La Creativa.

          My all time favorite. I knew I was going to love “La Creativa” or otherwise known as The Cloud Forest School. This school is like no other. I have read all about it beforehand because I was going to do my research project on it but then decided on the theme of “Pura “Vida.” However the Cloud Forest School has amazing, luscious acres of diverse wildlife. The wildlife has all organic matter, all different types of plants and animals. The view from the school is incredible. The interesting part of the school is that most of the students have planted the diverse wildlife and things that we had seen. The students have been taught how to plant, and transfer each part of the plant. Every part of the school was bright and filled with colors. Unlike other schools La Creativa was filled with the work of all students, all their hands had touched and painted the rocks, the walls and the school rooms. The school has 6 different trails which the students hike daily and it’s not a big deal to allow the students to go hiking into the rainforest. The longest trail is 6 hours long and the students have actually completed that hike our guide has told us.

                Edwardo the biology man of the school is actually my host father! I had no idea that he worked at Creativa I thought he worked in construction. I watched him interact with all the students and everyone loved him. The guide told us that his class was the one that was always full and students beg to take his class. Edwardo is amazingly smart and has brought so much to the school. I mentioned earlier in one of my blogs that he and his wife cannot have children and I think working at the school and also hosting students is a great outlet for the family. I know both Edwardo and Mayela would be amazing parents if they had the opportunity.

                I found La creativa to be my all time favorite school. The director told us that anyone who wants to come to their school is able. Most all the schools are naïve, 90 perfect are from costa rica and the other 10 percent are foreign exchange. I think we should have so many more schools like this. Not only is the Cloud Forest School a great opportunity but it’s TRULY teaching our future generations about planting, harvesting how to conserve the environment. We are trying to teach our students here in America about trying to conserve the environment but yet we have millions of cars polluting the air each day, TV’s that stay on with no one watching them. We need to make our future generations awake and more aware. The Cloud Forest School is made up of half Tico and half naïve English teachers which provides the students with a fully bilingual education. One question I find myself asking so much, is why are other countries so aware of the need to speak other languages are in the United States we are not? Whenever I have traveled I have met amazing people who speak multiple languages (not just Spanish and English). I think especially in America we should make our children more aware of the need to know other languages. I know this has been an ongoing debate, why should we make our children learn another language since this is America? Well everyone in America is a melting pot and came from some kind of roots.

                As teachers we could learn amazing things just from the tour of this school. The children were brilliant at this school learning all about the environment, the world and how it applies to their life. They are growing their own crops, harvesting them and recycling every piece of material they have. Compost is something we do in our own back yard. Compost is something so simple that you could do at your school which is cheap and so good for the soil. There is so many ways you could teach children about the importance of the environment. The school runs on very little money and has so many resources. As Dr. Powell was telling us REACH out to alternative people, churches, and local places. People are willing to help if there is a need somewhere.