When I was in my twenties (and let’s be honest, when I was in my thirties and even my early forties), I imagined that by the time I hit mid-life I’d have it figured out. Now that I’m here, it’s as clear as ever that life is still a work in progress. Every day is a grapple, but I’m lucky to love what I get to wrestle with. I teach in a program that I co-founded, the Burlington City & Lake Semester [BCL]. In BCL, a diverse group of high school students gets to step away from their typical schedules and earn full credit while using the city as both classroom and curriculum. It’s place-based, experiential, and values-based. Essentially, it’s the fullest expression of VISIONS that I could muster in the context of public school. If you were to ask my colleagues back in the formal high school setting how their day, week, or semester has been, too many of them are depleted. It’s amazing that I get to do something that feeds me.

On paper, I am a teacher, but in reality the job is far more like directing a VISIONS program. It’s a thousand things at once – community organizing, group-process facilitation, personalization, experiential design, synthesis… and the elements oscillate so frequently that even after doing this for years it can still be off-throwing. But I love it. For most of my classroom-based colleagues, “prep” looks like crafting a lesson based on teacher-chosen material and outcomes; in my case, “prep” often includes collaborating deeply with community partners who are addressing real-world problems, and then designing for emergence. (For a window into the day-to-day experience, feel free to check out BCL’s blog.) And then there’s the rest of my life! I’m a parent to two remarkable, dynamic, musical, heartful girls. We’re busy – some would say over-scheduled – but we still try to sit down for family dinner every night. It’s a lot. Life is tiring. But in my family, we call it “problems of abundance.”

What was most memorable about your VISIONS experience?

My wife and I are currently planning a brief sabbatical, and we’re aware that it’s easy to default to being a tourist. The antidote to superficiality is having purpose and people. In my experience, VISIONS programs were filled with both. Each session, our group was welcomed. We had the opportunity to fold into the lives of local friends. And we were there to offer something real and valuable. Reciprocity and mutuality were baked into the experience. In Guadeloupe, I inherited the relationships that those who came before me had nurtured, and I was responsible for leaving even more trust behind in my wake. All of this created the conditions for purpose, connection, and meaning.

I’d be lying if I didn’t also say that I miss the ladies who sold hand-cranked coconut sorbet on the roadsides, each cup flecked with lime zest and nutmeg. I miss the wind that combed the black sand beaches. I miss the vibration of Zouk pumping out of cars’ open windows, and the sound of Creole in the churchyard. I miss the constant tug-of-war between feeling comfortable and feeling unsteady. In that place, every moment felt so alive.

What did the VISIONS experience teach you about yourself and life outside yourself?

VISIONS informs so much of my current practice… In BCL, students experience a VISIONS-style Circle/Bilan, straight out of Chris Mathna’s playbook. At the end of each semester, teachers write “Three Plus-es and a Wish” letters. Other elements, from Morning Meeting to 1-on-1 check-ins, feel similarly VISIONS-inspired. In Guadeloupe, I feel like I began to understand and embody the experiential learning cycle. For the 20 years that followed, I’ve been experimenting with how to bring it to life for my students and my community.

I also feel lucky to have spent my formative years working in an organization that was designed backwards from a set of core values: community-building, empathy, stewardship, joy, and connection.

What is something that makes you hopeful for the future?

What makes me hopeful is relationships. You can’t build empathy without having relationships with people, and you can’t take care of a place without a relationship with the land. I love that I’ve been able to invest in these relationships, and help others discover their own connections.

I’m not going to lie, I’m also deeply scared for this world. I have a hunch that you’re with me. After all, there are real things to be scared about. My hope, when I can muster it, comes from the fact that what the broader world needs is actually what individual people desperately need, too. It still floors me. At the start of every semester, I expect it to take weeks for students to make the transition into a learning environment where they are truly seen – and every semester, without fail, it takes less than two days.

Katherine recently wrote a piece on VISIONS’ values regarding technology, and how to recenter humanity. That piece resonates deeply, and aligns with a piece I recently published. When it comes down to it, what gives me hope is the fact that what Visions has done for decades, and what many of us are continuing to practice, has always been the answer.

What’s on your playlist?

Ah, you saved the most important question for last!

On a chill Sunday morning…

Cesária Evora
Joan Shelley
Joni Mitchell’s Ladies of the Canyon

Anytime…

Willie Nelson, who’s still making great music in his 90’s