Support the North Branch School
The following is a letter from Tal to the amazing NBS Community:
Dear Friends, Families, and Supporters of the North Branch School,
We began in earnest twenty years ago, on September 4, 2001, here in the woods of Ripton, in a dark rented house, with twelve kids sitting around rickety tables, wondering what would happen.
We had no tradition, books, science apparatus, whiteboards, standards, no clear path. Just a wood-stove, a red squirrel nesting under the stairs, an iron sculpture of a question mark, and the hope that something good would happen.
Something good did happen. We made the school out of nearly nothing. Not merely a school, but a wonderful one. Now a full generation of kids has come through and gone out into the world. The students today love coming to the NBS as much as all those who came before. The NBSers today carry the school with the same pride and seriousness and joy as those who came before.
We have a history now—rituals, traditions, stories, and even a few myths. The DNA of the original students remains in wild blossom Every day there is laughter and there are tears. There is loud shouting in the woods, fierce conversation about philosophy and ideas and science and numbers. There is excitement to make balloon-powered cars and paintings and plays, to code patterns on Python or read poems in meeting. Every day the school courses with the rampaging, glorious energy of adolescents learning about the world, each other, and themselves.
We have not made it this far alone. The school has been carried over the years by the generosity of families and friends from near and far. This support—no matter the amount—has helped us grow and thrive. Truly, we could not make this school without your help and commitment to the cause.
In celebration of our 20th year, we are hoping you can make a donation to the school. Financial assistance keeps our tuition low and makes the school available for the broadest possible span of families. It makes it so the school can keep going, doing the work we have always done.
The very first donation to the school came to me from a former student in Atlanta. She enclosed a ten-dollar bill with a note that said "good luck and best wishes, and please use this money to buy the first copy of To Kill A Mockingbird."
That wish and that donation meant the world. It helped to seed this wonderful and rare school. In these difficult and tumultuous times we hope you will join us to support the North Branch School as we embark on our next score of amazing and transformational years.
With love and gratitude,
Tal for NBS
Dear Friends, Families, and Supporters of the North Branch School,
We began in earnest twenty years ago, on September 4, 2001, here in the woods of Ripton, in a dark rented house, with twelve kids sitting around rickety tables, wondering what would happen.
We had no tradition, books, science apparatus, whiteboards, standards, no clear path. Just a wood-stove, a red squirrel nesting under the stairs, an iron sculpture of a question mark, and the hope that something good would happen.
Something good did happen. We made the school out of nearly nothing. Not merely a school, but a wonderful one. Now a full generation of kids has come through and gone out into the world. The students today love coming to the NBS as much as all those who came before. The NBSers today carry the school with the same pride and seriousness and joy as those who came before.
We have a history now—rituals, traditions, stories, and even a few myths. The DNA of the original students remains in wild blossom Every day there is laughter and there are tears. There is loud shouting in the woods, fierce conversation about philosophy and ideas and science and numbers. There is excitement to make balloon-powered cars and paintings and plays, to code patterns on Python or read poems in meeting. Every day the school courses with the rampaging, glorious energy of adolescents learning about the world, each other, and themselves.
We have not made it this far alone. The school has been carried over the years by the generosity of families and friends from near and far. This support—no matter the amount—has helped us grow and thrive. Truly, we could not make this school without your help and commitment to the cause.
In celebration of our 20th year, we are hoping you can make a donation to the school. Financial assistance keeps our tuition low and makes the school available for the broadest possible span of families. It makes it so the school can keep going, doing the work we have always done.
The very first donation to the school came to me from a former student in Atlanta. She enclosed a ten-dollar bill with a note that said "good luck and best wishes, and please use this money to buy the first copy of To Kill A Mockingbird."
That wish and that donation meant the world. It helped to seed this wonderful and rare school. In these difficult and tumultuous times we hope you will join us to support the North Branch School as we embark on our next score of amazing and transformational years.
With love and gratitude,
Tal for NBS
