Rules can be a drag. Oftentimes they make people feel policed. If the rules are handled poorly or ill defined, it can cause people to walk on egg shells and worry more about getting “caught” breaking them than actually following them for the reasons they were established in the first place. 

Over the last few days Tim and myself have been writing up a list of rules we’ll supply each of our students with before they arive at the field school for courses. In doing this I’ve noticed a trend. These rules are built around respect. Firstly for the students and instructors involved in the programs, but the undertones center around respect for the land we’re living on. 

On long-term programs, it’s easy for people to take shortcuts. In the moment it may not seem like a big deal, but in a month, or nine week long program those little things build up. It’s easy to get away with shortcuts in the modern world, but when you’re living in a low infrastructure environment, in close contact with the people around you, it becomes a little more difficult. That’s the basis for our approach to making rules for living at the field school. Not to make student’s feel that they’re under a microscope, but to avoid frustration that can arise in those close settings. The rules we’ve come up with are now posted here and we hope they’ll help alleviate a lot of the common annoyances that pop up on occaison.