The Tutorial School Staff
Iku Fujimatsu
Iku Fujimatsu was born on April 27, 1957 in Tokyo, Japan. Her childhood was spent both in Japan and the U.S., living in New York City from 2-5 years old, and again from 11-14.
She then studied Fine Arts at the Kyouritsu University in Tokyo. After graduating she worked several jobs including a publication house for childrens books. In addition, during college and after, Iku worked as a translator and was able to support herself in that way when she left the city to live in the northern Japanese "Alps" of Nagano Prefecture (of Winter Olympic fame.) In addition to translation, she ran summer art and outdoor education workshops for children.
In 1995 Iku moved from her beautiful house in the mountains to Santa Fe with her daughter Lin, then 9 years old. She attained a master's degree in Education with a focus on At Risk Youth in 2000 from The College of Santa Fe.
In 1997 Iku began to work at The Tutorial School teaching Japanese. She liked us, we liked her, and she's been here ever since.
Moe Zimmerberg
Read an article about Moe in Tech Review, Feb 2004
Moe Zimmerberg was born Saturday, Jan. 11, 1958 in Princeton, NJ. He grew up in Highland Park, NJ and went to Highland Park High school where he placed 6th in the state in math competitions. After High school he went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he studied Neuroscience, doing psycho-physical experiments in vision and hearing. It was at this point that he became discouraged with the infighting and back stabbing of the scientific community. After graduating and working for a year building experimental electronic instruments he went traveling.
Traveling opened up for Moe many new possibilities. He began to realize that he was happier living closer to nature and that he didn’t need a lot of money to survive. As part of his travels he got a job acting in a play about energy. They performed at various elementary schools in central Washington State and they led workshops in alternative energy issues. This experience led Moe to realize that teaching was what he liked to do.
Upon moving to Santa Fe; Moe started volunteering at Little Earth School and eventually became a part-time teacher there. He also worked as a math instructor at the college of Santa Fe and took courses in elementary education culminating in a state certificate in education.
It was at this point that Moe had twin children. He got a less time consuming job doing computer work and helped to raise the children. In 1990 he heard about The Tutorial School and met with Richard to get some insight into starting his own small school. Instead Richard hired him, and he has been here ever since, becoming a full partner when the school moved to its present location in 1992.
I started working here because it felt right, it was a 'path with heart.' Since Richard died I have had to be more of a mouthpiece for the school, learning more about the educational philosophies that the school was based on. I have also met with my peers from democratic schools world wide through the International Democratic Education Conference. As a result I'm very committed to the philosophy of the school and have an ever deepening understanding and appreciation of our practices.
Ethan Urbanik
Ethan's just this guy, you know?