| From Strugglingteens.com Visit Reports New Zealand's Community of Education and Learning
The second foundation for his vision dates back to his youth and his positive experiences while living in Campbell Park in New Zealand's south island. Campbell Park is an 1100+ acre estate that offers the warm feeling of a community, partly because it already incorporates all the elements of a self-contained community. It is fully equipped with dormitories, living areas, staff homes, classrooms, indoor gym, indoor pool, outdoor sports courts, fields, etc. It is operational with opportunities for young men to work with viticulture/ horticulture orchards, automotive repair and restoration, woodworking labs, and fully operating sheep and cattle farms. The outdoor component of the school will include hiking, camping, water sports, climbing and exploring. Campbell Park has virtually everything available that a student might need for a well-rounded education. My walks across the campus were always pleasant, similar to walking around a small town where everybody knows everybody else. There was a sense of community. The third foundation is New Zealand's abundance of outdoor natural resources as well as its slow and healthy lifestyle. The people of New Zealand appear accepting and appreciative of the curious nature of young people, which will support the learning and growing of young men in the country's healthy atmosphere and bi-cultural tolerance. In many ways, the New Zealand culture seems to be what the rest of the world used to be in an earlier and safer era. Additionally, within a three-hour drive of Campbell Park, the students can experience ocean beaches and lagoons, mountains that tower up to 12,000 feet above sea level, geological and archeological sites, abundant boating and fishing opportunities, rock climbing and much more. As an aside, and for a view of the countryside near Campbell Park, much of the Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed near the Estates showing the mountains the students will have access to. For the Lord of the Rings fan, there are tours of the major sites that were used in the filming, something some students might want to explore. Plans are to open enrollment later this year for young men, ages 16-19. This will not be a Special Needs school or a school for students with behavioral/ emotional problems. The students the school wants to work with are much like Nathan was at that age, capable young men who may be performing below potential, struggling within traditional academic settings and/ or tired of the material trappings of metropolitan lifestyles.
Once a student has graduated from the Campbell Park School, the way is open to stay in New Zealand for college since the School has been working with quality local colleges and universities that will allow the graduate an easy transfer. In addition, those college level schools are willing and able to provide helpful resources for students working on projects that require well-equipped college resources.
The vision for the Community of Education and Learning at Campbell Park is for a school that succeeds in providing the challenges that bright young men need, and a school able to provide for individual differences in interests and abilities in an environment that is safe both physically and in personal growth. The goal is to offer an experience that prepares them for a future in the global 21st century. An appropriate student would be one who is functioning in a more or less positive manner, but looking for more ways to test and experience life and all the challenges that come with that. Campbell Park's philosophy is found within an old Chinese Proverb: "Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I will understand." © Copyright 2012 by Woodbury Reports, Inc. |
