Director's Blog
Susie Fahrer publishes the Kaleidoscope periodically throughout the year that illustrates and summarizes what has been happening at our vibrant school. Read to find out more.
Opportunity for Grandparents!
Grandparents: Do you look forward to attending Grandparent’s Tea? Please come to the grandparent event at the Princess Anne Hotel this Sunday, from 2pm to 4pm. Grandparents are an integral part of the community at Rainbow. If you have attended Grandparents' Tea in...
Kaleidoscope Newsletter – September, 2013
For those of you who are new to Rainbow, I write a little newsletter once a month called Kaleidoscope. It’s your opportunity to look through my eyes at all the colorful things going on at Rainbow. News about the acquisition of new property is at the end! First, the...
The Capital Campaign – Growing Rainbow Community School
Rainbow Community School has the opportunity of a lifetime: to acquire the church property adjacent to the campus. We are a growing community in West Asheville. Right now, our school has the highest enrollment in our 35-year history. Our strategic plan compels puts us...
Honey Bees and Ravens at Rainbow
At the beginning of the year, each class traditionally chooses a class name, which is like a mascot --an animal or other entity to represent the character, culture, and ideals of the class. When I was a child, I remember reading a tale about how Merlin would turn...
Executive Director, Renee Owen, tells all in Citizen Times!
Our very own Renee Owen is making a difference by making the newspaper! Her journey to Rainbow Community School has been an incredible one. Now, as director of Rainbow, she has used her talents to grow the school community and create a unique school with the "whole...
Thank you, Howard Gardner
Yay! to Howard Gardner, famous Harvard professor who published the Multiple Intelligences theory in 1983. (Even though Rainbow was founded in 1977 and predates Howard's theory, our educational model is essentially based on the same theory, but we call the...
Digitizing the Classroom at Rainbow
The secret to introducting technology into the classroom is doing it intelligently. Most schools need to radically change the way they teach. Technology doesn't do that by itself. To quote Chris Dede, Harvard Graduate School of Education, author of Digital...
The Future of Learning
Very Inspiring! Here I am with legendary Harvard professor, David Perkins. He just laid out a beautiful, succinct formula for 21st Century Learning.
A New Era
Asheville’s oldest alternative school enters a time of renewal. We are transitioning our name to Rainbow Community School, but, to avoid confusion and ensure continuity we will continue to also use the name Rainbow Mountain Children’s School for a number of...
Renee Owen on Panel Discussion at UNCA, hosted by Department of Education
The film Race to Nowhere documents the ramifications of America's achievement culture. Hosted by UNCA Department of Education, the film will be viewed in the Highsmith Student Center at UNCA at 7pm, this Thursday, April 11, with a panel discussion to follow. Click...
My Hero
There she is: Ina May Gaskin with me at AB Tech, where she spoke last night. Many of us who had our children at home wouldn't have had the courage to do so without Ina May's book, Spiritual Midwifery. Spiritual Midwifery introduced me to the concept of the "sacrament...
April Kaleidoscope: Scopes out the many colorful things happening from the Executive Director’s point of view.
Introducing New Faculty Members! Great News! Sue Ford has agreed to be our new music teacher, beginning with the 2013-14 school year. She has also begun working with a few Rainbow grades this year -- conducting a music residency with preschool, kindergarten, first...
How creative are you?
"The actual meaning of the word 'original' doesn't mean trying to be different. It means being connected to the origen. You can't be original by trying to be original. You become original by staying true to what your heart sees." ~Cynthia Bourgeault. It has often been...
The New Teacher
What are we looking for in a new teacher? Since we believe in developing the whole child, then our teachers have to be accomplished in all seven domains: spiritual, mental, creative, emotional, social, natural, and physical. As a result of our growth at Rainbow, we...
Rainbow Mountain – Asheville’s Finnish School
Without equivocation, Rainbow Mountain Children's School is a unique learning environment. Everyone knows it the minute they step onto campus. Although Americans would find Rainbow's education very different compared to American prep schools, it is not at all unusual...
Do we have free will?
That is the raging argument among my teenagers right now. Ha ha ha. I guess this is why I have been obsessed with providing my children with the best possible education: So they have passionate arguments about consciousness, existentialism, and reality rather than...
What matters now
This is the question we, as educators and parents, have to ask ourselves over and over, "What qualities will our children need in order to be prepared for the future?" Gary Hamel, author of What Matters Now, How to Win in a World of Relentless Change, Ferocious...
Learn to Play; Play to Learn
"The old ways of learning are unable to keep up with our rapidly changing world,"is one of the premises of A New Culture of Learning, by Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown. We know that when children are young they learn by playing -- imagining things, experimenting,...