Junior High

The Odyssey is a two-week trip at the beginning of each year that sets the stage for the formation of the community and the academic tone for the first semester of the year.

Odyssey East travels to Williamsburg and Washington, D.C., with a focus on the creation of a nation, the foundations of democracy, weather, phenology and human genetics, early American literature, essays, and political thought.

Odyssey West travels to Crow Canyon, Colorado, and focuses on the first humans in North America, the needs of early peoples and the effects of climate in their lives, the science of archaeology, geology of the western United States, and the art and literature of early cultures.

Odyssey South travels to the J.L. Scott Marine Educational Center in Biloxi, Mississippi, and focuses on marine biology, Civil Rights, the Civil War, and 19th and 20th century American literature.

Farm Stays at our rural campus offer Junior High students unique opportunities to connect with the land. Each student may elect to participate in a Farm Stay during one of four 19-day immersion sessions over the school year. Farm Stays engage students in the life and work of a farm and vary according to the season. They include integrated academics, microeconomics, community, and physical work.

There are four full-day trips and one overnight trip to the LCS Land School over the course of the year for all Junior High students during which every student participates in some aspect of stewardship and preservation of the natural or agricultural environment. In summer, Junior High students may apply to participate in a 4-day residential apprenticeship program at the rural campus.

Mirroring the experience of the Odyssey and supporting the adolescents’ developmental need for self-expression, January serves as a month-long drama experience that offers an immersion into another time and place through theater. Working in crews, students participate in every aspect of creating, staging, and acting in a major performance for the school community. An annual alternation of genres generally includes Shakespeare and a musical.

The Junior High takes a five-day bike and camping trip across Minnesota and Wisconsin over the last week of the school year. The trip is physically challenging and ends the year with a bond of shared experiences and memories.