The Wild Community
A short-course group gathers in a circle in front of the Old Postern
I lived in Schumacher College during its last 365 days at the Old Postern. I arrived on the 14th October 2023 and I left on 13th October 2024. I was the last resident to leave the premises. In the beginning, I was interested in the general topics of the college and later got engaged with cataloging and digitizing its library. But, it was its community that made it absolutely unique for me.
And I mean “community” here as a learning-and-living community, the people that came to live in this place in order to learn something. The college offered a unique context for living-and-learning, and its residential aspect dates back to the arrival of Stephan* as the first scholar-in-residence. Afterwards, the degree students moved into the onsite accommodation or into the surrounding area for the period of their studies, the short course learners got immersed in ideas and place for the duration of their stay, some of the teachers and staff brought family and loved ones closer, and the volunteers came from everywhere for work exchange. The college created a living community around it.
Embraced by the arms of our medieval building, the Old Postern, its emphasis on experiential education meant that learning could flow out of set roles or working hours. I witnessed volunteers leading workshops, coordinators laying on the floor, students guiding meditations, office staff guiding meal preparation, kitchen staff leading trips, teachers helping with students’ fees, Satish* thanking the guests for the food… The buildings were not facilities of an educational institution that were locked after the classes were over. In our living room, we used to sit and listen to our elders. Questions could be answered in the kitchen, in the tea area, or in the library. And this doesn’t mean that somebody was there to answer them. But if you were eager to learn, you could learn all the time, from everybody. So I think that, in terms of the learning experience, this community has always been wild.
Chopping fruit together
And the learning hasn’t been cloistered within any walls. In this sense, the place has been our greatest teacher. We have experienced living inside the reminiscences of Dorothy and Leonard’s* dream. Our songs have been evolved by the waters of the Dart. We have engaged with the transition economy of our funky Totnes. We have stood in circles with the whispers of Dartmoor wisdom. We have laughed on the beaches where Rabindranath* had a great time when he was a boy. So, in terms of local endeavours, this community has always been wild.
Yet even with its unique Devon-based wilderness, the College always had a place to run back and sleep nice and warm. The Old Postern was always there for us. The College was made by mammals, after all. But one of the “beasts”* of our times has come to our door. The residential crisis is real and it hit us too. If homeownership was something the previous generations could dream of, we have experienced it by clustering in bigger formats than the nuclear family. We had learned to help one another; we had set our tables longer, we had exchanged our seeds, we had learned to pronounce 'goodnight' in many languages. It’s not only our learning and living experiences that have been wild, but our relational abilities, too.
You know, I think that there is nothing new in Schumacher (going) Wild. This college has been encouraging an “open inquiry and a high level of mutual support”* since day one if we keep up with its prospectus. After 12,693 days in the Old Postern, our hands, hearts, and heads will continue to openly inquire with the world while we keep supporting each other.
Group carrying food from Henry’s field
If you want to get in touch with the ongoing wilderness of Schumacher College for the first time, come as you are at this moment and be ready to welcome the college wilderness as it is at the moment. If you are missing the wilderness that you have once witnessed, it is right here in me and right there in you. Something I’ve learned in the College is that if you leave a heart cell by itself, it dies. But if you put two heart cells close to each other, they synchronize. You don’t need a full heart to make a heartbeat. You just have to get together. It is raw, and uncomfortable, and challenging. But it is wild. You can be with three people, or in a group of a hundred. Don’t worry about numbers. Prepare one of the vegetarian meals you’ve learned, read an excerpt of a yet-unreturned book in a video call with your once-housemates, pair up to improve something you’ve first learned to craft at the Chicken Shed.
This community knows wilderness. Some of us are going far through the network, and others are getting closer than ever. “Schumacher College is for adventure”, and here we are.
Fire spot in the redwoods forest
References:
Stephan Harding (1953-2024), British zoologist and ecologist. At the College, he researched deep ecology and led the Holistic Sciences master's program for twenty years.
Satish Kumar (1936-), Indian British lifelong activist for environmental sustainability, social justice, and world peace. He is a co-founder of Schumacher College.
Dorothy Elmhirst (1887-1968), American social activist and philanthropist, and Leonard Elmhirst (1893-1974), British philanthropist and agronomist, purchased the 14th century Dartington estate to set up their “Dartington Experiment” for experimental education, arts and agricultural practices. It is legally represented today by the Dartington Trust.
Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), Indian poet, musicist and educational reformer. His ideas and practices were inspirational for Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst in the creation of Dartington.
In reference to the verses “Where will we run for cover / Now the beast has come to our door?” in the song “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for”, by Luke Davey
Schumacher College prospectus, 1991