More About Jack I came to the Open School from a varied background. After college I spent time working as a community organizer in New York on behalf of the welfare community. I moved to Minnesota in the early 1970 and worked first as a probation officer for Hennepin County and then as a Gestalt psycho-therapist doing individual family and group counseling. As my daughter approached school age, I began to investigate school options. That is when I discovered Open School and the educational philosophy, it made the most sense to me. I returned to school to get licensed in elementary education and earn a Masters degree and began work in St. Paul Public Schools in the early 1990s, with the intention of establishing an understanding of general educational process and the plan to eventually work at Open School. I accomplished this goal at the beginning of the1998-99 school year, and there is no place I'd rather be teaching!