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Guess What? My School’s a Farm!
Rappahannock County is a great place to be a child. There are endless ways here for young people to get outdoors and breathe fresh air.We have traditional programs such as organized sports, summer camps, 4-H and scouting; fields in which to run, rivers in which to fish and mountains to climb. We have places to plant gardens. We have farmers, grandparents and other mentors who love to pass along their gardening wisdom to younger generations. A three-year-old friend recently explained to me that we pick the red and orange tomatoes and leave the green ones, as his small fingers moved along the cherry tomatoes,meticulously choosing only those that were ripe.

We have something unique in Rappahannock as well: land-based schools and school programs. The students here don’t just read about science and history, they experience it every day. Rappahannock County has two land-based middle schools: Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School and BelleMeade School (both are stops on the Farm Tour). These schools incorporate project-based learning on working farms. Quoting from a rap song written and performed by an 8th grade Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School student, “Guess what? My school’s a farm!”

Rappahannock High School has a Farm-to-Table program (also a stop on the Farm Tour). There the students learn about agriculture and nutrition by growing food that is used in the school cafeteria, sold to area restaurants and given to charitable organizations. The students in Rappahannock County learn directly from farmers, whether at a land-based school, in an agriculture class, by helping out on a farm or by buying food directly from local farmers. Here children learn both from example and from direct experience to become good stewards of the land.

Children in Rappahannock are free to invent themselves in the open air, among the mountains, rivers, farms and the wild things. Come experience all Rappahannock County has to offer—see it through a child’s eyes.

Susan Holmes, Director, Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School

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