knox wild academy
a micro school for middle passage students
explore / connect / grow
A note from Stephen Otis, Founder and Guide:
“Knox Wild Academy has been in the vision stage for decades. After 30 years of work with students in traditional and non traditional education models, I am convinced beyond doubt that what our young people need most in this pericope of education (middle school) is wild space that encourages creativity, curiosity, care and collaboration to take root. We call this the soil of learning.
At Knox Wild Academy we cultivate this soil with intentional curriculum, field studies on our “Go-Bus,” physical and mental challenges and intentional play designed to bring our young learners into intimate connection with themselves, each other, conceptual academics and the natural landscape.
Learning is a natural part of growth. It’s a spark that stimulates our minds and bodies. Our traditional education models have over time settled into a hyper focus on the brain and forgotten how important the body is for learning. Therefore, young people are missing the “sense” that learning is fun and a part of who they are as humans. This is why many young people today settle for cultural distractions that fill their time. Simply put, they are often “bored” in school and develop a cognitive dissonance to a system that entraps their exploration and undermines their natural curiosities.
Knox wild academy is a village of wonder. Wonder is the key ingredient. According to Socrates, wonder is the guide along the path to wisdom. Our most sacred goal for our learners is that they grow to become wise adults. During this stage of life, a foundation of curiosity and wonder is vital for this growth. How exactly do we build this foundation and cultivate growth?
Keep exploring this website to find out!”
Our Basic Approach to Education and Curriculum
We learn in a community of mixed ages. This builds mentorship. Older students can help the younger ones (instilling care and expectation of applied learning). This also gives each student space to explore and hone (listen to) their innate curiosity. Since we have a small number of students in our class, we tailor our overall curriculum standards to the interests of each student. This gives them ownership and choice in their learning journey. This cultivates the vital life long skills of initiative, effort and responsibility.
At Knox Wild, we refer to our teachers as coyote guides. As guides, we come alongside our students and encourage them along their learning journey. We allow our students to struggle productively (very important for the developing adolescent brain) and are there to encourage them when they get stuck. We train our guides constantly in this model. Our guides are above all specialists in the soft skills of learning and in guiding learners. What we look for most in our guides are the same qualities we want our students to develop: curiosity, patience, problem solving, kindness and wisdom. We all have those teachers on our own paths who are barkers of behavior and seem to have grown tired and overcome by the stresses of the world. Our guides do not fall into this category. We start each day with a half hour of connection and quiet meditation. And we make sure that our environment is not in a hurry. Nature is not in a hurry, yet everything is accomplished. We follow this ancient wisdom. True education is not about quantity, rather quality. Not how much we can learn, but the art of how to be a lifelong learner.
Hey there! I’d love to tell you about adventure learning and field research on our “Go Bus.”
Realizing our culture is in a liminal space of transformation, we recognize a longing for deep connection with ourselves, our local community, and the natural landscape. The ingredients of connection are different for each person and community, but some of how we practice connection are:
taking steps to consecrate intentional time amidst a busy schedule
paying attention to the delight and wonder that acts as a spiritual biome in our deep selves
providing intentionally planned spaces to connect and listen to the natural world
being honest with our spiritual longings and curiosities, even if it means we face trauma from past individual, societal or religious narratives that have shut down or dominated our personal journeys
Connecting with others in safe, non judgmental spaces in order to offer support and care
Providing rich and meaningful rites of passages to both young and old that act as memory stones and altars along life’s journey
Creatively problem solving material and spiritual blocks to living in sacred reciprocity with land, people and Spirit
Providing spaces of play and deep joy
We provide space where it is okay to laugh, explore, play and grieve. And to share these experiences with others.
We pivot in our offerings as needed to provide individuals, small groups, corporate teams, church groups, spiritual groups, teacher teams, etc. with playful and meaningful experiences in order to deepen personal and corporate connection and curiosity. Among some of the experiences we offer are:
Naturalist Experiences and Training
Retreats for Soul Care and Relational Health
Storytelling Cohorts and Workshops
Training in the Healing Art of Play (while playing)
Vision Quests (for life direction and corporate creativity)
Rites of Passage for Various Stages of Life (young and old)
Human Centered Design Workshops and Creative Exploration for Corporate Groups
Dance for opening up awareness by listening to the body and connecting with our deep instinct
Drum Circling
Forest Bathing Experiences
All are welcome. We’d love to partner with you or your group.
Establishing Sacred Connection
(Re)Connecting with Self
At Sacred Wild, we believe the true light of the Self is perpetually whole, beautiful and connected with Spirit. A lot of trauma has occurred from rigid teachings that we are born lost, dark and disconnected. Unlearning this mindset and walking in connection with our divine light is one of the great journeys we take, in both mind and body.
We do this reclamation through practices which deepen this connection not just cognitively, but through embodiment practices—such as nature immersions, vision quests, rites of passage training, dream work and soul care intensives.
(Re)Connecting with Nature
No matter where our culture is at present in terms of eldership and rites of passage training, one thing we do know is that Nature always provides us with wise elders. Trees, Fires, flowing Water, Animals, Flowers and many other Beings move throughout our landscape—intertwined with us and ready to offer peace, challenge, inspiration, support and guidance.
Connecting with Mama Nature is to listen, learn and speak with Her, and not just about Her. We believe this to be a crucial distinction.
We offer intensive nature immersions where we scientifically learn about the natural world—birds, trees, fungi, ecological landscape, mammals, reptiles, creepy crawlies, etc. We do this in an environment that includes sacredness and play—with singing, fires, drums, song-prayers and gathering.
(Re)Connecting with Life
As we move deeper into the acceptance of self design and our place in nature, an organic web of life begins to form. This builds our natural instincts (already connected to the land) and reveals a new worldview. We slowly begin to consume differently, rest more rhythmically, interact with others in new harmony and move through the world with greater confidence and wonder.
In short, we become more and more HUMAN. It can be discombobulating within the mindset of a disconnected culture, but it is wildly life giving, adventurous and full of love. We offer support as transformation happens, because we are not alone. All of life is interconnected and sacred.
(Re)Connecting with Work
We are also interested in moving into the field of consultation for businesses and various institutions in order to encourage deeper human-emotion-centric connections in the workplace. We desire to work with those in the business sectors who feel drawn to a shift away from the common baseline motivations of profit and productivity and feel called to a more harmonious flow of goods and desire more life-giving creativity and healthy relationship with your community of people. Our consultation will focus on deep creativity, human centered design and workplace relational health. From this perspective, profit is replaced with abudance and productivity with fruitfulness.
"If you talk to the animals they will talk with you and you will know each other. If you do not talk to them you will not know them and what you do not know, you will fear. What one fears, one destroys."
-Chief Dan George, Tsleil-Waututh Nation
"We are showered every day with gifts, but they are not meant for us to keep. Their life is in their movement, the inhale and the exhale of our shared breath. Our work and our joy is to pass along the gift and to trust that what we put into the universe will always come back."
-Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass
"To put your hands in a river is to feel the chords that bind the earth together."
-Barry Lopez
"The world is not to be put in order. The world is order. It is for us to put ourselves in unison with this order."
-Henry Miller
I'm not going to recommend recklessness but somewhere just short of it - testing yourself and proactively pursuing a rite of passage has become necessary because in western developed countries we've become very comfort-addicted.
-Sean Penn
About Us…
Stephen Otis
Stephen “Sitting Skunk” Otis has been teaching for over 25 years. He enjoys working with contemplative practices from various traditions. As well as nature immersion therapies (forest bathing, sit spots, vision questing and naturalist training).
He is passionate about the art of storytelling and has been guiding experiences for over a decade.
He is certified in AAIT (Acceptance and Integration Training) and pursues healing journeys that re-construct a deep sense of self, the divine and natural connection.
Interests: I love to hike, write, build things, tell stories, play with my kids and imagine. I love sitting next to streams in the Smoky Mountains with my partner, Sara. And sitting around fires with friends—especially if there is a drum circle going on! I cherish being in the midst of laughter. Professionally, I am one of the guides at Knox Forest School and a middle school teacher at Clayton Bradley Academy.
Ashley Addair
Ash Sunbird Dawn Addair is an artist working in kinship with a variety of media including paint, textile, costume, installation, experimental living, performance, curated gatherings, and language. Recited in alternating tones of delight and exasperation, her work wrestles with macro questions at an individual and familial scale. She attends to ordinary gestures, the narratives we map onto existence, and the immaterial spirit of the matter we inhabit. She received her MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Bryan Terril
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