Read what our students have to say about Watershed
From the very start of my freshman year (Watershed´s first year ever) I knew it was something special, but now, in my junior year as an exchange student in the German equivalent of an American public high school, I can really appreciate the difference.
There are so many little things that make The Watershed School what it is, that I can only begin to convey a few. The teachers are really passionate about what they are teaching, and committed to making your education the best that it can be. You are always encouraged to express your own opinion, and be completely yourself. The voices of the students are as important as those of the faculty, so that you really have a say in your education, and the way the community as a whole functions.
Most of all its a place you want to be every day. I can truly not imagine a better place to learn, not only in the classical sense, but also about yourself. Although this year as an exchange student is a wonderful experience I know I will never regret, there is still the thought in the back of my mind, that I am missing a whole year at the most amazing school ever!
Lizzy Moore '07
My year at Watershed gave me many experiences and wonderful friends, and it taught me how to use these new experiences and friends in order to make myself and people around me happier. It made me understand a lot about how people communicate and how they can learn from each other. It was the first time that I witnessed a school where nobody was feeling left out and where everybody had enough courage to find her or his individual place in the community.
I think a place like Watershed can only work, if everybody wants it to work. Mostly because of this big responsibility that each single person at the school has to take, and has to be aware of, the Watershed Community has become the amazing place that it is today. It is kind of like a big puzzle, and each piece represents one person that is somehow involved with the school. The pieces all have the same size. Lots of colors!
Berit Hannapel, German Exchange Student '04-05
Watershed may be the best thing that has ever happened to me. It may also be the second best thing that has ever happened to me but it's certainly very close.
Public schools seem to be very good at making consumers. They constantly allude to this mysterious thing called the 'workforce' that we're supposed to join when we graduate from college. If you don't fit their idea of what a person is supposed to be then you don't get very far. Although the teachers may want us to learn, they usually get so bogged down disciplining that they never manage teaching.
Watershed solves that by easing somewhat the load of rules. Beyond the bare basics, which are basically legal and safety issues, things are handled case by case. If we don't have a huge list of obnoxious rules to memorize, get angry at, and feel compelled to break by a combination of frustration at the system and peer pressure, there's nothing left to pay attention to but learning. Once all of that icky behavioral stuff is out of the way, not only is there a lot more time for learning, the whole process becomes much more enjoyable for everyone.
I remember vehemently hating my middle school principal. Looking back I think he was just trying to do his job. Phil however, is really just another guy at the school who happens to be the one in charge. The whole atmosphere of the school is, I think, affected by this. As much as you can say about how much more I've learned in the past year and a half than in the previous three years or so, I really think that the most important thing that Watershed has done is make me a happier person, who likes going to school. Watershed, it's not just a school, it's a state of mind.
Sam Auciello '08