Longhouse School

To help readers better follow LonghouseSchool.blog, here is a summary of characters. Next, to each name, when available, is each character’s Reddit tag.

The Owners (SSSSHHH! They are a polyamorous MMFF family with five children!):

Guy (u/GuyAgiosNikolaos) is one of the four owners and is a co-director of Longhouse Elem. He’s a former soldier who was wounded in Afghanistan. He is mixed-race (white/black) and grew up in our community. In his younger years he struggled with very abusive parents and childhood trauma. He’s an autodidactic learner who pieced together his Bachelor’s at an online college and his Masters in Education at a local university.. He is also a credentialed teacher and school building leader. He volunteers with local pastors in the community to support families that are experiencing trauma.

Julie (u/JulieSongwriter) grew up in the leafy suburbs of “Middle City” and is the daughter of interracial lesbian parents (her biological father is “Afro-Mexican”) which earns her BIPOC status. She began exhibiting the symptoms of hypersexuality from the age of 8. Her parents, both therapists themselves, began her right away in counseling which Julie claims saved her life. She was shunned by classmates and sank into psychiatric hospitalizations, compulsive sexual behavior including work in the porn video industry, drug usage, addiction, and petty criminality. Five years ago she went into rehab and has been sober since then. Look at her now! She married Guy, became a member of a MMFF polyamorous quad and mother, earned her Associate’s Degree, and co-owns a very successful RV Park and Daycare where she is the bookkeeper and manager. She plods away at her Bachelor’s and contributes daily to a blog.

Dee (u/Clear-Sight-Moon), the wife of Eulogio, is Indigenous. Both of them refuse to share much about their families and youth. They were both shunned by friends and community members after their vocal and unorthodox efforts to change the direction of her community. At one point she owned a very high level clothing designer line based on Indigenous styles. Dee has led clandestine peacemaker dialogues between mothers in Ukraine, Russia, Israel, and Palestine—until governmental agencies began reprisals. She is the “clan mother” of the quad and is currently working as the school’s chef.

Eulogio (u/DarkNightBrightDawn) was married to Dee when the story began. He has worked very successfully in the financial industry and currently heads a private market investment fund based on seeding grassroots and local initiatives, something he calls “Shark Tank on Steroids.” He is the chief funder of Longhouse School. He has autism (ASD) and savant syndrome. Very slowly, he has been able to use his wealth to build bridges to and reintegrate with his community. He is “Papa Eu” to his five kids and they adore him.

The family has two sets of twins (3- and 4-y.o.) and a younger 18 month-old boy. The children are raised collectively by the four parents without any regard to or full knowledge of male parentage.

The Longhouse School Staff

Guy (see above) is a co-director specializing in math, literature, Social and Community Studies, especially the history and culture of the Indigenous Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) nation before the arrival of the European conquerors.

Bernie (f) is the second co-director, specializing in writing, science, school culture, and family relations. Bernie taught elementary school for many years but became highly disillusioned, burnt out, and quit. A second bout with breast cancer woke up her determination to help found the school and teach. She’s a steadying, no-nonsense, and organized force that matches well with Guy’s “eclectic” temperament. She’s an articulate MAGA supporter but sees the “flyover” people—Hillary Clinton’s “basketful of deplorables”–as another group of disenfranchised and disengaged people.

Lolita (u/JamaicanTransplant) is me, an assistant teacher, only 17-y.o. “Mi deh yah Montego Bay”—she was born in Montego Bay, Jamaica. She’s an autodidact who earned her GED and is half-way toward her Bachelor’s at an online and project-based college. She teaches nature education, track, drama, music and all sorts of other physical activities. Don’t underestimate her because of her age. Here she is “Teacher Lolita”!

Supporting Cast

Vasyl Sukhomlynsky (1918-1970) is an honorary Longhouse School member—a great “inspirator” for early childhood education, nature studies, building school communities, working with the angry and disenfranchised student, and integrating school and community.

Heidi (@HeidiInWonderland) is Lolita’s wife. She lives in the East Bronx. The Goldstein-Thomas family lives in two side-by-side homes but are “platonic partners” in polytalk (as far as we know). She also has quite an extraordinarily developed pre-frontal cortex. Heidi is a talented piano player, vocal harmonizer, and has this weird capacity to remember lyrics and chords. She has perfect pitch. She wants to attend a very well-known conservatory not too far from the RV Park/Longhouse School. Her band is called “Jammy Girlz.” It must be a problem stemming from her DNA—but she likes music from the 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s—“The Great American Songbook.” And Taylor Swift. In the Vision Book, which is set ten years in the future, she comes to settle down and teach music at Longhouse Elementary.

Lori is the 8-year-old girl who lives next door to Lolita in a twin “Oliver” RV. Lori is one of the second-grade students at Longhouse Elementary. But she has become far more than that—more like a younger sibling to Lolita. Lolita, however, sees Lori as her teacher, a child who seemingly exemplifies Vasyl Sukhomlynsky’s image of a child learner.

Many more characters will be added as their roles become more defined.