I had an opportunity to be a part of a team presenting our qualifications to design a new school for the Crestone Charter School in Crestone, Colorado.  The setting is stunning, located at the edge of town at an elevation of 8,000 feet at the base of the Sangre de Christo mountain range.  Just to the south is the Great Sand Dunes National Park.  In 1987 I spent one of the coldest nights of my life at GSDNP while traveling with friends in Colorado.  The reward was a morning on the dunes which are reached by crossing the seemingly insignificant Medano Creek– 1 inch deep and 100 feet across.  This small stream has held back the advancing sand dunes for the past 10,000 years and allows life to take hold in a fragile environment. 

I think of the amazing commitment to sustainable living and authentic project-based learning taking place in the Crestone Charter School for the past 15 years and the work of many other visionary schools around the globe holding back the “business as usual” approach which dominates so many of our schools.  Our visionaries may be small in number, and the impact they are making may not be seen for another generation, but they are holding back the storm, and showing us the way in an increasing fragile world.