On Wednesday 22nd May 2013, we organised an event in Housman’s bookshop about Leila Berg (1917-2012): writer, rebel, radical educator. Berg was an important figure in the UK de-schooling movement and argued that:
‘We compartmentalise everything. We compartmentalise ages…as if children weren’t aiming to be grown-up, as if old people had never been children.’
Emily Charkin’s talk at Housman’s Bookshop event, Wednesday 22nd May 2013
We celebrated the official opening of the woodland shelter (and Emily’s unmentionable birthday) with a party for friends, family and volunteers who had helped with the project. Emily made a speech about the ‘building of the building’ and then local musicians led a barn-dance. And we ate huge quantities of cake and paella. It was a very happy end to a happy project. Now it’s over to Kirsteen, her team and the children at the kindergarten to enjoy the building.
Emily involved her son’s class at Wimborne St Giles primary school in her work to collect stories of the lives of children in the 1930s. They invited in a couple who had both attended the school in the late 1930s and 40s. The children interviewed the couple. We found out about how the children used to walk to and from school and how they used to grow all the vegetables for their school lunches – and have a surplus for families to take home. One child asked what colour the animals were which showed a good appreciation that things were different in the past!
BuildingforFamilies.org 
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