Since 2001, Leslie Milbourne and John Devine have been offering educational programs and managing a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program out of their Wind Dance Farm & Earth Education Center in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.
They can’t do it alone — and rely on a group of dedicated volunteers — including Tim Newton, who was awarded a Morgan County Volunteer of the Year Award this past Saturday at a ceremony at the American Legion.
With the help of Newton and many others, a new building to house the education and farm programs is being erected on the grounds — in southern Morgan County.
The Earth Education Center currently has about 25 students — homeschoolers that attend Wind Dance for supplementary education in environmental education, history, traditional music and dance, science and conservation.
Increasingly, the students are coming from outside of Morgan County. Of the current class of 25, five come from neighboring Pennsylvania and four come from Berkeley County.
No homeschooling student attends more than two days a week, Milbourne told This Week in Morgan County with Russell Mokhiber.
Milbourne was asked about the split in the homeschooling community between back to the earth homeschoolers and religious homeschoolers.
“I wonder if the homeschoolers with a creationist Christian belief steer away from connecting with Wind Dance,” Milbourne said. “I find that sad. We have an eclectic group of homeschoolers when it comes to religious beliefs or no beliefs.”
“At Wind Dance we are open to all beliefs, and although there is diversity in religious beliefs here, we all have one thing in common that we must keep in mind.”
“This is true here and outside of Wind Dance. We all are deeply connected to the earth — it is the foundation of our existence. We all must be mindful of how we interact with the earth. It is vitally important to spend time with nature and learn how this earth works so that understanding, compassion, love, and respect for the earth will follow.”
“We all walk, work, live and play on this earth, and at Wind Dance we learn about how the earth works and how we can best live with the earth — to live sustainably — just as she has been doing for 4.6 billion years.”
“In our pursuit for knowledge of how the earth works so beautifully we find common ground – literally and figuratively. With our studies of the very system that supports us in everything we do, we put religious beliefs aside, focus on the study of the earth and we get along. The one potential roadblock is when we learn about the age of the earth and the evolutionary path that has preceded us and will continue.”
“That can be a huge block from homeschool parents deciding whether they want to participate in our activities. This I find sad, because it is blocking understanding the earth in a scientific and natural manner, which if one chooses can also include embracing a spiritual or religious path as well. I actually find the blend quite beautiful.”
Milbourne says that homeschoolers do well when they transition to public schools.
“Homeschool students have a good foundation when they become teenagers,” Milbourne said. “If they choose to go to high school, they excel and most of them go on to higher education. That is an easy transition for most of them. Some of the homeschoolers that we have now are of high school age and some of those teenagers take a couple of classes in the high school and then come to Wind Dance.”