The equipment has been cleaned and put away.

The bus has been parked until next Winter.

The trailer has been parked until next Winter.

Unfortunately they don't rest together, attached.  

I am sure they are lonely.

    And so it goes, another epically successful Mountain Classroom year.  In the Winter we followed the southern route to California passing through New Orleans, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Mexico.  We studied the border region, met people, and contemplated the dynamic (and perhaps opposing) perspectives that encircle the border.  In the Spring we followed a northeastern route from California through Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, South Dakota and Michigan.   We studied resource management, specifically looking at water, energy and agriculture.  We came face to face with our nation's past, present and possible future.

    Mountain Classroom is such a rich and powerful experience - both for the students and the Instructors.  The philosophical underpinning of the program - and that of its parent, Proctor Academy - is that experiential learning is one of the most dynamic ways to internalize, reflect, grow and ultimately act more responsibly in life.  What a rare gift it is to be a part of an education program that deliberately employs the experiential learning cycle - bringing reflective attention to one's actions, feelings, motivations and reasons for being.  

    Complementary to those intentions, Mountain Classroom fosters a sense of community - a closeness, a bond, a family.  It offers understanding, listening, discipline and attention as the tools for all of us to sharpen in service of creating a world we wish to live in together.  In the end, twenty-two weeks of experiential learning is but a short amount of time to invest towards this aim, but perhaps it teaches us where we all still have to grow, where we are strong - and demonstrates that the future is, indeed, what we make it.

    Thanks to friends and family who have supported us along the way and to all the people we have met who have offered their wisdom and perspective. We are so grateful.  The Mountain Classroom blog will be actively back online in Fall 2009 as we prepare to do it all over again....

And in case you were following the code, the answer is: MT CLASSROOM!

Have a great summer!