This may come as a surprise, but it wasn’t the outdoors that was my main inspiration for creating Tamarack. The real spark came from two very different ideas. The first was The Cartoon History of the Universe. I was (and still am) convinced its bird’s-eye view of the entirety of world history could be used to help them spot the patterns that repeat themselves across time and culture, a perspective that would enrich the more detailed studies in high school and beyond.
The second was a conviction that quantum physics should be taught to the young. I believed (and still do) that elementary students, with their imagination and openness, are ideal candidates to grasp the bizarre ideas that define quantum physics.
I wasn’t a teacher and had no illusion otherwise, so my first task was to find educators who could share the vision and make it real. And I did. I found brilliant, compassionate, eager teachers committed to meeting kids where they are at, following their interests, and using exploration and experience to create meaningful learning in the great outdoors. But no matter how hard I tried, I could never quite convince them that the real gem was The Cartoon History of the Universe, or that we could be the only school in the world exploring quantum physics with students who had only just recently moved out of diapers.
It reminded me of sitting in a theatre during the screening of one of my films, watching as the audience laughed at all the wrong moment.
So rather than focusing on cartoon history or quantum physics, the teachers blended their passions with the children’s curiosity, opening up worlds I never could have imagined. One year that meant pouring over the graphic novel version of Sapiens, another it meant marvelling at the prevalence of the Fibonacci sequence in nature, and countless other explorations besides.
And I guess that’s exactly how it should be. My initial inspirations are what gave me the energy and excitement to get the ball rolling, but it was the interests of the students and the teachers that made the school grow, becoming a living reflection of the people inside it. Maybe one day I’ll still start that cartoon-history-and-quantum-physics school. But for now I’m happy that Tamarack became exactly what it was meant to be.
