Anyone who has experienced a moment of delight with another person as they grasp a new skill or concept knows what learning looks and feels like.
Their delight in that moment of insight is our delight, and all the more if we had some kind of helping hand in it. It’s a little spark of joy that illuminates both learner and witness for a moment.
Those moments of spark are not an all-day feeling. The vast majority of our time is spent in the challenge, the figuring-out, whether it's how to get to the next level in the video game, or the toddler figuring out how to click their own carseat, or how to make your glider fly straight. Mostly, we're a little bit frustrated. That's also what learning looks like, ideally peppered with enough sparks to keep our enthusiasm up.
The role of the adults at LightHouse is to create the conditions where exploration and discovery feel possible, and to support each young person to define and structure appropriately frustrating challenges that will result in just the right number of motivating sparks.
The whole thing is more like gardening than what we typically think of as "teaching." Plants want to grow. It's their nature. You don't have to make them. What you have to do, as a gardener, is to create the right conditions for growth to happen; enough wind and weather to develop inner strength, but not so much that the shoots are flattened. The analogy goes on. Enough light and water, but not too much...
The plant knows what it is and what it can produce- it's coded into the seed. The idea of a watermelon or a sunflower or a ginko tree is both unfathomable and somewhat preposterous when holding an unknown seed. The only thing that we can know, and must believe, is that each seed has it's own blueprint and innate potential to express its unique beauty.
We believe that not only does this potential exist, but that the entire world benefits from its expression as a vital contribution to our infinitely vast ecosystem. The expression is a benefit to the individual plant (or child), to be sure, but it's also an essential benefit to our interconnected human community in ways that we can neither predict nor fully understand.
We believe that the goal of a learning space, commonly known as "school," is to create the conditions where growth and flowering are supported.
On the mission page of our website, toward the bottom you'll find a section called We Believe. One of the statements is: "As adults working with young people, we should mostly strive to “make possible” rather than “make sure.”
Thanks for joining us in this work of making possible.
The media has been abuzz about it!
Here's a link to an article and photos on masslive.com
We've got big plans:
LightHouse is partnering with Laudable Productions to reopen the former Gateway venues at 92 Race and develop an integrated "Production Academy" a vocational program for the entertainment industry. Through hands-on, real-world engagement, interested students will learn all of the skills involved in hosting shows and festivals, from artist management to sound and lighting, in the context of a live venue.
Interested youth and families should reach out to David Lane for information on how to get involved.
2022-2023 was a year of growth and learning for LightHouse Holyoke. We created new, sustainable systems to manage our rapid growth while staying focused on individuals and our student community. We call this Human Scale. Growing while maintaining our human connection. Read all about it.
We offer full or partial remote advising, classes, and support for those who prefer or need to be offsite either temporarily or permanently.
LightHouse is a recognized private school, accredited through NEASC (New England Association of Schools and Colleges). We will continue supporting Holyoke Public School diplomas through our partnership with Opportunity Academy, as well as homeschool diplomas for students choosing that track.