We often have guests through our building.  Sometimes it feels like too many guests.  It’s always a good moment, though, as a teacher/co-founder when the students describe our place in such awesome ways:

“Don’t make them do the work, make them want to do the work.”

“It’s easier to learn when you feel good.”

We’re “actually connected to our community through our projects.” 

It’s funny, too, that students describe our place as a community but focus on the fact that we do a weekend update every Monday as the way of describing how we make a community.   To me, it’s simple humanity — how was your weekend — and the other daily activities are much more valuable in building the community.  The way we learn to talk and listen to each other, to respectfully agree and disagree, to debate and deliberate… all that occurs during the work.  And because we’re “actually connected to the community”,  these conversations become real because they actually  matter.