Folkschool honors elders' knowledge

SANDPOINT — And so it was that there came a time when the people lost power.  Some hugged their dead televisions and wept, pleading to the heavens for divine intervention. Others, walking in dazed circles around their homes, pressed and prodded the buttons of unresponsive appliances, praying for a different outcome on the next pass. 

The bitter reality slapped the children like a thunderclap. They refused, at first, to accept this fate and thumbed their game controllers as if nothing had happened. Their little digits drove up and down like pistons, but no worlds exploded, no enemies fell, no digital characters arose to do their bidding. Anger turned into alarm, followed by a numb resignation. 

After a time, the plastic boxes slipped from their fingers and fell to the floor, useless.  Some of the children ventured outdoors, into the sunlight and fresh air. Looking up and down the street, they saw other youngsters come out of their homes.

“What should we do?” one of the children called out. 

“We could play,” another suggested.

“How?” asked a third child. “There’s no power.  That means the games don’t work.”

The children went to see the Grandmothers and Grandfathers, asking them for help.  The elders listened and went off to talk among themselves. Later, they returned and gathered the children around them.

“We thought you had forgotten us,” one of them said. “And now you come to us for help. Listen, and we will share what we know.

“We will teach you how to make the things you need and fix things that are broken,” a grandfather said.

“We will teach you how to weave and to bead, to cook and can food, to find new joy in the old ways,” a grandmother told them.

And so it was that on this day — the day the game controllers died — a new kind of school was born, where knowledge sprang to life anew and threw sparks as it arced from one generation to the next. The power had returned to the people.

    Road to Folkschool

In June of 2008, Sandpoint became the second U.S. city to earn the designation of being a “transition town.” In its briefest form, that recognition came because the community was making strides toward things like energy efficiency, supporting locally grown food sources and encouraging residents and elected officials to be better stewards of the land.

A group called the Sandpoint Transition Initiative was formed with the goal of “developing a sustainable, resilient and vibrant community.” The mission statement — both general and noncommittal in its wording — could easily have acted as a cover for doing little or nothing. Instead, it became the rallying cry for STI’s work in several key areas over the past two years, the most recent of which is being called a Folkschool.

“The mission of our Folkschool is to teach the arts and crafts of sustainable living,” said Karen Lanphear, who co-founded STI with local resident Richard Kuhnel. “It’s based on a Scandinavian model where people in the community can learn the skills they need to live in that community.”

Last month, Lanphear visited two folk schools in Minnesota — a state rife with Scandinavian heritage — and saw the process at work. What she witnessed was a model where instructors with specific talents and areas of expertise reached out to share that knowledge with their neighbors.

The Great Re-Skilling

Seen in that way, STI’s Folkschool is not a novel concept, but a localized version of an already tested take on community learning. It is also Sandpoint’s version of one of the transition movement’s basic principles — The Great Re-skilling.

“The key is an intergenerational, non-competitive commitment to lifelong learning,” Lanphear said. “And the principles involved are working together, raising awareness, honoring the elders and re-skilling.”

That last term requires a more concise definition. Re-skilling, as STI refers to it, is the process of reviving existing knowledge and putting it back to work.  The venue for that revival is the community Folkschool.

“Right now, it’s a ‘cyber-school’ because there’s not a brick-and-mortar location,” the STI co-founder explained. “The instructors provide their own class locations and set their own fees.

“For this first year, we just wanted to get it out there so we could build on it,” added Lanphear, who said STI is working with the University of Idaho Extension Office and Sandpoint City Parks & Recreation to expand the program next year.

A total of 52 classes were listed in the Folkschool catalog this spring, a few of which were either pushed back or canceled due to low enrollment. The classes that did move forward, however, have helped pave the way for what lifelong learning in Sandpoint might look like in the near future.

“We’re partnering with parks & recreation to promote the classes and use Sandpoint Community Hall as a location and U of I is looking at what kind of programs we can offer and what kind of programs we can provide so they can use their land up here,” Lanphear said.

Asset-Based Model

STI also hopes to align Folkschool curriculum with course offerings in Sandpoint’s fledgling Communiversity movement, where lifelong learning and college classes are offered in a decentralized setting, with community assets such as school buildings, corporate conference rooms and training centers doubling as classrooms.

In its second year, Folkschool will develop additional criteria for both classes and instructors, according to Lanphear. The program will seek out experienced teachers, as well as a stable of fine craftspeople who would be willing to take part in apprenticeship programs.

“STI uses an asset-based model, where you’re looking at what you already have in your community, not what you lack,” the co-founder said. “Some of our religious groups - like the Mennonites, the Mormons and the Seventh Day Adventists — could be a great resource because of their knowledge about things like food preservation. I don’t know if anyone has ever asked them to share that knowledge, but we’re going to reach out to them.

“And there’s so much other knowledge in our community,” she continued. “There are people who know how to fix things, how to make music out of nothing, how to put on a barn dance.”

Connecting the Generations

The community’s elders will be first out of the gate to share their knowledge, but STI already is working on a plan to put students to work on a project that closes the generation gap. This year, the East Bonner County Library expressed interest in putting its audio-video editing resources to use to begin compiling the oral histories of old-timers in the area. The missing element was a workforce of volunteers who could go out and collect those stories.

As a complement to Folkschool classes, STI wants to convince local high schools to use journalism and communications classes, combined with editing instruction, to feed the archives.    

“We could teach them the interviewing skills and then send them out to start collecting oral histories,” Lanphear said.  “We already have all the ingredients we need right here in our community — we just haven’t put them together yet.”

Sandpoint Moves First

Soon after Boulder, Colo., was named the first “transition town” in the nation, Sandpoint joined the list at number two. Since then, though, this community has racked up nothing but firsts among the list of more than 75 cities that have earned that designation.

The STI Energy Committee has formed an energy co-op to explore local ethanol production and has plans to construct a composting greenhouse. The Waste-Free Committee is working with Waste Management, Inc., Bonner County and the city of Sandpoint to develop improved avenues for recycling and this month rolls out a gleaning program where local volunteers gather surplus from gardens and fruit trees to share with the food bank, seniors and families that could use a hand.

Members of the Health Committee have formed what they call a “Holistic Chamber of Commerce” to promote the power of buying locally and to organize alternative health practitioners for heightened awareness in both of those areas. The Building & Design Committee launched its energy audit program by conducting an open house audit of mayor’s home, while the Education Committee has continued to host a monthly film series and discussion group at the East Bonner County Library, which, in turn, has led to a growing selection of library books on sustainability.

All of this activity has drained one important resource STI depends on for its own viability, Lanphear pointed out.

“We need more volunteers,” she said.  “We need someone who can help us maintain our website and people who are interested in any of the areas our committees cover.”

To learn more about Sandpoint Transition Initiative or to see a list of upcoming Folkschool class offerings, visit: www.sandpointtransitioninitiative.org

Information on volunteering can also be found on the website or by calling (208) 264-5070.