+ Ben Holmes TTC '88

Currently: Founder, The Farm School, Athol, MA

Impact: Each week, the Farm School welcomes new groups of middle-schoolers, seeing over 1,500 students annually. Our program connects kids to the land by having them tend the forests, fields, gardens, and animals. We also run a one-room middle school for local kids, providing our under-resourced community a progressive schooling alternative. Several years ago, we launched a program for adults focused on the farming skills that have disappeared with the demise of the family farm.

I am the founder of The Farm School in Athol, MA, where I have been for the past 31 years. The Farm School provides programs for children and adults that connect them to the land. Each day, the staff and I are learning, deepening our understanding of community and how to open people to beauty and possibility.

Twice a week, every week, we welcome a new group of middle-school students, seeing over 1,500 kids each year. Over three days, they work with our staff, tending the forests, fields, gardens, and farm animals. We also founded a one-room middle school for local kids. It provides our local, under-resourced community with a progressive alternative for schooling and gives our staff opportunities for long-term relationships with students. Several years ago, our work expanded to include farmer-training for adults, much-needed skills that disappeared with the demise of the family farm. Our model follows that of the TTC: just as the only way you can learn to teach is by teaching, the only way you can learn to farm is by farming.

I came to the TTC directly from my family’s farm with a strong desire to learn how to serve a larger community of children and adults. My amazing directing teachers, Althea Cranston and Todd Nelson, created a context that built my confidence in leading groups of kids and communicating with groups of adults. This confidence was central to my being able to even imagine starting and then leading The Farm School, a place very much for kids held in a community of adults. I felt similarly held in my TTC experience. The TTC is a guiding light for how teachers should be trained.

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