their own personal vitality-centered development and to intentionally taking care of the relationships within the team;
- Supports vitality-centered development in the various stages of human life and in community and culture; and
- Strengthens the qualities needed to build and live in regenerative culture through its four essential design elements: Knowledge, Fortification, Practice, and Reflection.
Curriculum is different from the design and is not only applicable to a school setting. We do not only teach and learn in schools. Curriculum is how we teach and learn, specific to people and a place, and vitality-centered educational design informs curriculum with the purpose of taking care of and fostering vitality. The specifics of the curriculum created from this vitality-centered educational design are unique to the people creating it in their places. Springhouse has a curriculum that can be used to inspire or even to replicate when it comes to bringing vitality-centered education to a context. However, it is important to note that when this model is practiced by a community seeking to grow vitality, what rises from that community will be unique to that community and place.
This educational design prioritizes the knowledge needed for adolescents and adults to build a vital culture in the following categories – Self, Culture, and Earth – as they relate to regenerative culture-building. Find the vitality-centered educational design areas of study for teens and adults here.
Springhouse: A Living Example
Vitality cannot be defined, but we still know its presence. We know when we feel alive, and this does not mean happy. We feel our lives in all kinds of ways. Vitality-centered education is about coming to know deeply the gift of this life and taking care of it.
Springhouse is an example of what is possible when vitality is at the center of educational design. In 2013, from the rich community and landscape of Floyd, Virginia, and the care of those who deeply longed for a more vital and creative culture, Springhouse emerged. Now with a vibrant and devoted community to tend to it, Springhouse thrives as an exemplar in vitality-centered education.
Springhouse envisions a regenerative culture where all people are connected to the vitality within themselves, their community, and the Earth. Our mission is to awaken a vitality-centered education that empowers people to courageously respond to the world's emerging needs. Springhouse offers a day school program for adolescents, coming of age programs for pre-teens and teens, adult development programs that strengthen our communities, and a network of support for vitality-centered practitioners globally.
At Springhouse, we have seen what happens when vitality is placed at the center of the design. Awakening vitality within ourselves, and within the community, strengthens our capacity to courageously respond to the world's emerging needs. In a place where vitality is at the center, the love is palpable. Creativity, resiliency, and connection (to name a few) are more readily accessible. At Springhouse, learners of all ages actively engage in experiences oriented around vitality, like building a 22-foot sailboat or organizing community conversations on race. All involved know that becoming more vibrant and courageous people is what the world needs. With a vitality-centered educational design, success ultimately is determined by a learner’s (no matter the age) continued commitment to respecting and cultivating life in themselves, their communities, and with regard to the Earth.
Foundational Resources
- Sustainable Education: Re-envisioning Learning and Change, Stephen Sterling
- We Want to do More than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom, Dr. Bettina Love
- Schooled by Democracy, Scene On Radio
- Education Regeneration Reflecting on the Skeleton Woman Story, Dr. Jenny Finn
- Know Yourself: Change Your World, Parker Palmer
Further Resources
- Continuing the Conversation: Recovering the Sacred in Education, Dr. Jenny Fin
- Seed and Spark, Sam Chaltain
- The Power to Transform: Leadership That Brings Learning and Schooling to Life, Dr. Stephanie Pace Marshall
- Bringing Schools Back to Life by Meg Wheatley
- How to escape education's death valley | Sir Ken Robinson
- Sir Ken Robinson Compares Human Organisations to Organisms: Education Is A Dynamic System
- Experience And Education, John Dewey
- We Make the Road by Walking Conversations on Education and Social Change, Paulo Friere and Myles Horton
Springhouse Examples
- Springhouse is engaged in whole system education design change.
- Springhouse Vitality-Centered Educational Design
- Springhouse Teen Program- Website Page
- Relearn Festival- Jenny Finn and Springhouse Learners
- Creative Bravery Festival- with Jenny and Springhouse Learners
- Capitalizing on the Natural Structures of Freedom by Jenny Finn
- Springhouse Media Links (This link includes many stories about Springhouse that have been in the media)
- Springhouse Webpage
- Generative Economic Model – Springhouse
- Springhouse Community School has Moved to a New Building | Floyd Virginia Magazine
- Springhouse community gathers to 'bless' new space
- Unique Schools: Alternative to public school in Floyd County
- Responding to the World's Emerging Needs
- Springhouse has offered many unique and relevant learning opportunities over the past nine years including:
- Building a 22-foot sailboat in the Apprenticeship program
- Math Done Differently
- Hydrogen Car Building and Racing in Florida:
- Exploring social issues through theater
- Design Thinking Opportunities
- Springhouse takes three All-School trips a year. Here are some examples:
- Learner Centered Leaders Invest Time in Developing Deep Connected Relationships
- Springhouse Downtown Ribbon Cutting with Local Chamber of Commerce
- 2022-2023 Springhouse Day School Handbook
- 89-year-old Rhoda Kemp builds her first banjo | Arts | roanoke.com
- Learner Blog Post about Apprenticeship Program
- Springhouse offers opportunities to our students to more deeply know themselves in community.
- Spark Series: Jenny Finn and Springhouse School
- Rites of Passage Interviews with Teens and Staff
- A Graduate Story
- Awakening the High School Learner: Vulnerability and Vitality Pedagogy at the Springhouse Community School
- Springhouse gets stronger | The Floyd Press | swvatoday.com
- What Made Them So Prepared: Research Findings of Next Generation Learning
- How Our Creativity and Resilience Can Build Stronger and Wiser Communities - Education Reimagined
- Springhouse is a school that equips learners to more courageously respond to the world's emerging needs. These examples relate to some of the Springhouse climate change efforts:
- Springhouse is “open-walled” in that learning extends well beyond the school building. Our entire model and its five principles reflect the understanding that learning happens everywhere.
- Throughout its educational design, Springhouse empowers learners to use their agency and creative autonomy in their learning. These invitations are developmentally appropriate. The following examples are structure that support the agency and self direction of our final year learners:
- Springhouse shares Sourced Design locally to support educators and community leaders globally in building regenerative culture one person at a time.
Reflection questions
- Do you embody what you hope for in our culture? If so, how? If not, why not?
- Are there particular gifts that the place or the community you are in holds, like fertile soil, that can help what you are called to bring forth grow?
- After viewing the Springhouse examples shared here, do you have any questions?
- What inspires you about Springhouse?
- Are there Springhouse practices you could see trying in your community? If so, why? Some that you couldn't? If so why?
- What questions do you have for Springhouse after reviewing the resources and examples?
Quick Links
Regenerative Culture
Take care of vulnerability
Cultivate personhood
Build beloved community
Respect the wisdom of the Earth
Love and serve others.
Regenerative Culture
Take care of vulnerability
Cultivate personhood
Build beloved community
Respect the wisdom of the Earth
Love and serve others.