Hidden deep in Bali’s green heart lies Green School. The vast grounds and striking bamboo structures are a change from the usual concrete campus buildings. The school boasts a large field, a covered gymnasium and a swimming pool fed by the nearby Ayung River. A pleasant breeze blows through “Heart of School,” a three-story bamboo structure with wireless-equipped computers, a library and art studios. In these inspiring surroundings, Green School educates pupils to be critical thinkers who as adults will work toward a sustainable society, in part thanks to required classes like green studies and creative arts.
Opened two years ago, Green School is an initiative of John and Cynthia Hardy, who came to this Indonesian island in the late 1970s and set up a successful jewelry store. “What inspired me to build this school? Al Gore’s message,” says John Hardy, alluding to the film An Inconvenient Truth. “The next generations have to make a change. That’s why I hope that our students graduate with big hearts and enough knowledge about a sustainable world.”
For preschoolers, the curriculum is influenced by the ideas of Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Waldorf education and the spiritual philosophy known as anthroposophy. Older kids focus on subjects like sustainable energy and global perspectives. The school, which has just over 130 students, practices what it teaches, with compost toilets and a vortex generator to draw energy from the Ayung. Pupils grow their own vegetables.
Dutch 8-year-old Jip Luchsinger has been attending Green School for a few months, since moving to Bali with his parents, who are on sabbatical. His class has its own rice paddy. “We put on long pants, long-sleeved shirts and hats, and went to harvest the rice with scissors,” Jip says. “We learned bird calls to keep the birds away from the field.”
Jip takes classes in music, dance and theater along with Balinese cultural practices like woodworking and mepantigan, a martial art. All the kids get lessons in Indonesian. “I learn a lot from the teacher, like papermaking, clay modeling and Balinese songs,” Jip says. Because his classmates come from everywhere, he loves to look in his atlas “to memorize the national flags.”
His father, Allard Luchsinger, says Jip and his 5-year-old sister are lucky to go to Green School. “Although the school’s only been around for a little while and hasn’t had a chance to prove itself yet, I believe in it,” he says. “The atmosphere is good, and the kids are nice to each other.”
The Hardys’ vision is to create a thriving, sustainable community. “This is the seed, the beginning,” says John Hardy. “It’s my dream to open up more Green Schools around the world.”
