Salon article on Twin Oaks
Ali and i spent yesterday talking with students at McDonogh prep school outside of Baltimore. As the day went on and we got bolder in our presentation, the students got more and more excited about the commune and at least three are planning on doing their senior projects with us. I was especially happy to hear that that brief full school presentation that Janel X and i did last year had such an impact. Several students said that they had gone to that presentation and afterwards our ideas had hijacked the regularly scheduled classes and students wanted to talk about commune life as an alternative to mainstream lifestyles. We sat at the famous tables and answered the barrage of questions on every imaginable topic.
Janel’s replacement at McDonogh Prep is new member Ali
This morning i woke up to find out that Salon had published a piece on us, which was largely favorable.
The places where the article misses include it characterization of Oakers as being obsessed with labor sheets. This they are useful, and they certainly influence our lives, people relationships with them are highly varied, including a handfull of members who barely interact with them at all. I was amused at the idea that labor assigners user their power to try to craft new romantic relationships. This is certainly something i thought about when i was labor assigning, but in the perhaps 2000 assignments you do in a week, this might be a consideration in 3 or 4 of them.
And if the idea of a commune appeals to you, but you cant stand the idea of having scheduled work, there are a myriad of non-Twin Oaks options available to you, including my dear Acorn just 7 miles down the road from Twin Oaks.
- Paxus's blog
- Login to post comments
- Feed: Paxus Blog
- Original article
