Dulcimers made and played, beautiful clean hardwood floors to hold morning circles, private lockers for preteens in Omega, creative art supplies for budding artists in preschool and the lively interactions on the playground of a truly economic and socially diverse group of children…
Where do all these additions to enrich Rainbow Mountain Children’s School come from? They are made possible by each and every Rainbow Mountain family making their tax-deductible donation to the Rainbow Mountain Foundation. The Rainbow Mountain Foundation has for over fifteen years enriched our school and paid for creative and practical ideas and supplies for our wonderful, dedicated and talented teachers to enrich our children’s experience like no other school.
What and who is the Foundation? You, each and every Rainbow family, from preschool to Omega are the Rainbow Mountain Foundation and the way to support all the extras that every school requires.
The Foundation’s goal this year is $55,000. We move toward our goal with this letter to your family and plan to celebrate your support for our children by December. Please take the time now to pick up a pen and write out a check to the Rainbow Mountain Foundation, or simply indicate on the form provided the amount you wish to have billed to your account. It is essential that we all participate, whether we choose to forego a Friday night pizza and movie or we have the ability to make a large donation, each and every donation adds to creative programs and supplies that make Rainbow Mountain Children’s School a special place to grow and learn.
We all have so much to be thankful for at Rainbow Mountain Children’s School: a loving community of families; healthy children, eager to learn and grow; and motivated, talented teachers. Let’s show our support today.  If you have questions, please ask one of the volunteer Foundation members or your class parent. Some additional information is provided on the back of this letter about the Rainbow Mountain Foundation.
With love and gratitude,
Sarah Corley
Chair, Rainbow Mountain Foundation
Rainbow Mountain teachers offer our children education from the heart to the heart. In order to do so effectively, they need your support. The Rainbow Mountain Foundation provides a classroom allowance to each teacher to spend on items needed to effectively teach your children. Maps, microscopes, books, chairs, and lockers, are all items that teachers have purchased with RMF funds to enhance the learning environment in their classrooms.
Rainbow Mountain should be open to anyone whose heart calls them to the school, regardless of material wealth. You can make this vision a reality through your donation to the RMF. Money raised by RMF goes to provide scholarships to families who could not otherwise afford the tuition. These families increase the economic, social and cultural diversity that make our community vibrant.
Rainbow Mountain nurtures children in all realms: spiritual, emotional, social, physical, and intellectual. This holistic approach to education requires a strong emphasis in the arts, which connects all the domains. Funds raised by the Rainbow Mountain Foundation support visiting artists in residence at Rainbow Mountain. Students have learned puppetry, performed on their own hand-made dulcimers, choreographed and performed original dances, and sung and recorded original world music — all drawing upon the wealth of local artists in our community.
A little girl from a public school was telling a little girl who attends Rainbow Mountain Children’s School that she has a principal at her school. The Rainbow child boasted, “We don’t have a principal at Rainbow, we have an executioner!”Â
What we actually have is an exectuive director, but that child wasn’t worried about whether she had the word exactly right. Young children who have been raised compassionately are not afraid of making mistakes or of being wrong. They say goofy things all the time, and if no one has mocked them, they don’t mind adults chuckling at how “cute” they are. In order to learn, they have to be willing to dig in and try new things, without fear of doing it “wrong,” or, as we say at Rainbow, without being too self conscious. In a marvelous lecture by Sir Ken Robinson (from a past TED event), SKR points out that it is this willingness to explore, to “have a go” at something, that leads to creativity.
Unfortunately, in conventional education with its atmosphere of tesing, children early on learn that mistakes are the worst thing they can make. SKR argues that in the American educational system, children are educated out of their creativity.
To see all of Sir Ken Robinsons’s TED speech titled “Do Schools Kill Creativity?,” visit Do Schools Kill Creativity? SKR has classic English wit, so be prepared to be entertained AND educated.
Our mission statement includes the word “discovery.” We agree with Sir Ken Robinson when he claims that children are born creative, and our job as educators isn’t to teach them how to be creative, but how to enhance their creativity and make is useful. Both at school at home, we want our children to feel safe to explore, try new things, and to learn from their mistakes.
The first week of school is always inspiring. Yesterday I received a wonderful note from the parent of two students at Rainbow: This evening my kids were telling me about their day in front of a little girl who lives across the street. They were telling me about starting “intricate and complex self-portraits.” The other little girl asked “What does that teach you in third grade?”  [My son] said, “Our school does fun things and you learn things without even knowing it!” [My daughter] said, Yea, our teacher makes everything very fun and she is so smart.” The conversation went on a while and at the end [my daughter] said, “I love school” and [my son] smiled and said, “Yeah, me too”.Â
Later they told me it is going to be the best year ever!Â
Thank you Rainbow Community)for being a part of making my children enjoy school, love learning, and getting to be a part of an amazing community.
In this issue, Rainbow’s Executive Director Renee’s article is titled “Education from the Heart, for the Heart.”
You may have seen the phrase “Education from the Heart for the Heart” as a tag line in some of Rainbow’s advertisements. This isn’t just a catchy phrase. Certainly, it speaks to the loving care that Rainbow teachers provide, but it means even more: Rainbow believes that we are at the forefront of a societal shift to a more heart-centered era.
If we are to create a society that is peaceful, sustainable, and spiritually fulfilling, it is going to happen one heart at a time. At Rainbow, we believe we are helping to usher in a more heart centered era by educating our children holistically. This issue of Heart of the Matter describes heart centered education and explains what the term “heart-centered” really means.
For the past month Rainbow Mountain students have been learning alongside Asheville artist preparing for Imagine! An Asheville Arts Extravaganza. Fine artist, performance artist, and musicians have been all over campus. Jon Cooley is a little of all three and he is working with fourteen fourth through sixth-graders. First he taught them how to make a dulcimer and now they are learning how to play it.
Yesterday the Rainbow Mountain Dulcimer Players put on a performance at Barnes & Noble in the Asheville Mall. They started with the first song they learned on the dulcimers, Mary Had a Little Lamb. They also entertained us with This Land is Our Land, and Ode to Joy as well as Groundhog and other songs.
It was a great show and we look forward to seeing them on stage May 20th at Imagine!
