Taos Earth Children is about more than just raising strong, vibrant kids. It’s about raising community. Our vision begins with the children, but we are in the planning stages of a much larger fabric of work. Silke’s thirty plus years as a teacher is unquestionably the backbone of the school, but Joe’s work with intentional communities and gift economics is not merely incidental to the vision.

Human beings need support through all walks of life. Children need elders, and elders need children. Parents need the aid of single men and women, and middle aged men and women who live alone need to feel welcomed, and indeed vital, to their communities. By the time most kids are five years old they have been separated into age groups, a practice that follows us all the way through high school and college. Outside of the home, most of us don’t grow up with the opportunity to learn from those ten or fifteen years older, or younger as the case may be. Lawyers don’t often mix with mechanics, and farmers don’t routinely share meals with accountants. We aim to change that, at least to the degree that we can.

Silke and Joe are now actively weaving families together with single men and women, elders and youth to create activities that feed the whole. By reaching across generations and skill sets, and reaching out to those in need, the children learn intimate, palpable lessons about life. It is not always easy, sometimes it’s messy, but it is always joyful. In return, the children’s youthful energy and inquisitiveness fills and reawakens aging and lonely hearts. Brusque men audibly change their tone of voice when children are present. Depression lifts from defeated faces.

Our intention is to create a web of children, parents, elders, craftsmen, businessmen and farmers. Taos County, with its rich history of Pueblo, Spanish and Western peoples, a place where immigrant artists, hippies, farmers and hunters have gathered for centuries, is a unique place to pursue such a vision. Our activities extend, for the time being, through our networks of people and places throughout Taos, including our parent communities, the Waldorf community, Lama Foundation, New Buffalo and the kinds of farmers and gardeners eager to host a group of kids. It includes teachers, goat keepers, carpenters, artists, doctors and internet entrepreneurs. The children are our connecting source, our future, our raison d’etre, our foot in the door. But so much more is attained than a lesson for the children, or a shared meal.

Silke grew up in Brehman, Germany, a farming village near Heidelberg. Raised on a small dairy farm, she was strongly influenced by the ancient fields and forests, the seasonal life of the farm and village, and her multi-generational household. As a child she built mud houses, jumped hay stacks, planted, harvested, and drove the tractors. In the winter, when the fields were bare, the forest was her playground where she cared for the trees and made fairy homes. Harvest festivals, solstice fires and May Day celebrations were a significant part of her upbringing, and these annual festivals continue to figure significantly into her life and the seasonal structure of Taos Earth Children. The village ethic is something she has long sought to instill, not only in the children, but in the parent and surrounding community, and that vision is now taking shape.

Joe currently lives at New Buffalo, having lived for the better part of his adult life in community with other men, women and children. In 1967, New Buffalo was formed by a group of back-to-the-land minded hippies. The buffalo was chosen as its namesake because, in Lakota tradition, the buffalo sustained all life. They provided shelter, food, weapons, toys. The lives of the plains Indians revolved around the buffalo, which they followed in roving bands and which provided for the people spiritually, culturally and socially. The seed vision of New Buffalo was to create a new place of sustenance for men and women wishing to live an earth-based life. During its fifty years of existence, New Buffalo has seen many ups and downs, but the current community is vibrant, cooperative and strong.

In 2017, Silke and Joe hosted an Easter celebration at New Buffalo. The event was simple, took little planning, and yet almost everyone who walked away that Sunday shared comments about how deeply enriching it was. It was the perfect expression of the village ethic that we seek to renew. It was a beautiful day, and the acequia flowed peacefully through the green grass in our midst. The sheep, with their newly born lambs, ambled through the people, followed by the turkeys. We shared a bountiful potluck while listening to a young woman who had volunteered to play harp under a tree. One of the community members went next door and borrowed a pony, the kids taking turns riding up top. One couple brought their pygmy goat, which ran around our legs like a pet dog and even scrambled inside. Leading the group out to the labyrinth, Silke said a prayer for the coming summer, while the children sprinkled an elder of the community, then their parents, with water from a nearby spring. Returning to the yard, Joe enticed the adults into a tug-of-war, complete with a sloppy mud pit. Afterward, led by impromptu songs, the children searched the garden for dozens of eggs. Some clever soul had put water balloons in plastic eggs and Joe dutifully filled them for the children inside, giving instructions to “Throw them at an adult. You can blame me.”

It takes a village, not just to raise a child, but to raise our consciousness. The celebration at New Buffalo was a landmark event, and our intention is to build these kinds of activities into the lifeblood of the school, our lives, and the community.

Silke and Joe are currently collaborating on several summer programs, including Family Camp at Lama Foundation, but their work extends well beyond official schools and camps. As educators and parents, they are with children constantly. More and more, they bring their kids together. After the 2017/2018 school year, Silke expects to continue teaching kindergarten at Taos Earth Children, while Joe plans to take a group of four to five children through eighth grade. They foresee collaboration throughout, and are looking for a permanent central location to unite the work with children with that of the village.

We already have a place in mind, and we expect to announce our plans once we have things more firmly in place.

Read Joe’s account of the Easter celebration at New Buffalo here.