Throughout history writers and artists have retreated to the countryside to think and work. Maybe they have always been New Pioneers. The age of the Internet makes it easier. Yesterday I drove to Howes Corner at the intersection of highways 34 and 73 in western South Dakota to interview writer and teacher Joan Wink. Joan and her husband Dean are natives of the Great Plains. They met the first day on campus at Yankton College in the early 1960s. They married and graduated four years later.

Over the course of a remarkable life, Joan has been a teacher, a teacher of teachers and a prolific writer on life and learning. She is passionate about her work and able to honor the passion that others feel for their vocations, even when it makes her life difficult. In 1991, with two children grown and graduated from high school, Joan finished her Ph.D. at Texas A&M. At the same time, she and Dean had the opportunity to buy the ranch that had belonged to her grandparents in this remote section of western South Dakota.

A cattleman for most of his career, Dean wanted to buy the ranch. Joan wanted to take what she had learned and become a teacher of teachers at a university. There was no opportunity for her close to Howes Corner. So they agreed to live at a distance from each other. They bought the ranch and Dean went to work. Joan joined the faculty at California State University, Stanislaus in Turlock, 1534 miles away. Over the next 15 years, Joan spent her summers and holidays on the ranch. Dean visited in California. After she had taught enough years, she was able to take a sabbatical. She spent it in South Dakota helping Dean with the chores and writing the second edition of her book CRITICAL PEDAGOGY in a tiny space on the second floor of their small ranch house.

This year, after a tough battle with cancer, Joan is beginning the next chapter of her life, which will include some teaching, more consulting, and lots of writing. She and Dean have added onto the house. From the desk in her new writing room, she looks south across the prairie, feeling the exquisite isolation of the landscape and the connectedness of her world.

To visit Joan’s website, go to www.joanwink.com.