Jesse Remington High School

Coordinates: 43°03′50″N 71°18′26″W / 43.06389°N 71.30722°W / 43.06389; -71.30722 Jesse Remington High School is a school in Candia, New Hampshire, that offers a classical Christian education with project-based learning. The school was founded in 1992 in the basement of Candia Congregational Church by Jeffrey Philbrick. Its namesake, Jesse Remington, had been a pastor at that church two hundred years prior, during the American War of Independence. His dream was to create a school, just like the one now operating out of his church. The purpose of this school is to push every student to the peak of their personal ability.

The school has a very personal setting due to its approximately 5 to 1 student teacher ratio, and size of about 30-50 students (changing from year to year). Because of this, students needing help are able to develop personal relationships with their teachers and increase their education.

Students at Jesse always have the chance to dig in and get their hands dirty. Along with the core curriculum of Humanities, Math, Science, and Bible, there are courses offered called Arts & Artisans, which are (but are not limited to) timber framing, stained glass, pottery, art, and weaving. The purposes of these classes are to teach life skills to students by allowing them to experience them first hand. In timber framing, the students begin by working with a customer, and drawing the structural layout of the building using CAD. They then learn how to plan the structure, and commence building the frame of a building which will attest to their work for years to come.

The Remington Education Center (REC)

Yearly projects

Every year there are four major projects that each student will participate in. The first is the Faire, which is a school-wide reenactment of an historical age. These periods include the Renaissance, the Age of Enlightenment, the Victorian era, the Middle Ages, and recently the 20th century. During this time, each student is responsible to research one character from this era, and portrays that person as closely as possible to historical fact. In this way, students not only learn in-depth information about important historical figures, but they also teach anyone who they meet on the Faire days. Upon completion of the Faire, students are required to write a research paper on their character, in order to cement their knowledge of that time period, and to teach basic writing skills. During this time freshman students are taught how to build work citation pages, as all grades are expected to cite all sources, and quotes.

The next project that students work on is Lights on the Hill, a Christmas-oriented school project that includes choirs, plays, puppet shows, cookie decorating, animal petting, and a cafeteria. During this time students are taught the biblical story of Christmas, and have the opportunity to make their school shine like a light on a hill.

In the second semester, students work on science projects, which are generally alumni-led classes that can range from Winter Ecology, to small engines workshops, and from bridges to running a sugar shack. During this class, students decide on the course they would like to take, and work on it from its beginning stages to its completion.

The students in sugar shacking learn how to tap maple trees for their sap, and boil it to produce pure New Hampshire maple syrup. Students in bridges learn the dynamics of building bridges and as a final project build paper bridges for a contest to see whose will stand the greatest amount of weight. No matter what the choice is, students will be able to learn hands on by actually partaking in these types of events.

The final project of the school year is called “Celebration of the Arts”. This project is based around the study of arts and artisans which include drama, set design, timber framing, weaving, sewing, and painting. The result of this semester of projects is a play, often by Shakespeare, with beautifully painted scenes, and props, sewn dresses, scarves, and a picture display of timber frames built over the years by Jesse Remington students.

The Remington Education Center (REC)

External links

• School website