Living Well Folk School—Promoting Skills and Tools for Local Self Reliance
Overseeing Organization: Living Well Earth Stewards (LWES) nonprofit, in collaboration with other partners and nonprofit educational organizations.
Location: Franklinville and Siler City, North Carolina.
About the Folk School Model: The Folk School movement grew out of Denmark in the late 1800’s. It focuses on life-long learning in the context where learning is the goal rather than passing tests or receiving degrees. Some examples in the U.S. of programs influenced by the folk school model are the following:
1) John C. Campbell Folk School in western North Carolina, https://www.folkschool.org/,
2) Augusta Heritage Centerin West Virginia,https://augustaheritagecenter.org/,
3) Highlander Center in Tennessee,http://highlandercenter.org/.
4) Tillers International in Michigan, http://www.tillersinternational.org/index.html
5) North House Folk School in Minnesota, http://www.northhouse.org/
.
Class Categories and Topics (for initial discussion—to be phased in and adapted over time as programs develop)
1. Building and Construction Skills
a. 5 week "Small House Production Class"
b. "Timber Frame Small House Production Class"
c. Kozolec Barn Construction (seehttp://www.flickr.com/groups/1461116@N24/)
d. Fencebuilding Techniques
2. Building with Natural Materials
a. Stonework
b. Natural Building with straw, sand, clay, and wood
c. Thatching Roofs
d. Split wood Shingles
3. Toolmaking, sharpening, and maintaining.
4. Livestock Production
a. Backyard Poultry
b. Beekeeping
c. Community Milk cow and/or Milk Goat(s)
d. Livestock for the urban or small-scale homesite
e. Fence building Techniques
f. Aquaculture and Aquaponics
g. Earthworms and Rabbits
h. Small scale haymaking
5. Woodlot Skills
a. Managing your woodlot for multiple uses
b. Basic wood skills--felling trees, working logs, firewood, etc.
c. Small scale sawmilling
d. Tapping trees for saps and sweetners
e. Food and Medicine from local trees
f. Mushroom production
6. Scything
a. Scything basics
b. Scything advanced
c. Haymaking
d. Grain Harvesting
7. Whole Food Cooking
a. Cooking over an open fire, in a wood cookstove, and basic Firebuilding skills
b. Cooking as Creative Act of Service and Hospitality
c. Preserving and Fermenting Food
d. Wild Harvesting natural food all around us.
e. Eating for Health
f. Building and Cooking in a outdoor masonry Oven
g. Building and Using a Solar Cooker
8. Health and Wellness
a. Eating for Health
b. Cooking and preserving for Nourishment
c. Home Birth and Birthing Naturally
d. Aging in Place
e. The scoop about supplements and vitamins
f. Herbs and Medicinal plants
9. Small-scale Energy Production
a. Solar Electric for the home
b. Solar Thermal for the home
c. Heating and cooking with wood
d. Biochar and charcoal
e. Looking at Alternative Energy: Wind, Solar, Geothermal, hydro, etc.
f. District Utilities for a cluster of homes
10. Urban and Homestead food Production
a. Spring, Summer, and Fall Gardening
b. Growing food through the winter
c. Garlic Cooperative
d. Organic Fruit production
e. Wild harvesting local fruits, nuts, berries, roots, and greens.
f. Strategies for Controlling weeds
g. Producing fertility on-site
h. Nuts
i. Preserving the harvest
j. Techniques for handling deer, rabbits, and other 4 legged critters
k. Non-chemical pest protection
l. Gardening for the South
m. Perennialfruits and vegetables
11. Transportation
a. The art of Walking
b. Bicycling and the power of thepedal
c. Horses, Donkeys, Mules, and Oxen
d. Making your own fuel: Biodiesel, alcohol, steam, wood
gasification, etc.
e. Alternative forms of transportation
12. Water
a. Water Harvesting
b. Water purification
c. Pond Building
13. Clothing
a. Weaving
b. Natural dying
c. Clothes from local materials
14. Education that Empowers
a. Homeschooling
b. We all are gifted--learning and understanding our unique gifts
c. Setting up a Folk School
d. Hands-on experiential learning
e. Different Learning Styles
f. Tapping into our specialgenius
g. Always learning--Skills for the Adult Learner
15. Community Building Skills
a. Community Organizing Skills--Building coalitions for success
b. Group Dynamics, Team Building, and Facilitation Skills
c. Mediation and Conflict Management Skills
d. Communicating Cross Culturally
e. Age, Gender, Race, and Class and their impacts on power
dynamics and communication
f. People are Different--Understanding and Dealing with
Differences.
g. Skills in Community Living
16. Making the local community SelfReliant
a. Local economy
b. Cottage Industries/ Businesses
c. Entrepreneurship
d. Business Planning for the Self-Employed and small business
owner.
e. Trade and Barter systems
17. The Practical Crafts
a. Basket making
b. blacksmithing
c. Woodworking
d. Soap making
e. Weaving
18. The Artistic Crafts
19. Celebrating Life and Creating our Own Entertainment
a. Music
b. Dance
c. Ritual and Celebration
d. Storytelling
e. Spoken and Written Word
f. Determining, Understanding, and Using our areas of giftedness for the benefit of the greater community