The Contract is the floor - the non-negotiables. Brainstormed in Week 1, added to at Town Halls #3 and #4, drafted in full on the Monday of Week 6 and locked on the Tuesday, and signed at Exhibition on the Friday in front of families, then hung on the wall all year. Breaking the Contract triggers a compass check (a recentering conversation), not a punishment. The Contract is a promise we make to each other, not a list of rules a guide imposes.
The Contract is not drafted continuously across six weeks, and it shouldn't pretend to be. It opens as a brainstorm at Town Hall #1 (W1D2), then the running list gets three minutes at the end of Town Hall #3 (W3D3) and Town Hall #4 (W4D3) - harvesting lines out of conversations that have just happened, which is when they are worth having. The full draft is written on the Monday of Week 6, locked Tuesday, signed Friday. Between Week 1 and Week 6 it sits on the wall as a growing list and nothing more.
These are the principles the guide brings to Week 1 as conversation starters. The studio refines, replaces, or adds - the final Contract is theirs, not yours. But these are the floors the guide will not let the studio go below.
Bodies stay our own. We don't wrestle, hit, or grab. We ask before touching (handshake, hug, high-five). When someone says no, no is the answer. When someone needs space, they get it.
When someone forgets a rule, we give a kind reminder. We don't yell. We don't shame. We don't mock. If we need help working it out, we ask a guide to facilitate - after we've tried first.
Fair doesn't mean the same. Some learners use tools others don't. Some take breaks others don't. We trust that. If we're confused about why someone has something, we ask a guide - not the person.
We come ready to learn. We use the schedule the way it's meant to be used. We ask for help when we're stuck. We give effort even when we don't feel like it.
Materials go back. Trash goes in the bin. The space stays a place we're proud to walk into. The Maintenance Captain leads, but it's everyone's job.
Especially with each other. Especially with ourselves. The guide is a partner in this, not a judge.
Breaking a Contract promise triggers a compass check - a short conversation, usually with a guide, sometimes with the affected peer. The structure:
Compass checks are not punishments. They are returns to the path. Every learner expects to have a few - that's part of being human in a tribe.
The Contract is finalized on Tuesday of Week 6 - read line by line, last objections taken, wording locked - and physically signed on Friday at Exhibition, in front of families. Splitting it that way is deliberate: Tuesday carries the honesty, where each learner names the promise they'll personally find hardest in front of the tribe only, and Friday carries the ceremony. An objection raised in front of an audience cannot be handled well by anybody, so the last chance to change a word is Tuesday.
Some suggestions for how to make the signing feel real: