About Us

A Family Farm School is defined as an association of families, professionals and institutions of the community who assume the responsibility of development and the promotion of the community through integral educative actions, especially with the youth, as a way of responding to common problems.
Ours is a special secondary program employing the pedagogy of the “alternancia”. This is an educational system similar to the dual training system but communal and family oriented in context. To ensure real-life learning, students stay at home with their families, work in their farm/family enterprise (home period) for a week then attend classes (school period) for the following week taking into account observations and learning from the community and their own family.

THE FOUR PILLARS

Integral Formation of the Youth:

Man is composed of a body and a soul. In the Family Farm School this has been further subdivided into recognizing the need to form man, the youth in particular, in the head (Professional/Intellectual), the heart (Human/Social) and the soul (Moral/Spiritual). The formation is complex, in as much as, it is done within the natural flow of activities in a rural community. It is a deep formation since it requires the reflection of the student, connecting the patterns and relationship of activities in the community with the academics and practical life.

The professional/intellectual formation equips the student in honing skills relevant to their rural area. It could be in terms of farming or other work and includes entrepreneurial skills. It also prepares the student for further studies but basically it is preparing them for real work.

In the human/social formation they are formed to be socially responsible and developed their interpersonal and intrapersonal skills. It also includes ingrained value system pertinent to their work and relations with other people. The moral and spiritual formations are basically developing good relations with the Creator and make morally-sound decisions.

Community Development:

Community Development is defined as improvement of the communities in economic terms, human formation and civic consciousness of the people. Community formation does not happen without the presence of a strong FFS Association which is composed of people in the community, parents, professionals & institutions.

Targeting the youth as the focus of formation, at the end of their program in the FFS, the students together with their families are able to implement their Family Enterprise Project as the concrete output of their formation. His values and other virtues formed in the students are used as he and his family manages the Family Enterprise Project. Likewise, the student graduate has imbibed a sense of citizenship to his community, aware and concerned about the affairs and situation of his area, thinking and providing for its development.

"Alternancia"

This is the unique feature of the FFS system. Simply explained, the learning/formation process of the student is done in two distinct periods in the school and the farm/enterprise of the family/community. Although physically there are distinct periods of learning, the formation process flows through each one. One is the point or start of learning and the other is the enhancement of learning. The start of learning happens in the farm/enterprise period and enhanced during the school period. This is called a cycle of learning. The basis for such learning process is the necessity to integrate the formation of the youth with his environment, not alienating him from it. From the work he sees in his family and the activities of the community, he relates it with the lessons (academic or practical) given to him in school. The process promotes reflection and not mere acquisition of knowledge.

However, the process of learning through the alternancia is not solely the responsibility of the teachers/tutors of the school (as traditionally done) but involves the personalities in the community aside from his family. They are the professionals/workers, the community in general and his own youth group. The alternancia is further strengthened as a formation process whenever the students spend periods of being together in the school acting as a small community, learning how to relate, co-exist with each other. It creates camaraderie among the youth.

The FFS Association

The FFS Association is the governing body of the school whose responsibilities does not limit itself in the activities of the school, rather extends to the community where it operates. It is composed of members coming from the community; the Families who enjoy direct benefits from the school through their sons and daughters, the Professionals who come from both the private & government sectors who believe in the transformational role of the FFS in the community and those Institutions of the area who want to participate and support the work of the FFS. They come together to mobilize themselves, create a force of development through education, formation of the youth and themselves. Not one of these three personalities in the association own exclusively the formation center but work together for its benefit. The families being the direct beneficiaries of the educational project are part in making the curriculum or formation plan of their children and assume responsibilities in running the affairs of the school. The other two though (professionals & institutions) support these responsibilities in running the school.



FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

All FFS in the world are characterized by the same fundamental principles as such:
The responsibility of the families in the formation of their children, that they participate in the formation, management and daily operation of every FFS and extending to all the rural areas;

A particular pedagogy for the integral development of the young people; it uses a formation method called “the alternation” between the associate-professional rural world and the center of formation. This allows for a permanent relationship between practice and theory, work and study, experience and knowledge;

The community participates in the formation; this assures the total formation of the students and favors personal and collective promotion of the community, therefore it is a vehicle for community development and cultural authentication and bases for permanent formation.
To fulfill the above principles, the Family Farm Schools see to it that they adhere to the four pillars.
These four pillars are 1) Integral Formation, 2) Rural Development, 3) Alternancia, and ) Responsible Associations. The first two pillars are the aims of the Family Farm School while the latter two are the means to achieve the aims.
To ensure that the Four Pillars are strong enough, the board of the association are truly engaged while the teachers/tutors of the school are well-trained and exceptional in their duties.
Dagatan Family Farm School
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