Maija Reed

This oral history interview with Maija Reed was conducted in Hudson, NY on June 6 2013 for the Oral History Summer School 2013 project.  Maija Reed is a former youth facilitator and director who worked at Time & Space Limited in Hudson for eight years, developing after-school and weekend programs that were offered to children free of charge.  At the time of the interview, she had lived in Hudson for fourteen years.  In addition to her role as educator, she is also a self-defined “maker of things” with a background in the visual arts, as well as a believer in the power of growing food as a way of grounding one’s identity and developing self-sufficiency.

In the interview, she discusses the relationships she established with the children at Time & Space Limited and their families, many of whom continued with her throughout the seasonal cycles of the program for many years, from middle school on. She is currently training in the Reggio Emilia Approach in early Childhood education with the goal of working as a teacher in the community with infants and toddlers and their families. Her philosophy of education focuses on the importance of “first knowledge” and the  responsibility of adults to enrich children’s early environments with supportive experiences.

She also discusses her own and her children’s experiences in Hudson.  She describes it as a very vibrant and complex community with many groups of people with different kinds of experiences living side by side.  She is particularly enthusiastic about recent initiatives, such as events organized by the Staley B. Keith Social Justice Center, that are seeking to help bridge separate parts of the community.