What is a typical day at Open Fields like?
Open Fields School is located in a small Vermont village, which promotes a natural interaction with the community. Beyond that lie the New Hampshire and Vermont towns of the Upper Connecticut River Valley, an area rich with places and people to visit. The rural setting encourages a variety of outdoor activities, from exploring the fields, woods, and hills of Vermont, to playing soccer on the green, to visiting local artisans, to building a primitive campsite. As a children’s book illustrator, I have a lot of personal contact with kids and with elementary schools all over the country, and most of what I see, hear, and read makes it clear that creativity, respect for self and others, and love for learning are not exactly at the top of the list of priorities in too many of our public schools. On the other hand, everything that I see, hear, and know about Jean Aull’s Open Fields School makes me happy and full of hope (and envy) for the kids who are lucky enough to go there. It’s a fantasy,
