Geoff Davis, Director – Blue Stone Folk School
I’ve really been hooked by the social network facebook. Through this social networking website I’ve been able to keep in touch with my sister who lives on an island in Washington as well as my mom who lives on the other side of Keystone! Through facebook I’ve been re-united with high school and college friends and former students across the country.
A high school friend posed a question this weekend that I’ve answered often, but never have answered well.
“How is the folk school same/different from a “regular” school? I teach at Christian school which is different from a public school. Are you funded by public moneys?”
Essentially, “What is a folk School?”
Folk schools first developed is Scandanavia in response to a rural economic collapse precipitated by the industrial revolution.
The role of these schools was to develop a new economy by preserving rural traditions. It did this by teaching young adults to practice and value their traditional arts and developing new markets for items that these folks produced.
These schools survive across Europe as “folk high schools” and serve as an alternative to degree programs in high schools and universities.
During the Great Depression folk schools developed in Appalachia to fill the same roles. Traditional artists were documented, their crafts taught and preserved and a market developed for their work. John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina is the best known of this movement.
More recently the folk school movement has been a response to culture lost to mass media, uncontrolled real estate development and modern farming practices. Regional traditions and practices are becoming fragmented and diluted. When this occurs many people begin to seek out and practice their cultural traditions. North House Folk School, in Minnesota has successful programs in traditions of the upper Midwest.
This is only beginning of a complete discussion about the role and purpose of folk schools. Visit the websites of these two folk schools to gain an undetstanding for the kinds of programing that is offered.
’nuff sed. More to come.
