A River Between

I haven’t made much of an announcement about this yet with the readers of this blog. It’s been in process for a while, but now it’s a sure thing. I’ve placed my condo in Northfield, MN on the market, and Michael and I will be moving to Minneapolis on April 1st!

We decided on Franklin Co-op, in the Seward neighborhood. This apartment complex is a few blocks away from the Hiawatha Light Rail Line, two blocks from the Seward Co-op, and a bus or rail ride away from almost everything in the city of Minneapolis that we enjoy. One bus will take me to class, and a short walk will get Michael to the rail station to take him to work at MetroTransit! It’s perfect!

I’ve gotten a few questions from people recently about this move, so I thought I’d post a few things here as well.
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Standing in line. Hall passes. Study hall. Detention. Small desks. Running to your locker so you aren’t late for your next class.These are just some of the memories I have of school growing up. After graduating from high school nineteen years ago, it’s difficult to come up with a list of ways that school prepared me for the real world. Maybe the one Home Economics class I took my freshman year, or perhaps one of my Psychology courses were the ones that I took with me into the “real world”.

On Thursday, February 2, I joined many others for an open discussion about democracy in education and the mission of The Village School of Northfield. While I had been to the school before, this time showed more of the deep need for true democratic education in our school systems today. The Village School is about self-directed education. Students from grades K – 12 learn what they want, when they want, and how they want. Teachers act as partners and guides for students in their education. As the evening unfolded, I felt I had learned more in two hours than I had in years.
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