StoneFire in New Zealand: The School Down Under?
By Kent Ferguson

For a long time now I have seen that the best schools and the best teachers do have philosophical principles and most importantly, do make very real efforts to put them into practice. That is indeed our way at the StoneFire.

Hundreds, perhaps thousands of times during my 35 years as a headmaster, administrator, trustee, and teacher I have been asked and have attempted to answer questions regarding my own views about educational philosophy. Always my answers seem to contain certain elements.

It all begins with a log….

In the ancient and classical sense, school is in session whenever one finds a student seated at one end of a log, and a teacher at the other. This dynamic can be sensed in the stories of:

Through this interplay and dance one might observe that often the two change places. First one is the student and then the other! Such is the basis for education, the “drawing out,” the expression and development of what is within. The following factors assist to support this process:

1. Small and intimate.
There needs to be truthful and real contact between teachers and students, small classes that focus on ideas, debate, and comprehension over lecture, notes, and memory. The methods at StoneFire reflect Socratic dialogue and the informal seminar-style classes of Cambridge or Oxford.

The topics are endless: the mind of man, the globe, the land, and the life upon it. How did these things come to be? From what are they made? And what is their purpose? Perhaps the very best teacher of all is and always has been Mother Nature.

3. Preparation for the future.
Students who attend any fine school receive many benefits, and therefore inherit many responsibilities. They need the academic basics, scholastic training and self-directed intellectual rigor that a future of service and reward demands. For over a quarter century I have seen, year after year, students emerging from this approach to their schooling and going on to WHATEVER they and their families might choose.

Total immersion is a key here. Academic rigor and solid footing are keys here. Integrated learning and inspired teaching are keys here as well.

4. Technological tools
StoneFire in NZ would not be possible without the ability to “take advantage” of the 21st century. Our far away campus is less than a day's flight from America. Our pictures and e-mail---by which this school was born, nurtured, and designed---can be delivered to the home instantly. StoneFire proves both how vast the globe is and yet how small and interconnected it has become!