“Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work, which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.” Mary Oliver penned these wise words in her poem, Messenger, but here at The Leelanau School, we watch them come alive.

Many of our students come to us with wild and beautiful neurodivergent brains, including ADHD. So, our natural setting, caring faculty, and experiential learning make for the perfect recipe for these students to thrive. 

As ADHD guru, Dr. Ed Hallowell says, “Telling someone with ADHD to slow down is like telling the sun not to shine and the tide not to rise. The love of speed is built into our DNA. If our bodies are not moving a mile a minute, our minds are, ideas popping up like popcorn at the movies.” So, yes, you’d be marveled by watching our students slow down enough to become mesmerized by the salmon swarming into the Crystal River each fall. 

But it’s the truth. Here at The Leelanau School, we take slowing down seriously. Let’s take today, for example. Mr. Blondia’s Biology students will be pulling up waders to head into “the bog.” They’ll be knee-deep studying carnivorous plants. In Enameling, students will be playing with fire, literally. They’ll have to really pause and think as they fire up the kiln to create their enameling project. In Sustainability, with the help of the bees, they are making honey together.

This type of experiential learning is something that is vital, but slowing down just doesn’t come as naturally for the ADHD brain. Let’s take Dr. Hallowell’s race car analogy. He describes the ADHD brain as one that is very powerful, like a “Ferrari.” He says that while it’s both dynamic and fast, the brakes on the car are more like those that belong to a bicycle. Hallowell says that the brakes in an ADHD brain just aren’t strong enough to control the powerful brain they have. This makes it even more difficult to slow down which leads to minds getting off track. Luckily, here at The Leelanau School, we have curated our daily lives to encourage a slower-paced life, making it easier for the cars to get back into their lanes.

When students spend their time here at the Leelanau School, we have a lot of hopes for them. By the time a student graduates, sure, we hope they’ve learned oodles. We hope they’re ready to tackle college and whatever their future may bring. But honestly, we hope they’ve learned, truly learned, to slow down enough to be astonished. We hope that after living life the Leelanau way, our students have made slowing down a habit. A habit that will take them long into adulthood. A habit that will allow them to live a life full of wonder, love, and value. 

So, just like Mary Oliver, we’re doing very important work here on campus. We’re making daily progress on ourselves as humans. And we’re doing this by noticing, pausing, and in the end, being astonished.