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Welcome to Rainbow Mountain
Children's School and Omega Program
Rainbow Mountain Children's School and Omega Program (RMCS)
is a private, independent school serving 40 preschoolers and
up to
100 students from kindergarten through eighth grade in Asheville, North Carolina. For more than 30 years, we have been a national leader in alternative, holistic and contemplative education.
Our curriculum is based on the best thinking in current educational research and offers:
- Holistic approach to education
- Multi-age learning environments
- Emphasis on creativity and self expression
- Exposure to world cultures and traditions
- Loving and emotionally-safe environment
- Positive, respectful discipline methods
- Low student/teacher ratio
We strive to support the development of the whole child in five domains: mental, emotional, moral/social, physical and spiritual. We accomplish this task, in part, using the Multiple Intelligences approach pioneered by Harvard's Howard Gardner. Students are invited to engage in subjects using a variety of intelligences including linguistic, musical, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic and interpersonal. We encourage self-directed learning through the development of essential learning skills and behaviors.
Dear Parents,
Welcome to the 2008-2009 school year at Rainbow Mountain Children’s School. Since I last welcomed everyone to a new year, we have watched and celebrated together the cycle of all the seasons. Rainbow has a culture all its own, with its many traditions and gentle ways of being. In my first year as executive director at RMCS, I wanted to connect with everyone and to fully experience it. It was a joyful year, culminating in a graduation ceremony that celebrated our blessings, while sending our graduates off in a circle of love.
Harvest season is now upon us. As summer reaches its apex, a bountiful crop of plump red tomatoes; waxy, yellow crookneck squashes; neon-green peppers; and deep purple eggplants decorate my kitchen. A cornucopia of colorful abundance that promotes sharing. Most inspiring this summer, was the wedding of Rainbow teachers Chris Waddell and Susan Swanson. Sharing was the theme of their ceremony. Their vows defined their union as a higher calling to serve, together, as teachers and as ambassadors of peace. When there is an abundance of love and compassion, we have energy to join together and to serve others. Agape.
Together, we have much to look forward to this year. I believe that we have assembled the finest faculty Rainbow Mountain has seen in all of its thirty-one years of educating children. Talented, intelligent, experienced, highly educated, creative, committed, compassionate, energetic, and enthusiastic – they are amazing human beings and role models for our children. I encourage you to read their biographies.
Even more powerful than having teachers who are each, individually, talented – is having a cohesive faculty that works in unison. As an organization we have become like one organism – working together to create as ideal of a classroom experience as we can imagine. When students, parents, teachers, administrators, staff members, and volunteers all give more to the community than they expect to benefit from it, the unexpected happens–we reap more than we ever imagined. Like magic, our children mature into mindful people who astound us.
I’ve included an insert to give you more information regarding what to look forward to this year. As we once again move through the seasons together– planting, pondering, working through challenges, celebrating, and harvesting– let us remember to be grateful for our abundance and our ability to serve one another for the benefit of our children. On behalf of the staff, we are looking forward to another gratifying year of service.
Blessings,
Renee Owen
Executive Director
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