THEY’RE THE KIDS GOING BACK TO NATURE AS PART OF A BOLD SCHOOLING EXPERIMENT. GRETEL HUNNERUP DISCOVERS

It has children, desks and the occasional blackboard, but little else is conventional about Bali’s Green School campus.

Its bamboo-built classrooms scattered across the eight-hectare parcel of land in Ubud have no walls. Butterflies drift through classrooms at their fancy, while barefoot students from around 20 countries look out on surrounding plots of jackfruit, bananas, snake beans and chili as they learn.

Classrooms are fitted with compost toilets, the wastes of which are converted into an odorless biogas and channeled to fire campus kitchen stoves. There isn’t a lunchbox in sight, because all 118 students are fed each day on the campus’ harvest. There are no candy-colored swings here either. Instead, spare time is spent fashioning fortresses out of palm fronds, tending to the resident goats, and practicing the Balinese martial art of mepantigan.

At once revolutionary and grassroots, Green School, now in its third year of operation, is a giant education experiment. The private start-up institution, covering preschool to grade nine, or freshman year, is the vision of John Hardy, the Canadian art college graduate who arrived in Bali in the 1970s, first making his name designing low-impact silver jewelry for travelers.

In 2007 he sold his stake in The John Hardy Company, now the largest luxury manufacturer in Bali, to pour his pennies into what he describes as his most difficult undertaking yet. The vision behind Green School is to immerse students in the environment, and in turn instill a sense of responsibility for the earth, inspiring them to help meet the challenges of an uncertain century.

“Our hope is that they will have the skills to do whatever they need to do in the world to maintain our planet, and enroll others in the possibility of becoming green,” says Hardy. “So if they’re bankers, I’m sure they’ll be green bankers. And if they’re lawyers, I’m sure they’ll be fighting for the side of the people.”

Hardy’s team of educators are asking students to embark on projects like creating water-trapping systems in the soil; using pigs instead of tractors to prepare plots for planting, and designing buildings using sustainable materials.

All this comes in addition to teaching traditional subjects such as math, biology and Bahasa Indonesia. Green School’s secondary school is built on the Cambridge International Curriculum for lower and upper secondary grades, ensuring a focus on recognized essential subjects alongside environmental education. The school plans to add grade 11 from 2012 and grade 12 by 2013, under the widely accepted International Baccalaureate system.

Local interests are not ignored. Around 20 percent of students are Indonesian children on scholarships. In addition, the school provides full-time work for around 35 local people, and gives local assistance with water management and bamboo planting, with plans to add English language classes. The school also leases its land, rather than buying it, in order to continue Balinese ownership.

Students like seventh-grader Dillon enjoy Green School’s hands-on learning. “I love working in the river because I’m amongst it. I’m not just studying it from a textbook,” he says, of the Ayung River snaking through the campus.

Near the circus-tent-inspired kindergarten classroom, little girls chorus the school song as they throw their papaya salad scraps to the chickens. A teacher meantime reveals the school has been dealing with an unusual problem; eager students are turning up too early.

The challenges at Green School though are numerous. Termites bore through untreated wood, bugs bite young limbs, and heavy rains cause the occasional classroom soaking. Then there’s the culture shock experienced by international students from cool climates and megacities – or the pressure from some parents for the school to be even more alternative.

The most pressing consideration is probably funding. In addition to Hardy’s original contribution, Green School gathers money through tuition fees (80 percent of students pay up to US$10,000 annually), building fees, and donations. But Green School has consumed about US$5 million so far, and its administrators are on a constant hunt for more supporters.

Hardy thinks his labor of love is scalable. “This is Green School number one, the seed,” he says. “Green School will be a success as it becomes self-sustainable and starts to multiply.”

Creating a green-centric school in a city of millions may appear challenging. But there are improvements in vertical farming, energy technology and water conservation happening constantly.

Hardy feels certain that a mutual concern for children and for the planet will eventually help to see his Bali idea become a global one. “We’ve had enquiries from numerous countries. I really believe there are like-minded people out there who will say, ‘Let’s build a green school too – let’s take this vision into the mainstream’.”

Contacts

Green School
Jln Raya Sibang Kaja, Banjar Saren, Abiansemal, Badung, tel: (0)361 46 9875 www.greenschool.org