The mission of the Living Education Center

is to empower young people with the knowledge and the ability to act positively and creatively and to be catalysts for the types of positive change that enhance the quality of the natural, cultural and community environments.

Ecological awareness, creativity and community involvement are the themes that provide an academic curriculum that is interdisciplinary, diverse and experiential.

LEC provides an alternative to competition, rite learning, distrust, failure and punishment by balancing freedom and responsibility, commitment and passion, the head and the heart.

By recognizing and honoring the needs for

• a nurturing and supportive environment
• individual attention and acceptance, and
• teachers who project a positive future

we prepare our students to become caring, effective and responsible adults.

At LEC our standards of learning are not found in a list, a test booklet or in government mandates. We believe that

• The goal of education is not mastery of subject matter but of one's self.
• Knowledge carries with it the responsibility to see it well used in the world.
• Example is more powerful than words and action learning is more inspirational than passivity.
• We are all responsible for creating and maintaining a healthy world.
• All education is environmental education.
• Learning and teaching are essential creative acts.

LEC was founded in 1992 by Ernie and Sue Reed and a group of passionate teachers and parents who saw the world as one big classroom and recognized young people as the creative and passionate individuals that they are. For over 15 years, LEC has combined the best qualities of home schooling with environmental and creative arts education within a full school program that fulfills all state and legal requirements for an advanced high school diploma.

In recognition of our achievements, The Living Education Center has been honored with the Environment Innovation Award in Education by the Commonwealth of Virginia.