Balancing Safety and Mental Health
Certifications at Wilderland will allow students meaningful autonomy to safely direct their own education with the available resources and amenities. Each certification will include safety and emergency protocols, to prevent and to address issues that might occur.
After reviewing all the content for each certification with a student, staff will test them to determine their level of understanding. If they pass, they will be certified. Certifications may be permanent or may expire and need to be renewed, depending on the topic or if something has changed (we get new equipment, or the farm has a new building, etc.).
We also plan to implement a buddy system for certain activities, as another layer of protection for our students.
At the same time, we recognize that our modern society's obsession with "safetyism" has had a high societal mental health cost we are still in the process of uncovering. We hope to strike the proper balance between protection and freedom for the long-term well-being of our students.
Example experiences that require certification
1
Playing in the stream
2
Hiking into the forest
3
Visiting the farm
4
Using specialized tools (e.g. 3D Printer, gardening, cookware, musical instruments, etc.)
5
Crossing the country road
6
Creating a short-form video series
7
Programming a video game
8
Building an igloo
9
Designing a new board game
