I think there are two things that almost all Los Alamos Public Schools alumni can agree upon. One: the education a student receives from the schools in Los Alamos is excellent! Two: the education a student receives from the schools in Los Alamos tends to be unconventional.

Why unconventional? If you spend any time at all on Central Avenue you’ll probably notice a LOT of tour busses, out of district yellow school buses and a significant number of vehicles with out of state plates. They’re coming to Los Alamos to learn about science. To study history. To follow the US Parks Service Tour of the Manhattan Project Historical Sites. But they’re all here to learn. The actual source of what they want to learn is part of the daily lives of average citizens here in Los Alamos. So I suppose living here in town means you’ve got access to a lot of knowledge!

I’ve heard stories of fellow LAHS alumni bemoaning that their Physics teacher actually wrote the textbook. We have outdoor classrooms and guest speakers from LANL in all of our schools from elementary to high school. When Jean Nereson was still teaching in the elementary schools, she utilized teaching aids she had literally brought back from her travels to every continent on the planet. She wasn’t the only one. Our teachers have traditionally been some of the most intelligent and capable scientists, doctors, historians, writers, and musicians in their own right. And that’s before we take into account the incredible cooperation between UNM-LA and our public schools or the possibility of a high school internship at a National Laboratory.

But that unconventional and sometimes eclectic education began much earlier than the scientific laboratory. In fact, it started at the beginning. When AJ Connell approached Yale graduates and asked if they’d like to sign on for an adventure!

Come on! What could be more adventurous than signing on to teach between 6 and 9 boys of varying ages at a high mountain ranch school far from “modern” civilization in an area so remote that you had to grow your own food? In 1918 that was the status of Ashley Pond’s and AJ Connell’s Los Alamos Ranch School.

In September of 1918, AJ Connell was joined at the Los Alamos Ranch School by Fayette Samuel Curtis, Jr. “Fay” Curtis, as he became known, had only just graduated from Yale in June. He’d been struggling to overcome tuberculosis, and he would be responsible for teaching all subjects because that’s all the school could afford one master.

The only goal at the Los Alamos Ranch School was that the students would show success and development. They were to learn. How the masters managed this was left entirely up to them. Which is probably why the boys learned so much, so well, and went on to become amazing members of society.

One LARS graduate later recalled shooting craps with the masters using algebra problems and latin lines as currency and allowing luck to determine whether the students had more or less homework. Fermor Church, the school master who later married Ashley Pond’s daughter Peggy, utilized environmental attributes such as the slope of ski hills to illustrate gradients, help students understand geometry, and also as a way to demonstrate principles of physics and geology. He was also known for demonstrating gravity by having boys plunge their hands into boiling water at ten thousand feet altitude!

It seems to me that the largest benefit of the way LARS was run was that school masters and staff were encouraged to continue their own learning. Oddly enough I often think that the fireplace in Fuller Lodge hosted many of the same kind of discussions the beer garden at Bathtub Row Brewery does now. The common denominator is young, highly educated, intelligence professionals. They love to gather and chat about the latest advancements in their fields, possible ways to get more information about new ideas. How to test hypothesis and develop new and better ways to do things. This is how great learning happens. And here in Los Alamos we’ve got this down to an art. Or perhaps a science…

Regardless of your educational background, I hope that as we come to the close of this school year, you consider all the ways in which you and your family can keep the positive learning happening this summer. Attend Science Fest! Hit the PEEC for their summer programs. Attend a talk, a concert, or see a play. The best ways to learn in Los Alamos don’t always happen in the classroom! And when you’re ready to join our unique community on the hill, give me a call! I’m a hometown girl who would love to chat about real estate in Los Alamos with you!