We visited Twin Oak Elementary School, Mt Vernon’s first new school built since 1958. Although students and staff move through with comfortable ease, they have only been in this space for one month. What an impressive building and program, state of the music room, art room, computer labs, clinic, full service kitchen etc. Two schools have merged with extensive and thoughtful planning brought about through research and input from teachers, administrators and parents from both communities.

A beautiful etching of the Twin Oak symbol graces the glass front door. Legend has it that two trees were grafted to grow as one by local Native American Indians. It marked the meeting spot in the dense forest. The historic tree stood for thee hundred years before being toppled by the 1945 tornado. Twin Oak Elementary honors the memory and history of the first settlers.

I love discovering how different the physical space for schools can be. In the afternoon we visited Christian Star Academy, a marked contrast to the spacious modern Twin Oak. Students in this small private school are not divided into grade level classes. This is the same way my own children’s independent elementary school was organized. My kids’ school was in a wing of a church. Christian Academy is in a house. (It is right across the street from the First Congregational Church I told you about last week, the one with the amazing stained glass window memorializing the founders and their anti-slavery friends. Remember?)

I had a great time at both schools because the atmosphere was the same in both schools: the students’ attention and curiosity eager and the teachers’ pride and love palpable.