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THE COUNTY EDIT CONVERSATION · THE INAUGURAL SERIES
THE FIELD SCHOOL OF HVAR · FIVE CONVERSATIONS
We never feature
just an owner
A small school on a Croatian island, told by the five people who would
each describe it differently — the founder, her two teachers, and two
of the families who came.
THE COUNTY EDIT CONVERSATION · HOSTED BY ANNETTE SCHMITZ · JELSA, HVAR
A school day, off the coast of Hvar.
Some places are worth more than one conversation.
So for our inaugural series we sat down with five people at the Field School of
Hvar. Carolyn Matijević, who founded it. Jordan Reese McClain and Artemisia Buonerba,
who teach there. And two of the families who came. Each of them tells it their own way.
THE FIVE CONVERSATIONS
ONE · THE FOUNDER
Before Hvar, she was one of us
CAROLYN MATIJEVIĆ
Charlottesville, the Aspen Institute, Dupont Circle,
business school, climate finance — and then a
Croatian island, where she moved for love and only
afterwards saw what she could build. On thirteen
weeks of chaos in year one, why the parents get a
programme too, and what she says to the parent who
asks how anyone is learning anything.
LISTEN → 26 min
TWO · THE TEACHER
The childhood we all deserve
JORDAN REESE McCLAIN
She left a fast-fashion job in Los Angeles, went back
for a master’s in curriculum development, and now
teaches on an island all year. On handing a child a
needle and saying nothing, writing the safety rules
with the children every morning at the sea, and what
she means by calling herself a warm demander.
LISTEN → 30 min
THREE · THE TEACHER
You cannot get lost in a
classroom
ARTEMISIA BUONERBA
She grew up in the Dolomites, applied for a job that
had already been filled, and got it anyway. She runs
the excursions, which means she is the one who takes
the children off the island. On shipwreck games and
eight smelly plants, why she will never hand a child a solution, and how a question as small as “gelato or
not” teaches a seven-year-old to build an argument
and lose a vote.
FOUR · THE FAMILY
We were going to remodel the
house
JELENA AND ALEX
They had the money set aside to do the house. Instead
they rented it out, quit both jobs and left for a year — Serbia, Montenegro, Asia, and two weeks of it here.
On the sheet of paper where everybody drew their
vision of a year off, why they chose the town nobody
has heard of, and being led through it by their own children.
FIVE · THE FAMILY
Nobody tells you what to ask
HALEY KEELY · PARENT AND MIDWIFE
She found the school on Instagram in Boise, went
through the website looking for the catch, and
brought both daughters. Then the conversation
turned, and it emerged that the parent we were asking about school hours delivers babies for a living. On the
two o’clock school day, the arithmetic that made it possible, and what American women are never told about birth.
WHY FIVE, NOT ONE
THE OWNER
Tells you what the place is
meant to be. The thesis, the
years behind it, the parts
that nearly did not survive.
THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE IT
Tell you what it actually is
on an ordinary Tuesday.
This is the part no
brochure can write and no
advertisement can buy.
THE PEOPLE WHO CHOOSE IT
Tell you whether it
worked. They have nothing
to sell and no reason to be
generous.
We never feature just an owner. A place is never only the
person who built it.
THE WRITTEN FEATURE
What We Did Last Summer
Away · The inaugural feature · All five voices in one piece
IN THE INDEX
The Field School of Hvar
Jelsa, Hvar, Croatia · Family & Kids · Away