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O J A I M AG A Z I N E | SPRING 2026
OAk GRove ScHooL TuRns 50
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ore than 50 years ago, in the spring of 1975, Fred Hall, then editor of the Ojai Valley News, asked philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti a simple but pointed question: In a valley already full of public and private schools, why start another one? Krishnamurti didn’t answer by talking about ACT scores or curriculum. Instead, he turned the question back on education itself by asking, “Why are we being educated at all?” He believed that much of traditional schooling focused too narrowly on memorization and technical skills, producing what he called a “fragmented” kind of learning. Oak Grove, he suggested, wouldn’t be just another school, but an experiment in educating the whole person. Strong academics would matter, of course, but so would learning how to think clearly, understand oneself, and live with curiosity rather than conformity.
where students learn both the value of knowledge and its limits. Facts and skills matter, he wrote, but they don’t tell the whole story. Just as important is learning how to observe, listen, and question without jumping too quickly to conclusions. Krishnamurti also had an unexpected take on freedom. “Freedom of choice is not freedom,” he wrote. For him, real freedom wasn’t about doing whatever you want, but about understanding yourself well enough not to be driven by fear, pressure, habit, or conditioning.
Reflecting on the school’s founding, Krishnamurti shared his hopes with Oak Grove’s first director, the late Mark Lee. The world, he said, was filled with confusion and suffering. “Perhaps in one generation we can make a difference and produce young people who will change themselves and the world,” he said. “Young people who are sensitive, aware, and caring.” From the start, the question was never whether Ojai needed another good school. It was whether a school could become a place of real questioning, freedom, and growth — and whether education itself could be reimagined. The Intent of the School Oak Grove wasn’t built around a rigid system or teaching method. Instead, it grew from a simple belief: Education should help students understand themselves and the world around them. In The Intent of the Oak Grove School, Krishnamurti described it as a place
by KERSTIN KÜHN Photos courtesy of Oak Grove School Archives
Left: Oak Grove’s first director, the late Mark Lee Set within Oak Grove School’s wooded campus, the Pavilion functions as a simple, open gathering place rather than a formal classroom. Used for assemblies, ceremonies, and shared events, it reflects the school’s emphasis on community, conversation, and learning that unfolds in close relationship with the natural landscape.
According to Jodi Grass, Oak Grove head of school: “This school is a radical undertaking. It asks us to actively question and examine how we provide the opportunity to learn functional knowledge while at the same time exploring the intelligence within ourselves, to realize human potential, not only for the individual’s sake, but for the sake of humanity.” Fifty years later, that idea still guides the school.