Neohumanist College of Asheville Opens Its Doors, Summer of 2021

By Ellen Landau and Sid Jordan

The Neohumanist College of Asheville completed construction in the spring. It will be offering a hybrid model of classes and mentoring combining distance learning with onsite instruction.

On 33 acres of land in the Blue Ridge Mountains north of Asheville, North Carolina in the USA, construction began in November, 2017. First, we built a road and a bridge to a slice of land on the side of a mountain, then a barn, completed in the spring of 2018. The barn is nestled in between two creeks leading to the French Broad River, the main artery of the southeastern US watershed in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It will be used as a welcoming center as well as for classrooms for science and ecology.
In the fall of 2018, the foundation was laid for the administration building on a ridge of the mountain top, upon which were placed two 40 foot geodesic domes. In the fall of 2019 we dug a well to provide water for the complex. The drill bit struck an underground river flowing 425 feet below the surface of the top of the mountain down to the French Broad. The campus double dome structure contains an administration building, connected to the college’s first classroom and a learning lab.

Nine academic faculties are planned, beginning with NHE Teacher Preparation for PreK-12 which will offer the college’s first courses to begin this Fall. Other multidisciplinary faculties that are planned for the college are Philosophy, Prout/Economics, Agriculture/Ecology, Arts/Music, Yoga & Wellness, Intuitional Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences.

NHE pre-K to 12 Teacher Preparation Online Program

A two-year program for NHE pre-K to 12 teacher preparation will begin online this September. A brief description of the first four courses being offered, the first semester, follows. More details about the program will be available soon.

This course will provide an in-depth introduction to the Neohumanist philosophy that underpins the Neohumanist Education movement. It will explore the evolution of human social consciousness towards increasing awareness of our inherent interconnection. It will examine the historical antecedents for the emergence of Neohumanism, as well as its particular relevance as a deep, holistic response to the present context of climate collapse and accentuated social inequalities. Participants will also explore the concept of human spiritual potential from a practical, rationalistic standpoint.

This course will introduce participants to the foundational concepts of a Neohumanist philosophy of education in the context of an overview of major Western philosophical traditions of the 20th and 21st centuries. A Neohumanist philosophy of education offers new understandings of the concept of the human, what it means to “know” and how knowing happens, an expanded perspective on ethics and their importance in education, and a new understanding of the role of aesthetics in human experience and what the arts contribute to a Neohumanist education.

This course will offer transformative practices that contribute to physical, emotional, social, mental and spiritual development for Neohumanist educators. This holistic set of practices integrates personal and social transformation. To achieve this integration educators must be examples of different ways of knowing, doing and being for themselves and their students. The key to this personal and social transformation is to develop a rationalistic mentality that serves the welfare of all.

As Neohumanist educators, it is imperative that we have foundational grounding in child development concepts and theories. This course explores and situates child development through the NHE lens. We will approach the physical, social, emotional, cognitive, moral and spiritual development of the whole child, along with the educational implications, with a critical and intuitional eye.

For more detail on the Neohumanist Teacher Education Program, and to apply for the program, please visit the college’s website at nhca.gurukul.edu or write to:
College Address: Neohumanist College of Asheville, 160 Wellness Way, Marshall, NC 28753.