SEBRING, Fla. – See that sweet building built around that cluster of moss- and fern-draped oaks?
In Florida, we call that a school cafeteria.
On the day I visited The Academy At The PARC, a private school/hybrid homeschool in one of the most remote places in Florida, the students were in there making lunch.
They were whipping up a curry dish by themselves. Using vegetables they grew themselves. For dessert, they had ice cream they made themselves.
If you’re in a state that doesn’t have education choice, are you jealous yet?
The Academy At The PARC is the brainchild of Colleen Paul-Hus, a farm girl turned businesswoman turned Waldorf education enthusiast. Her family bought this 40-acre patch of woods in Highlands County, better known for oranges and cattle and car racing, back in 2018. They moved here permanently in 2022.
Along the way, they turned it into an eclectic educational retreat for adults and kids.
PARC stands for Practical Arts Resort Campus. There’s a “biophilic barn” where people learn woodworking and blacksmithing. Cob buildings that serve as classrooms. Eco-friendly villas where visitors can stay overnight. There’s also a massive garden; more than 100 fruit trees; and chickens and rabbits and goats. All of it’s surrounded by woods, complete with 300-year-old oak trees and a pond full of bass.
In Florida, we call this a school.
The Academy At The PARC is both a private school and a hybrid homeschool, the latter for home education families who want part-time services. It started with 10 students three years ago. Now it’s up to 60 in grades K-11. About 80 percent use state-supported education choice scholarships. (The state’s scholarship programs are administered by nonprofits like Step Up For Students, which hosts this blog.)
Florida’s choice programs are “changing the face of education,” Paul-Hus told me. “I’m in my dream. I think, ‘Let’s try that!’ – and we do!”
The Academy at The PARC is growing so fast, it’s experiencing growing pains.
Construction this fall forced Paul-Hus to temporarily move the school’s operations to a nearby spot called Camp Wingmann, which is also known for outdoors education. She expects The Academy will be back home early next year.
Like many new schools emerging in Florida, The Academy At The PARC doesn’t fit the mold. It’s nature-based and Waldorf-inspired. The “core” academic curriculum is rigorous, taught by several former public school teachers. There’s a big “practical arts” component, where the students learn how to make everything from leather notebooks to bows and arrows. There’s also emphasis on entrepreneurship.
“It’s based on freedom,” Paul-Hus said. “How to provide for yourself. How to give to society. How to self-actualize.”
The Academy is also one of those schools that represents multiple trends at once – and demolishes some myths along the way. Nature-based schooling is on the rise. So are hybrid homeschools.
So are schools in rural areas served by education choice.
At this point, the evidence is overwhelming that school choice “works” in rural areas (see here, here and here) despite persistent claims to the contrary. But let me add one fresh nugget to the mix: Since education choice scholarship programs began ramping up in Florida in 2001, the number of private schools in Florida’s 30 rural counties has more than doubled, according to the latest data released by the state.
I guess school choice opponents in states without choice can keep making up stuff about what choice does and doesn’t do. In the meantime, creative educators like Colleen Paul-Hus will continue innovating models that expand the limits of what’s possible. Even out here in the woods.
