EDUCATION
g in g r Fo the future
A Radical New School Opens in Bend By Nicole Blume Photos by Natalie Stephenson
IMAGINE AN ALTERNATIVE
I
magine your child’s day: They wake up, wolf down breakfast, get dressed and then head off to school-only “school” isn’t inside a fluorescent-lit, rectangular box. School takes place inside a traditional Native American tipi, replete with heated floors, swivel chair desks, a modern whiteboard and two teachers whose effervescence fills the room. Outside the tipi, a white rescue horse meanders around the loosely fenced pasture. A zipline runs straight across a sparkling pond, where a family of ducks has made its home. Kayaking, paddle boarding and climbing are popular daily activities. A state-of-the-art innovation lab completes the outfit. Kids program LEGO robots, shoot photos, draft architectural plans for a chicken coop, operate sewing machines, engage in woodworking, welding, geographical orienteering, digital design and a myriad of other projects, each inspired by the student’s intrinsic interest in learning. Within this model, each child is encouraged to follow their own path that, in the words of the school’s entrepreneurial founders, Carolyn and Geoff Helt, “unlocks their genius.”
Fridays are dedicated to individual projects known as the child’s “GPS”—their Genius, Passion, Spark. Within the model, experts and artists in residence are brought in to help facilitate and advise. “Our guiding mantra is: we don’t ask if you are smart,” says Carolyn, “We ask how you are smart.”
A NEW SCHOOL
This school might just sound too magical to be true. Yet tucked away on an 11-acre property in the Old Farm District, such a school, called Forge, exists. This radical, avant-garde model proudly proclaims itself as a “paradigm shift” in education, and in every way it is. There are no tests, textbooks, recess bells or assessment standards, no pre-packaged curriculum and no checking of boxes. This school consciously does everything differently. “As a parent you start to get really clear about who your kids are, how they learn and what they need to thrive in the world. Unfortunately, that clarity does not mesh with traditional school,” says Geoff Helt. “There is no symmetry in public schools relative to how kids actually learn and what tools they need to be leaders in this world. Whether those traditional schools are public, private or charter, they teach to the common core, and that’s troubling…It is so past time for new ways of thinking in education.” Determined to change the arc of their two sons’ education, in 2020 the Helts hired their youngest son’s 3rd grade teacher, Jackie LaFrenz, to launch Forge. Jackie LaFrenz began her career teaching in a one-room, mixed-age schoolhouse outside of Yellowstone, before relocating to Bend to help start the Seven Peaks School and then later, Powell Butte Community Charter School.
Forge instructor, Todd LaFrenz, demonstrates a lesson inside the classroom.
24 | BendNest.com
