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Arthur Morgan School Seeks Teacher/House Parent

Teacher/House Parent Job Description

Description of school: Arthur Morgan School is a small, alternative boarding and day school for 27
students in grades 7-9. Our 100 acre campus, located in the Black Mountains of North Carolina,
consists mainly of woods and meadows, with creeks and a pond; it is surrounded by National
Forest. The school fosters a loving, energetic living/learning community dedicated to supporting
individuality while teaching group cooperation. A balance is sought between academics, outdoor
activities, and meaningful work. Experiential learning and responsible participation in community
are emphasized throughout. Boarding students live in homes with two or three staff members,
and the entire community actively shares work, study, play, and decision-making.


General Responsibilities: It takes a lot of energy to work here. We have intense work
schedules–usually 60 plus hours per week. Our work calendar generally follows a conventional
school year calendar, with some additional work required during students’ breaks. AMS is staff-run
by consensus; we have no director or headmaster. All staff are expected to attend our two weekly
staff meetings, two of our four Board Meetings, and to participate in running the school
cooperatively. Everyone is also expected to attend our weekly student-run All School Meeting and
to participate in work projects with the kids. Most of the staff is also involved in planning and
leading backpacking/outdoor trips, our 18 day field trips, and any other special field trips or
projects/activities we might plan to do.

House Parenting Responsibilities: House parenting is a time-intensive position that involves living
in a boarding house with 4 to 5 students, a co-houseparent, and perhaps an intern. Both couples
and single people are considered for house parenting positions. A healthy, respectful working
relationship is key to all house parent pairs. Responsibilities of house parents include: running the
household (facilitating student’s chores, cooking meals and housework projects), identifying and
working on general care of the house and grounds (including yard work, the maintenance of the
appearance of the boarding house etc.), managing a house budget with a monthly house
allowance, helping students with homework, and having fun with the kids in daily life as well as in
special house activities. House parents act in loco parentis–in the place of parents–and fill the role
of limit setter and authority figure as well as friend and confidant. The position requires the sharing
of one’s personal space (one’s home) and one’s self (being “real”). This usually results in very strong
and rewarding relationships between house parents and the students in their homes.

Additional Responsibilities: House parenting is half of a full-time position and is combined with
other duties to create a full-time position. These other duties can include: teaching core academic
classes (Math, Science, English, Art or Social Studies) or electives (performing or visual arts,
outdoor skills, woodworking, sports and games, etc.); participating in ongoing maintenance of the
school grounds and buildings; leading sports and games; finances and administration; participation
in staff committees; fundraising and grant-writing; cooking and chore supervision. All AMS staff are
people with a variety of skills, talents, and interests, and our jobs cover a wide array of
responsibilities at the school.


Requirements: You must be committed to alternative education; be interested in learning: enjoy
being around teenagers; be able to work cooperatively with other adults; and enjoy a simple
lifestyle that includes physical work and outdoor activities. Experience in the position for which
you are applying is an asset. Willingness to learn about and work within the consensus process is
essential. Flexibility and a sense of humor are also very important. We ask for at least a two year
commitment from new staff members, as it takes a year for new staff to become acclimated to our
program.


Benefits: Staff receive room and board, and a salary of about $16,500. Most staff members have
been able to find affordable health care through the ACA.
To Apply: Please send a resume with a cover letter stating why you want to work at AMS, how
AMS fits into your on-going interests, and describing any relevant past experience. Call for specific
job descriptions, information about openings or with questions. We typically review resumes and
letters of interest every few weeks and phone interview several persons chosen from the pool of
applicants. After a positive phone interview, we invite applicants to interview in person on our
campus for two days and two nights. This visit includes time for both formal and informal
interviews with applicants and includes the opportunity for applicants to work with students and
staff as we progress through our daily schedule. During this process we are interested in staff and
student interactions with and observations of the applicant, and we are interested in the applicant’s
questions and observations of our program.

The Arthur Morgan School, Inc. is committed to equality of educational
opportunity and does not discriminate against applicants, students or
employees based on race, color, national or ethnic origin, religion or
sexual orientation or preference, gender identity or expression, or economic status.

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“Learning Loss!”


The following is a satirical piece by John Merrow about the great “learning loss” panic.
As I’ve said before, we just inadvertently experienced the Education revolution because of the pandemic. Over 50 million families in the United States and perhaps 2 billion around the world now know that they have educational choices, that they are not necessarily stuck with the local school to which they were assigned.
That means that most students and families are no longer a captive audience. They can choose to go to the local school–or not.
This seems to have given rise to a massive campaign to convince everyone that the move to various forms of homeschooling, virtual learning and other innovative approaches has led to tremendous “learning loss.” This seems to me an attempt to get their previous captive audience back. But it doesn’t seem to be working. A startling number of families are choosing not to send their children back to their previous situation.
Of course many of these virtual attempts by unprepared teachers were indeed boring and led to learning loss, because many teachers simply tried to teach the way they had in the in-person school, a talking head pushing a rigid, set curriculum. This was minus the thing that was most important to many students: peer interaction. Instead of taking advantage of the networking we have all discovered in Zoom meetings, many teachers didn’t have that as an option at all! No wonder many students hated it. During the pandemic, almost every student I’ve asked has said the only thing they missed about not going to school was the other students.
And when the representatives of the system pushed “learning loss,” they apparently have net considered or tested for the increase in creativity, responsibility, innovation, and entrepreneurism that the extra time and freedom has engendered in many students. I’ve done many consultations with parents who have been stunned but t he improvements they seen in their students in these areas. In one case, for example, a father who was not at all interested in homeschooling was amazed when he daughter said one day they she wanted to start working with the horses at the farm next door. Since then she got up every morning at dawn to work with the horses and has also be researching them on the Internet.
Let us know what you think about the idea of learning loss and we might put it in a future e newsletter. HERE’s a link to this essay if you’d like to send it to someone.
With all that in mind, HERE’s the link to John Merrow’s satirical piece.

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Speech by 17 Year Old Student

Speech Liam Berell

A standardized test is not a true measure of what a student can accomplish

We all know that feeling when you get a bad mark for a test. Your stomach sinks and the stress becomes overwhelming. What will my parents say? How will I get into a university? What did everybody else get? We start to beat ourselves up and compare our results to the rest. And through this obsession, we allow them to define us.

We are all good at something. Some of us can draw, some can surf, some can cook and not one of these skills requires being able to find the average gradient of a line. Of course education is important and don’t get me wrong, I am not at all going against it. However, I do disagree with the marking system. Marks put a label on us. All of us are expected to get amazing numbers and if we don’t we are punished. Personally I have become used to the wooden spoon so now they’ve decided to send me to extra
lessons for basically every subject- far more painful. What society fails to realize is that some of us are just not made to be doctors, lawyers or accountants. This situation fits perfectly with the quote “ Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid ” Many of us just were not created to get good marks and when we are judged off of them, we believe that we are stupid.

For those of you who know me, I have grown a burning passion for photography and videography, however, I have always looked at it as something I can only do on the side. I can’t say I have got 83% for photography but I can assure you that I am pretty good at it. The funny thing is I didn’t learn how to take photos or edit videos by writing tests. I learnt through a genuine passion and urge to learn about something that I really enjoyed. This is precisely the opposite of what marks teach us. Marks teach us that we don’t have a choice. They shape our understanding that we have to be good with numbers and words otherwise we will not get anywhere in our futures. We are never taught to do what we are passionate about or what we are actually skilled at. As a result, a lot of us fall into the 9 to 5, get married, have kids and settle down kind of life. Not that there is anything wrong with this, there are plenty of people who live this life and are happy, but a lot of us feel that we have to live like this, while actually we seek a more adventurous and spontaneous life which is not as planned out.

I read the other day that around 32% of students in a school have depression and 27% of it is caused by school stress. As a student, our stress levels are always through the roof and with stress there is depression. We are constantly trying to do well in school on top of doing homework on top of playing sports and on top of having a social life. Many of us become obsessed with getting good marks because that is what we are told to do and as a result we often begin to move away from certain things that make us happy or what we are actually good

at. Bad marks also cause us to believe that we are worthless compared to everyone else. We become highly critical of ourselves and some of us lose motivation to try and do anything at all. I have become a victim of this and I have found that my obsession over my marks drives me away from photography and hanging out with my friends.

What do marks actually measure? To be honest I don’t think that most of us even understand the work we are taught. We are loaded with so much information that we end up parrot learning everything for a test and forget all of it by the next week. Most of the information isn’t applied into our lives either and so none of it sticks. I’m also one of those people who get really stressed before a test which often results in a bad mark. Not because I don’t know what to say but because I read incorrectly or I forgot to put something in my answer. Surely that is not a true measurement of what I can achieve.

Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg, Charles Dickens and so many more dropped out of school. They realised that school didn’t teach them what they needed to know and so they dropped out to become extremely successful people. I’m not trying to say that dropping out of school is the answer because for every one successful drop out there are hundreds that have remained unemployed, bankrupted themselves, lost everything. Marks have proven to be the safest way to secure a future, even if it is a future you may not have dreamt for yourself. However, I am telling you that your standardised test marks do not measure what you can accomplish.

So now the question is, how do we change the marking system? Through some research, I found an academic system called Ungrading. In this process, work is marked as it traditionally has been, then, through revision and repetition, is gradually improved. Eventually ‘lesser’ performance is replaced by better work, but without the marks. Schools should also start to offer a broader range of subjects and renew the current education system to be more relevant. Students are then able to choose subjects more suited to them and learn helpful knowledge and skills which they will be able to apply to their lives

So a message for my peers is don’t worry so much about your marks. I know most of us have strict parents and stressful teachers and the mark system probably won’t change anytime soon however you all have that one thing that you’re good at. Keep working at it and remember that a standardized test is not a true measure of what you can accomplish.

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PART-TIME MATH EDUCATOR AT PONO

Pono is currently looking for a part-time teacher to lead virtual math lessons for small groups of students, ages 11 to 15. A background in mathematics education and experience teaching math are required. Compensation depends on education and experience.

This position needs to be filled by April 1, 2021.

To apply to any of our open positions, submit a cover letter, current resume, and any additional information you think we should consider in evaluating you as a candidate. Strong applications will address the following questions:

  • What makes you a good fit for Pono?
  • What makes you a strong candidate for this position?
  • What support would you need to excel in the position?

All inquiries and materials are to be submitted electronically to Dr. Maysaa Bazna.