About The Community School

Located in the small town of Camden, Maine, the Community School has been approved as a private secondary school by the Maine Department of Educational and Cultural Services since 1974.

The School offers residential and home-based tutoring, small seminars, vocational training, guided life-experience, experiential, and post graduate courses and resources. Each student creates an individual graduation plan which includes standard requirements as well as special courses to meet specific needs and interests. Three programs are offered: a six month residential program twice a year for eight students between the ages of 16 and 20, a home-centered program based on the Walkabout model for 15 - 20 year old parents, and a post-graduate program for alumni and their families. Students with non-traditional learning styles, problematic family and social backgrounds, or a history of disengagement in conventional schools who are motivated to complete high school are welcome applicants.

To function as a rite of passage into adulthood High School education must embrace a larger curriculum than conventional academics. We believe that much learning occurs outside the formal study of subjects, and in the relationships between students, their teachers, peers, parents, employers and community. Learning involves whole people, their intellectual, emotional, interpersonal,vocational and social lives.

Students must have a voice in co-creating both their course of study, and the learning communities they are a part of; teacher/counselors must be able to pay respectful attention to their students through listening and dialogue. While each student follows a unique course of study, the context is a community of relationships. We call this approach "relational education".