Pagosa Peak Open School

Pagosa Peak Open School (PPOS) Pagosa Peak Open School is an intentionally small and intimate K-8 public school, chartered through the Archuleta School District and governed by an independent, volunteer board of directors. Two concepts that form the core of the PPOS educational culture are trust and mutual respect. We trust tat children, parents and teaching staff have an innate interest in learning about the world and each other, and in making the world a better place. We honor that innate interest and intention by granting everyone involved in the School a large measure of autonomy and input into the ongoing and evolving development of the school culture. We have adopted a set of principles similar to those developed over the past 70 years by the community-based education system in Reggio Emilia, Italy: *Children must have some control over the direction of their learning *Children learn through experiences of touching, moving, listening, and observing *Children have a relationship with other children and with material items in the world that children are allowed to explore; *Children must have numerous ways and opportunities to express themselves.