Where Berkshires schooling goes way outside the box

A CLuB Instructor leads students back from a hike at April Hill in South Egremont.

“I don’t learn stuff — I do stuff.”

That’s how third grader Ivanna Aguilar described her first day at Community Learning in the Berkshires, a new program in South County that seeks to take remote learning to “the outdoor classroom.”

Fearing a pandemic-impacted school year could disadvantage families without stable internet access, or without a caregiver who can stay home to supervise remote learning, local nonprofits partnered with two local school districts in an effort to fill those gaps.

Community Learning in the Berkshires, or CLuB, operates two sites where children participate in their school’s remote learning program under the supervision of trained educators and child care providers. Organizers say CLuB allows working families to remain in the workforce while providing school-aged children with social and emotional learning experiences that can be tough to get at home. Read more of Danny Jin’s article in the Berkshire Eagle.