I can almost see the quiet hillside where the Mountain School sits. It is all I can think about. 

At Paly, my education is fast. Efficient. Full of opportunity. Yet, I often find myself lost in the rat-race to get into college, make the most money, be the most “successful.” Learning here is measured in grades, GPAs and busy schedules. Although Paly is a goldmine for many ambitious students, sometimes I feel my desire to learn slip away under the inescapable pressure to maintain the best numbers possible in class.

The Mountain School of Milton Academy is a semester program for high schoolers where students are able to connect with the land of Vermont, their average 40-student class, and themselves. Since 1962, their mission is to cultivate a diverse and interdependent community of scholars who learn to know a place and take care of it. Through collaborative learning and shared work, students emerge from their semester prepared to reach beyond the self and focus on the common good. 

To me, TMS is a pause from the neverending busy life at Paly to a place where learning and understanding is prioritized within a tight-knit community. Ultimately, I believe that The Mountain School has the potential to change how I understand learning itself. Creating a way to step away from a system whose priorities don’t align with my values. I believe that if learning is rooted in real work, accountability and time to think, then understanding will deepen naturally without the constant pressure of evaluation.

If this is true, then returning to Palo Alto won’t mean abandoning rigor or ambition, but being able to reframe them. The Mountain School has the ability to prove that education doesn’t lose its seriousness when it slows down, instead it gains clarity.