New Vistas School News

 

Learning “Beyond the Walls” is a particular initiative at New Vistas.  It’s especially important for our students to see that while classroom learning is important, lifelong learning takes place every day outside the academic community.

 

I was especially fortunate to accompany the Middle School this past Friday (March 23) to the Smith Mountain Lake Dam. What a wonder of technology and fuel efficiency right here in our Lynchburg back yard!  A speaker on NPR just yesterday was talking about “biofilia,” a new term to me—using the world outside as laboratory because of our “innate connectedness” to nature.  Our morning at Smith Mountain Lake was a fine example of that thinking.

 

The students’ enthusiasm was contagious as they raced up the hill to look down on both sides of the dam.  They loved “creating energy” themselves on the displays in the Visitors’ Center.  And who can fault having a picnic by the lake on a beautiful spring day!

 

I’ve said many times “I’ll take these NVS students anywhere!” and I’ve put my words on the line by taking them to New York, Washington, Nags Head, and many other sites.  One wonderful Upper School field trip was a walking tour of Historic Lynchburg.

 

Learning IS a lifelong gift, and I encourage our faculty to get our students outside the classroom as often as possible to experience what’s beyond our buildings’ walls.  Those Mighty Middles are on their way to Luray Caverns next month.  They know their world is made up of science and math and history and language—not just here at school, but everywhere.  I wish for them lifelong curiosity, and we’re doing our best to encourage it.