| Blog Post Published on: | 9th November 2022 |
| Title: | Prospectus for a Cooperative Work School |
| Lead Author: | Dave Sonquist |
| Type of Blog Post: | folk_school_movement |
This article appears in the 60th Anthology of Circle Pines Center (1938-1998) as an addendum starting on page A-2.
Prospectus for A Cooperative Work School
by Dave Sonquist
1948 (excerpts)
The Origin
From the very inception of the Cooperative Movement provisions have been made for education. The early Rochdale pioneers put aside a portion of their earnings for education of their members. Each one of the branches of the Rochdale Society had a news or reading room where many periodicals and books were made available; a privilege not even accorded to fairly wealthy people in other communities [in 1844.]
This eagerness for enlightenment grew out of the absence or failure of the formal educational institutions to provide the people with adequate information and tools of learning with wich to earn a decent living. Schools of the day failed utterly to teach their students how to face and solve any of the real problems of living, economically or socially.
This gave rise to many sundry economic movements, all adult, of the cooperative was one. The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, because of its sound economic principles was successful. It was free, self-supporting and democratic. It bred confidence, self respect and initiative. Membership and participation in such a movement was the best kind of education. It was “learn by doing”, an experience-centered process which is the kernel of all progressive education philosophy….
Early History of Circle Pines
Early in its history the League (Central States Cooperative League) organized Summer Institutes for the training of employees, leaders and members. It combined the summer school ide originating at Chautauqua, N.Y. with the summer camp plan of the YMCA. The students lived together cooperatively with the instructors while they studied, listened to lectures, sang the old songs and learned to play together.
The yearly search for a suitalbe location finally brought these Institutes to the Ashland Folk School at Grant, MI. Here the program was enriched by the free, open discussion of problems and the gradual adoption of what has come to be called the democratic process of group or cooperative thinking.
In addition we were introduced to the wealth of folk songs and dances which now form the core of cooperative recreation. We should not forget that even in these early beginnings ours was a people’s movement arising from the need of stuggling cooperative societies to meet their many perplexing problems. These were thrilling experiences which were highly educative to all who participated in them.
When Ashland no longer afforded the space for the growing numbers, the League took a daring leap into the unknown and leased Chief Noonday Camp from the U.S. National Park Service. Here Circle Pines Center was born.
Again we went back to our cooperative societies, 18 of them, who advanced the rentals of their cabins to pay for the annual rent of the camp and the equipment necessary to operate a large camp. With the expanded facilities the number and size of the Institutes were increased and the length of the camp season extended to 10 weeks, a most ambitions program for a new venture.
A new and important feature was added in the form of a Family Camp where all of the family might come and live cooperatively together with many other families fromm other cooperative societies. The response was immediate. Attendance totalled 700 camper weeks, or an average of 70 people per week. Many families found a new outlook on life. Many societies took on a new hope and enthusiasm for their tasks. Again it was a “peoples’ movement.”
Purchase of Stewart Lake Site
We had many changes necessitated by the times. Even before the first season ended some felt tht Circle Pines, in order to endure, couldn’t be long dependent upon the uncertainties of a government lease. Others said, “We are comfortable here. Why be troubled by owining our own camp?” When no lease came until a few short weeks before the opening of the second season, machinery was set in motion by the League to investigate new camp sites.
The responsibility for securing and developing the new camp was voted down by both the League and the Wholsale which were in the throes of merging. Internal problems occupied their time, energy and money, so a new Cooperative Camping Association was organized to take over the purchase of the new camp site. As far as we know it was a new type of cooperative, unique in the history of the Cooperative Movement.
A beautiful site [Stewart Farm] was obtained and down payment completed within six months after the close of the camp season. [January 1940] This again was a spontaneous “peoples’ expression”. It goes without saying that the focus of interest almost immediately changed from Chief Noonday Camp to Stewart Lake. The growing degree of ownership spread the sense of responsibility.
The Friends’ Work Camp
The next season our program was spendidly influenced by the Friends’ Work Camp who conducted their program of rehabilitating the Farmhouse and its environs at Stewart Lake while we carried on at Chief Noonday Camp for one more season. The college-age girls and boys under the direction of Ernest and Edith Wildman, inspired us all with their fine spirit of devotion and their cheerful willingness to undertake all tasks no matter how menial. Many said they gained more real learning out of 8 weeks in the Work Camp than they did in a year at college.
So impressed were we with this project that we vowed to organize a Youth Work Camp of our won the following season. It is hard to evaluate such an experience but when we look back and see how so many of these college work campers have continued their interest and efforts in the Cooperative Movement we are forced to realize that here occurred a truely educational process, not unlike that which has come out of the Danish Peoples High Schools. Could it be that the general methods and program so successful in the Summer Work Camp might well become the right pattern for the more permanent Winter School which some of our members have envisioned from the start?
Organization of the Youth Work Camp and Children’s Camp
By this time we were being matured by the ever-increasing problems which came from ownership of our own camp. The more far-seeing ones advocated growth and expansion while the more timid ones counseled caution because of the dangers of war. But the Board voted to go forward. The college Friends’ Work Camp returned for the second season. In addition, we conducted a successful Youth Work Camp of our own and also a Children’s Camp, all on the new site at Stewart Lake while we still carried on the Institutes and Family Camp at Chief Noonday Camp.
While we had conducted successful Youth Institutes at Chief Noonday for three seasons, the Youth program took a new interest and meaning with the Work Camp which was intensified more with their taking on responsibility of buying the Cottage at the end of Lake Stewart. The experiences of this and later Youth Camps has led to several conclusions.
The Next Step
As our Bylaws indicate, our purpose is “to carry on cooperative education and to advocate and teach, through demonstration and otherwise, the superior advantages of cooperation as a way of life” …
The combined experience of the past 15 years has taught us many things to guide us in our next venture. A study of people’s education movements in Europe and America reveals additional facts and information.
Through the kindness of Griscom and Jane Morgan we have some excellent literature on the People’s College Movement here and abroad. In November of 1944, Dorthy and David Sonquist made a 2700 mile tour studying progressive school and community organizations in Indiana, Ohio and the Southern Highlands. With this background we have a fairly concise and clear idea of the kind of school that is needed in our situation ….
The old Cooperative maxim “He who owns, controls” and “He who pays the fiddler calls the tune” are nowhere more applicable than in the case of education. A school must be able to support itself without dependence upon philanthropic or state subsidy if it is to remain free. Wherever we went on the study tour we found this to be true. Only those schools which were self-supporting were wholly free. The cooperative movement has made a unique contrubution to humanity in demonstrating the workability of mutual self-help.
[Ed. note: This original paper goes on to present Dave’s program for a Winter Folk School at Circle Pines Center. Unfortunately, in spite of diligent efforts to publicize the school and gain support he was unable to fulfill his dream. Due to disagreements with the Board on how to operate CPC, Dave was forced out as director in 1949.
However, Dave’s enthusiasm and vision still inspire many who continue to share his dream for Circle Pines as an educational center. His proposal informed Barnabas Johnson to take legal action for a 501-C3 IRS designation to allow CPC to receive tax-exempt donations for educational purposes. Dave’s widow, Dorothy, donated the beautiful mosaics he made that now hang in the downstairs hall at Swallows. The lone pine tree along the road near the Farmhouse entrance was dedicated to Dorothy and David Sonquist.]