part one - twin oaks commune in virginia
"... something in between, sharing bathrooms and pots and pans and even child-rearing duties. Theyre part of the same small living group in this sprawling, wood-beamed house at Twin Oaks, a 48-year-old commune in rural Virginia, where an ever shifting number of residents (averaging 100) live and work and raise a passel of kids (currently 17).
time to go to school, Summer says, and the kids dart outside with parents in tow, strolling down a gentle, grassy slope to make the 30-second skip-hop to Unicorn School, the homeschool gathering place for the youngest of the Twin Oaks children.
Theres a wide yard filled with a jumble of tricycles and Hula-Hoops and a homemade, wooden swing set, all edged by thick woods.
The school itself, one of about a dozen buildings scattered around the communes 500 acres, is a spare, two-story house. Its outfitted with childrens artwork and rundown furniture (including an old mattress for the jumping room) and a youth commissary, or commie, thats like a well-stocked consignment shop, but one where everythings free, passed from older kids to younger until skirts or tees or pants are threadbare.
... buildings have names, and this one is Degania a shout-out to the first-ever kibbutz, an Israeli system of communal living that influenced the founders here. All of the communes children used to live in Degania together, actually part of the now-defunct program, based upon the behaviorist philosophy of psychologist B.F. Skinner, which claimed that kids who were removed from their parents to be raised by trained adults turned out better. (didn't hitler do this as well, with youth camps? what year did skinner's book come out?)
But that Twin Oaks social experiment imploded in the late 90s, after several moms and dads protested...a 30-year resident and father of two teenage boys, describes thedemise of separating children from their parents? (extremely rich have always lived like this and boarding school children also live like this).
Rowan, 19, with his dad, Keenan. (Photo: Khue Bui for Yahoo Parenting)
But much of Skinners legacy still thrives here, as his classic utopian novel Walden Two was the blueprint used by Twin Oaks founders in 1967. Today, the intentional community (the currently preferred term for commune) remains very much a place thats egalitarian, feminist, collaborative, loving, and self-sustaining, with everyone required to put in about 40 hours of labor weekly. This can be done by cooking or cleaning in the communal kitchen, milking cows in the dairy, chopping firewood, tending the 3.5 acres of organic vegetable gardens (which feeds the community), doing mountains of laundry, repairing bikes or any of the 17 shared cars and trucks, operating the main office, or doing a variety of jobs related to several Twin Oaks business ventures, from large-scale tofu production to the weaving of rope hammocks for commercial sale. Everyone gets a modest monthly allowance of $103 each.
Community members can also earn their keep in another highly esteemed way that can feel downright revolutionary to outsiders: by caring for one of the communes 17 children, either as that kids mom or dad or as his or her primary, the term given to adult mentors who have prescribed times with specific children.
In our Twin Oaks society, it counts as work to take care of kids as much as any other work, says Keenan, who was raised in Thailand by his CIA employee turned whistleblower father; he studied business and was on a career track but moved to the commune after a brief visit during college.
time to go to school, Summer says, and the kids dart outside with parents in tow, strolling down a gentle, grassy slope to make the 30-second skip-hop to Unicorn School, the homeschool gathering place for the youngest of the Twin Oaks children.
Theres a wide yard filled with a jumble of tricycles and Hula-Hoops and a homemade, wooden swing set, all edged by thick woods.
The school itself, one of about a dozen buildings scattered around the communes 500 acres, is a spare, two-story house. Its outfitted with childrens artwork and rundown furniture (including an old mattress for the jumping room) and a youth commissary, or commie, thats like a well-stocked consignment shop, but one where everythings free, passed from older kids to younger until skirts or tees or pants are threadbare.
... buildings have names, and this one is Degania a shout-out to the first-ever kibbutz, an Israeli system of communal living that influenced the founders here. All of the communes children used to live in Degania together, actually part of the now-defunct program, based upon the behaviorist philosophy of psychologist B.F. Skinner, which claimed that kids who were removed from their parents to be raised by trained adults turned out better. (didn't hitler do this as well, with youth camps? what year did skinner's book come out?)
But that Twin Oaks social experiment imploded in the late 90s, after several moms and dads protested...a 30-year resident and father of two teenage boys, describes thedemise of separating children from their parents? (extremely rich have always lived like this and boarding school children also live like this).
Rowan, 19, with his dad, Keenan. (Photo: Khue Bui for Yahoo Parenting)
But much of Skinners legacy still thrives here, as his classic utopian novel Walden Two was the blueprint used by Twin Oaks founders in 1967. Today, the intentional community (the currently preferred term for commune) remains very much a place thats egalitarian, feminist, collaborative, loving, and self-sustaining, with everyone required to put in about 40 hours of labor weekly. This can be done by cooking or cleaning in the communal kitchen, milking cows in the dairy, chopping firewood, tending the 3.5 acres of organic vegetable gardens (which feeds the community), doing mountains of laundry, repairing bikes or any of the 17 shared cars and trucks, operating the main office, or doing a variety of jobs related to several Twin Oaks business ventures, from large-scale tofu production to the weaving of rope hammocks for commercial sale. Everyone gets a modest monthly allowance of $103 each.
Community members can also earn their keep in another highly esteemed way that can feel downright revolutionary to outsiders: by caring for one of the communes 17 children, either as that kids mom or dad or as his or her primary, the term given to adult mentors who have prescribed times with specific children.
In our Twin Oaks society, it counts as work to take care of kids as much as any other work, says Keenan, who was raised in Thailand by his CIA employee turned whistleblower father; he studied business and was on a career track but moved to the commune after a brief visit during college.
Replies
Twin Oaks operates several community-owned businesses, including Twin Oaks Tofu, Twin Oaks Hammocks, and Twin Oaks Book Indexing. Additionally, members working in the Twin Oaks Seed Farm grow seeds for Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. From these sources, Twin Oaks generates around $600,000 per year. This money pays for community upkeep and goods that cannot be produced on site, and each member receives a monthly stipend for personal use (i.e., to purchase items that the community does not provide).