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19th Century Scandinavian Model of Learning is Finding Success in Wisconsin

Driftless Folk School
/
driftlessfolkschool.org
Students sculpt together at the Driftless Folk School.

Many of us have an idea in the back of our heads that one of these days we will leave the rat race behind and learn to live off the land a bit more. Grow our own food, or perhaps live off the electric grid, maybe even make our own cloth. Kind of like how our great grandparents lived – but with better plumbing.

But for most of us in the 21st century, the life skills that were second nature to our ancestors are mostly lost to us. And that is something the DriftlessFolk School, based in Viroqua, Wisconsin, is working hard to reverse. Peruse their catalog to find such course offerings as homesteading, folk music traditions and how to make butter.

Mary Lou Lamonda is the Folk School’s executive director and Jacob Hundt is president of the school’s Board of Trustees and one of the founders of the school. Both share Driftless' story with Lake Effect's Bonnie North.

"The folk school started with neighbors sharing skills and knowledge with neighbors. Skills necessary for living in the country, for preserving food, for gardening, crafts, folk arts. These are basic human life skills," Hundt says.

Bonnie North
Bonnie joined WUWM in March 2006 as the Arts Producer of the locally produced weekday magazine program Lake Effect.