Participation and diversity of interactions

- Richness of the environment (explained before in title about the democratic open school model)

- Diversity of people to interact with: multi-age grouping, inter-generational activities, involvement of various people including parents

- Diversity of skills available for learning

- Diversity of places explored (forest days, adventure days, etc.)

It is crucial to make available to the children a great diversity of opportunities to interact and to learn. Beside what they will learn, participation, cooperation, and healthy communication are essential skills to acquire, and that are only acquired through interactions. They are an essential part of life for adults as well as children. The mix of children of different ages and the inter-generational dimension are essential for learning and social development. Fostering a diversity of children's ages and skill levels that promote learning opportunities. "It has been shown that children of different ages naturally adopt this natural pedagogical posture among themselves: they guide each other in their exploration of the world by pointing out the important elements to take into account; they exchange their experiences and their knowledge, in a natural, progressive and adapted way. »(Céline Alvarez, The Natural Laws of the Child, p.85) This diversity of ages is also beneficial for social learning. Thus: “This mixture of ages and this horizontality also allow all children to face a greater variety of social behaviors. They can thus naturally encode and understand the workings of social relations in a much richer way than by being only confronted with peers of the same age ". (Céline Alvarez, p.89)

There is also a great diversity in the adults participating in the school. Meeting all these different adults, children learn new skills and have the opportunity to develop their social skills as well. At least two of the four educators are present every day, being the referent people for the children. They are very well formed into pedagogy, non-violent communication, emotional awareness, etc.

All parents are giving some voluntary working time to the school. This time is given as a non-financial retribution, but more importantly it makes it a real community work to raise the children. Examples: Some parents come to build a new cabin for the children to play in. Some children are happy to help build it and thus discover new skills. Some parents give workshops, some work in the administration or in the organization of events etc. The regular or occasional workers of the Tree are of all ages, including retirees. There is a great diversity of workshops organized by different people (from art crafts to music and mathematics). We have since the beginning implemented a Skill Market. This can be done as well in a classical school. We welcome various kinds of other visitors as well. Students, teachers, or people wanting to create an alternative school come to share their skills and knowledge. Children too organize their own workshops and events.

Being well-grounded in its region (the school is close to the village where 1/3 of the children live, and it involves many people in the area), the school has become a real space of inter generational transmission. Every day the children are in contact with not only their educators, but several other adults bringing some help to the school, giving workshops etc. They meet new adults all the time and have the opportunity to follow the workshops of their choice. This model of democratic and open school actually tends to go back to the community or tribe model of raising children.

« To raise a child you need the whole village » African proverb