Truth Told by a Violet

Corlyss knew about time.  When she was a young bride in the Philippines her husband of just a few months contracted polio and died.  She climbed into the military transport to accompany his body home.  Her life was over, time had come to an end, but an odd thing happened.  The sun continued to rise and the world went on.  If she wasn’t going to die of grief, she decided she wanted to live for something important.

Corlyss knew about time so, as the scripture says, she took the time God had given her to apply her heart unto wisdom.  She studied, becoming a missionary to China.  After serving her tour she returned home with her adopted Chinese son.  She married had a family, and taught school.   Corlyss knew about time, so she organized work crews to go to Sager Brown, covenant groups, taught Disciple I, II, III, and IV, Sunday school, and tutored children.  Corlyss would have told you she didn’t have a story….that her life was ordinary. 

Corlyss knew about time so when I met her even though she had all the friends she needed she took time to reach out and encircled me.  Her wide ranging intellectual interests and love for bridge brought her a diverse group of friends, and for the last six years I have gone to her home once a week to learn about things as old as the Iliad and as new as the latest research on the human brain.      

Though she was 83 years old, she never seemed “old” to me, and So it was quite shocking to learn that on the day following our regular group meeting that she’d entered the hospital for tests.   Two days later, after school,   I drove to Vanderbilt.  As I peered around the corner into her room, she was sitting up wrapped in a purple and white feather boa.  That seemed perfectly normal.  She was always ready for a celebration.  She motioned me into the room.  ”Come in, we are planning a funeral”  she announced.  “Who died and when is the funeral, I asked.

Corlyss knew about time. "It’s my funeral, and I have anywhere from two weeks to two months to plan it." she said matter-of-factly.  Then she waved a yellow legal pad in my direction. “I want you to read this poem at my funeral and I want you to tell a story.”  There was an authority about her that said, “No point in arguing ---   just say yes.”   Within a day she was moved to hospice and for the next two months I learned about time

My old red  99 Saturn quickly learned the shortest distance from school to hospice, and took me there three times a week, like clock work.  I don’t have that kind of time in my schedule, but we aren’t talking about my time here.  We are talking about God’s time and somehow there was always just enough time in the day for a visit.  When the call came, two weeks ago that she was gone, I kept my word and read the poem on the legal pad, as directed.  But,  I wanted to learn the story behind the poem.  

I called its author, Lynn,  Corlyss’ sister.  She had written the poem after the death of their father.  ‘You see, she began  I had received an African Violet as a gift.” Like most of us Lynn felt responsible for keeping it alive.   She carefully removed dead leaves, fed and watered it. Years came and went.  

Still, it refused to respond.  Then in the last week of her father's life, a single paltry purple bloom appeared.  Corlyss and Lynn left to take their father’s body back to their childhood home town to be buried next to, their mother. They were gone exactly three days.  Upon returning Lynn opened the door to her house bone weary and hung her coat in the closet.   Too tired to change out of her good clothes she set about making a cup of hot tea.

It wasn’t until she sat down at the table and began dropping the amber honey into the steaming cup that she looked up and saw the violet miraculously transformed.  There in the window  it was covered with a profusion of purple blooms.  She picked up a pen and wrote the poem “Truth Told by a Violet.”   I don't imagine she thought that the poem would one day be read at her sisters funeral, but I was what Corlyss wanted.   Our pastor, Michael Williams said,  “At 83, Corlyss died too soon,  but had she lived to be 103 I think I would say even then, that she had died too soon.”   Corlyss knew about time….God’s time - Just as the violet bloomed in God’s time so did Corlyss.

Why tests do not tell you what a child knows!

She stood before me puzzled.  Clearly she had no idea what I expected of her.  I tried a second time.  You see, this is your reading range 5-12  (translate that beginning reader to about the first couple of months of 1^st grade). You need to choose a book between these two numbers.    She headed back to the shelves to look for a book with which she could practice reading.

Moments later she returned with another book with a 15 on the spine.  I was up for the challenge.  “Honey, does 15 come after 12?”   “No.” was the response.  “Let’s make a number line and see if 15 comes after 12”  As I drew the number line on a piece of scratch paper, I said, “You see,  you can choose any book that is between the numbers 5 and 12.  You can choose 5, or 6, or 7, or 8, or…..I waited and she hesitatingly said 9, or…..again a pause and with a little more assurance "10?”  She counted up to 12 growing ever bolder as she approached 12.   Believing she now grasped the concept, I said smiling, “You see this book is 15. It comes after 12 so you can’t take it for your reading practice book.”

She again looked baffled.  “You do see 15 comes after 12 doesn’t it?”  Still looking baffled, I asked, “What comes after 12?”  “13!”  She announced boldly.  Suddenly I understood.  “Of course 13 is exactly what comes after 12.”  She was answering what in her mind was a VERY specific question!
The number that comes immediately after 12 is not 15!

This is just one example of why tests are so poor at indicating the level of sophistication and knowledge of children.  They ask a question which the child may understand, but cannot articulate an answer in the format in which the question is presented.  The test mistakenly indicates that the child doesn’t have a certain knowledge set. Please someone out there --- TELL those who think they know what questions to ask to live with children for a while.

Nurturing

 

Like goldenrod they come up unbidden
           Weeds uninvited in the world

But, someone let them get a start and now,
           They grow on stocks that need no tending.

           Weeds unbidden, uninvited in the world. 

 Given elaborate names - constructed from glittering words

           Names so spectacular that no one could utter them

                       They speak strength, beauty and awe.

Such an audacious start

Without nurturing support ­or extravagance of spirit squandered on them they are left to sink roots into such soil as they find.
To make their way in the world.
 

I wonder ­

            Will the world be as kind to Jamyron and Vandasha as it is to the Goldenrod
                         Growing unbidden, uninvited in the world?
            Lavished with sunlight and showers, gentle breezes,
                          and  just enough space along the roadside to bloom. 
                                     And Jamyron?  And Vandasha?

Einstein, Higgs and Education

Higgs Boson Proof in collider

The new Smithsonian Magazine arrived yesterday and as I sipped my coffee sitting in my re-creation of the natural world nestled in my urban backyard,  I found myself reflecting on the interplay of complexity with our desire for simplicity and dominance in the race to educate.

The article that set me on this course was one relating to the discovery of the higgs boson, sometimes called the 'God particle.'  It begins with a young Albert Einstein sick in bed.  His father brings him a compass and Einstein's thoughts are transformed.  The magnetic field invisibly and without fail moves the needle.  Einstein wonders if the universe might be controlled by elegant invisible forces not unlike magnetism. The article then fast forwards to the story of a young physicist with similar thoughts about a "field" that fills the void between particles much as water fills a fishbowl.  He describes this field with a mathematical formula, but his initial attempt to publish fails because the idea seems, to the refereed journals, preposterous. 

As a 7th grader I was part of the guinea pig generation for "new math." It was a valiant attempt to teach math by teaching the principles behind it.  Our first foray into this mystical realm was the binary system.  The rising use of computers no doubt drove that.

It was fun to convert base 10 into binary. Performing ordinary operations in the binary system was frustrating.  It is like trying to read a color word in a box when the word is printed in a different color than the word. It sounds easy enough, but the brain seeing RED written as GREEN hesitates as it fights to read the word and not the color.  Working in another base is a bit like that.  Amazingly, the thoughts brought on by this simple exposure were wondrously deep and have changed my approach to life in a way Mr. Ryder could never have guessed.  These thoughts flooded through my 7th grade imagination....

• We probably use base ten because our primitive ancestors used their fingers for calculation and there are ten of those!  (HMMMmmm I wonder if aliens might be comfortable in base 12 if they had six fingers on their hands?!)
• Our understanding of our world is deeply rooted in our physical being.
• What if we could see the full spectrum of color--how would that change our perception of the universe?
• All our scientific formulas are just DESCRIPTIONS-- of perceptions based on our physical observations! REALITY IS SUBJETIVE!  We may never be able to reach that truly elegant level of scientific description because we are limited by perceptions.

The point of this rambling is simplicity itself. I was blessed to grow up at the beginning of educational reform and insanity when there was still time for reflection and not everything was carefully monitored.  Today I would never have been in that math class which we would call AP math.  Math was not my forte.  But in those days I was in that class because of my scores on everything else!  Without that class, I might have missed a major life-changing insight!

Today education is focused narrowly driven by 'outcomes.'  We demand that kids learn certain things before they move on to others, without realizing just how NON LINEAR the universe is.  This focus on formulas and facts doesn't provide the possibilities or reflective time students needed to develop their own deeper universal meanings.  We don't allow children the opportunity to give voice to the ineffable beauty that God has surrounded us with. 

Our schools are being driven by people who are too inexperienced and too grounded in business culture to hear any of this and our teachers, who fear for their ever more marginalized positions, are not shouting this from the rooftops.   Point me to a rooftop please!

A Penny More a Pound

Immokalee workers and Nashville Friends

We were 50 people nearly half of whom looked like me ---  senior citizens.  One woman marched behind her walker.  We were met at the entrance of Pubix by a security force called in for the occasion which struck me as humorous.  I suggested to my friend  that  she should use her walker to hit one of the security officers over the head .  Were she willing to do that  perhaps we might have gotten some press coverage, but not a single T.V. channel or newspaper covered this protest.

We met at Vine Street Church of Christ.  We were United Methodists, Disciples of Christ, Friends, social activists all.  We listened to Immokalee tomato pickers, we lifted the 34 pound tomato buckets and contemplated spending the entire day on our hands and knees picking for 2 pennies a pound. 

We carried our signs and chanted and handed out literature.  Many people just giggled or ignored us. Older people who remembered the upheaval of the 60s had no patience with us.  When did we become a nation of people who can turn our backs so easily on unpleasant truths.  It is time, friends to acknowledge that all people who work need to earn a living with dignity and receive health care....I'll be giving an extra penny a pound when I buy tomatoes at Publix, but I will ask the manager to receive my pennies to remind him/her that many of us are more than willing to pay the increase we ask for the workers --- for fairness to our hard working neighbors in Florida.  

Teacher Appreciation Week!

This last week was teacher appreciation week. PTO parents, students and parents pampered us all week long.  As I wrote thank you notes to the children who offered their gifts with joy and anticipation of my response, it made me aware of the power, once again of positive expression.   

Our wonderful music teacher, who exudes enthusiasm for life and music, has taken to having the children who are seated in lines waiting to be allowed into their classrooms each morning applaud as  teachers walk down from the office to the classroom. 

I experienced this last week and what I FELT amazed me.  It gave me a sense of power to do the work of the day.  I felt great.  I realized how much our children need to walk through a cheering adoring crowd.  Sure they have to learn to behave and do the right things socially.  They need to have their inner compass set to moral North, but before any of that can happen they must feel that we are in their corner, cheering for them.  They must know that underlying everything we do is not a power struggle for control, but a safety net for them as they fail at tasks.

When I think about how I learn.  I am aware I learn more from my mistakes, but that only happens when I now that the person providing the course correction loves me and wants the best for me.  I was blessed as a student to have such teachers and later in the world of work I was equally blessed by administrators who exemplified this.    When someone criticizes my writing with specific points I can learn from that criticism, but first I have to believe that the person who is criticizing me cares that I ultimately succeed.  As they say on Star Trek, “make it so!”

Change the Story..Change History!

Jesus and the great rabbis knew the power of a story.  In Genesis, creation comes in the form of a story. We are a story formed community and what people who are desperate need most is a new story for themselves.

In the 32nd chapter of Genesis an angel wrestles with Jacob.   Jacob, a dishonest rogue who has outwitted his bother and his dying Father getting both the birthright and the blessing of the first born, is the kind of guy who makes millions through slightly devious means and still has the audacity to fight with the Lord God Almighty for even more.  He hangs onto the angel, though wounded, and in the end the angel gives Jacob a new name which gives him a new story ---  He will no longer  be the scoundrel but will be one of the Patriarchs.  This ancient story reveals the power we have both  in naming (calling forth the best in someone) and in creating a new story, one that takes us in new directions. 

Teachers know the power of naming a child.  There expectations and words shape the ability of their students every day.  Could changing out story change this miserable bellicose world?  We must share our stories with one another for only when we do will our  civic engagement have the necessary civility, mindfulness, place and connection necessary for real democracy and ultimate peace.

Last week as I sat on the porch swing on Saturday morning taking a moment to drink my coffee during my morning devotional I was caught off guard by her. I usually sit in the swing to watch the birds, but today I knew I didn't have unlimited time so I just sat with the intent of reading my scripture, writing briefly in my journal and getting back to work cleaning house. That is the rhythm of the school year with just two days to catch up on all that slips by during the harried Monday-Friday of school.

 I noticed that though there was no breeze, there leaves on one of the plants was strangely stirred. Trying to reason where the breeze was coming from I suddenly realized that I was sitting at an angle which made it impossible to see the hummingbird feeder. It was hummingbird wings!! The little bird made enough wind to disturb the plant far below. Its presence went unnoticed by the bees collecting nectar nearby. In the dim early morning light another bird approached the feeder, an imposter who could not sing, yet there he was drinking the nectar. It was a sight I had never before seen.

A flock of Titmice hopped near to observe me sitting fixed in the swing. He had hopped the length of the hose and observed me from not more than two feet away when the movement of my pen gave me away. He is telling me something which would be so clear if only I spoke the language of the birds. As I sat there the gold finches returned to the feeder. They had been absent for a long time....then a little yellow sulfur butterfly....entered the scene prompting the poem above.

It has been a busy and wonderful spring in the garden.  The wonder expressed by children has indeed inspired and kept me fresh, but as summer begins I have been working with my group of friends who are working for a world where life is more natural and our actions do less environmental damage.

I found this TED Talk via a movie, Ethos.  It will take only 18 minutes of your time, but explains so much so clearly and without the usual political bias.

Invictus - William Earnest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Are we indeed the captains of our souls? Certainly, a great deal of our rhetoric suggests that we are.

For me things are never so cut and dried, and it seems to be human hubris to suggest that we truly choose our fates. Certainly we respond to our circumstances and make choices about how we will react, but we do not decide where we are going to be in 40 years and take a clear path toward that. If things were this straightforward and one could see into the crystal ball of the future I seriously doubt that there would be some of the social problems that exist in our world.

We are masters of our souls only to the extent that we can choose our response to external events and these choices often times are made in ignorance of consequence as well.... so I say.....let us choose to support one another rather than hoard our riches and believe that our less fortunate brothers as Dickens eloquently suggests are not "below us but as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys."

We need to have compassion --- Being a captain is based in power! I watch many of my parents who work hard to keep their heads just above water as the income, pensions, health care are endangered species! Whether you are the garbage man or the CEO you work hard for your money.

All PEOPLE should have a living wage for the work they do. All people should have a 40-hour work week so that they have the opportunity to invest in their families for that is the backbone of our civilization. We celebrate increased "productivity" which actually means we celebrate people working longer hours for the same salary so that fewer people are employed. Is this the world we want to live in? Such a world benefits the bottom line of profit for "investors" but what of the workers? Are the workers the captains of their soul?

It's for your Tooth Fairy!

Matthew, a bright little 1st grader with a shock of red hair and freckles to match, walked up to the circulation desk at the busiest time of day. He was clutching a baggie with my name scrawled across it--misspelled in red marker. It contained some bills and coins. Since we had just finished the book fair I figured he was bringing me money to pay for something he bought and that I had paid for. I frequently make up deficits when kids are short a little cash. I always tell them how much they owe and that they can bring it in later --- some of them remember and bring it in even if its only a few pennies. Others forget and I wind up writing a check to cover those kids.

"Matthew, is that for something you got at the bookfair?" He looked surprised. "No, don't you remember my tooth?" This was not the response I was expecting. I racked my brain as I went back to our last conversation. "Oh, yes," I said. "You lost your tooth and the tooth fairy brought you $3.00."

"Yea, and you said when you were little the tooth fairy only brought you a quarter." "That's right," I said, looking puzzled. "Well, this is to make up for you -- for your tooth fairy!"

For a moment I sat stunned by what I was hearing. This sweet young boy felt deep empathy for me and wanted to make up for the poverty of my tooth fairy. It was a moment of priceless beauty in the midst of a hectic busy morning in an average elementary school library. Such a generous gift. My immediate response was to hand him back the envelope telling him I couldn't accept such a gift from a student, but that didn't feel right either! Such generosity had to be honored and accepted. "Why, THANK YOU."..I stammered. You are very thoughtful, Matthew."

The baggie remained in my purse until Christmas Eve. As I hurried past the Salvation Army Bell ringer I knew, exactly what to do with such a gift. I placed the contents of the baggie in the kettle.....keeping the baggie.....as a treasured memory!

Timberlake Christian Church Youth worked like dawgs!

Timber LakeWhat makes working with teens so is fun? It has been a while since I was a high school librarian, but it all came rushing back. It's their growing love of irony in humor, playfulness, extreme sense of fairness, constant probing for new ways to do things, and incredible optimism.

Saturday morning the Youth of Timberlake Christian Church from Lynchburg, VA arrived at the garden with their adult advisers and set to work. An added blessing was that one of the adults was an aborist so I got a two-fer! I was able to ask questions and he knew far more than I did about the garden which was wonderful!

The kids weeded, pulled out the old broccoli bed, laid down mulch, trimmed bushes, moved dirt, and all the while they provided me with a refresher course in teen humor and thinking in addition to a big dose of hope for the future.

The pastor, was obviously the kind of guy to stay focused and kept the kids on task as the temperatures soared. All three adults had a great rapport with the kids, and it was wonderful to see the before and after.....Thanks, Timberlake!

Ripening Summer at the West Nasvhville Farmer's Market

Saturday morning and a real farmer's market. Not the giant one downtown which has farmers from Kentucky, North Carolina and other nearby states, but one that has farmers and growers that are right here in Nashville.

I found three of my children from school, or rather they found me. There was a singer, folks doing yoga, makers of natural herbal soaps, lotions and other things in addition to food/caterers, farmers of vegetables, fruits, makers of cheese, local honey, flowers, meat from places which raise the creatures humanly on grass (as God intended), candle makers, friends....

I felt as though I had been transported to a medieval fair --- except there was no juggler or jester! Noelle and I wandered around making small talk and finding delightful things to put in our basket she found wonders to photograph (including the basket above). You can see her photos at Photography in a Different Light.

I realized how wonderful commerce can be when it is between real people. Folks with the flowers were bartering for merchandise as everyone wanted some sunflowers or daisies to brighten up their booths! I saw others bartering services and I felt somehow diminished that I was engaged in the gross exchange of mere money!

Check them out if you live on the west side! It was a beautiful morning filled with the joy of ripening summer!

Inch by Inch, Row by Row, Gonna Watch the Garden Grow!

Green with envy was I yesterday as I visited my friend's garden. Joann has been using Bokashi in her composting and her church has created a community garden.

O.K. I know that I have a lot less experience and our children and parents do also --- but that is what a garden is really about growing and learning as we do so.

When Tennessee Volunteer Gardener contacted us to be part of a program on school and community gardens, I hesitated. We do not have a lot of outside support, so our garden is not as beautiful as the one pictured here. What we have is an honest in process garden where we are all learning to become more independent in our production of the food we consume. We are learning and it shows in things that have not worked so well.

When I think about where we were just two years ago, I can see how far we have come, But when I look at Joann's garden I think of how far we have to grow! This week we are adding a few more perennials to the butterfly garden, some companion plantings to keep bugs out of the tomatoes, harvesting broccoli, cucumbers, weeding and mulching the strawberry bed's, staking up the pole beans, and spreading mulch on the butterfly garden! Come join us!! call Karen at 361-0446 or leave a message at 353-2066.

Hands Down Great Cooks--160 Aprons say so!

You never know when you make a small contribution to a conversation what can happen! That is how I felt Saturday as adult volunteers put the finishing touches on the 160 aprons for the cafeteria workers in Metro Nashville Public Schools with school gardens.

How did I get into the business of producing aprons? It was the outgrowth of a comment I made at a Nashville School Garden Network meeting. It went something like this, "I don't want our cafeteria ladies to view those of us in the school garden as the enemy. I think sometimes they feel we are saying that they are not doing a good job because the food they serve is not up to the healthiest standards. It isn't their fault. They do all that they can to make our lunches palatable. I think we need to acknowledge them in some way. Everyone needs to know that they are wonderful once-in-a-while."

The next thing I knew I was hand-lettering aprons all last week "Hands Down -- Great Cook"and on Friday -- every kindergartner in the Westmeade came through the library to put their hand prints on those aprons! They hung drying across the computers, over the book shelves and on chairs. The library looked like one of those homes that the wealthy close for the season covering the furniture with sheets!


In the overall scheme of things -- this may not do a lot of good. But hopefully it will warm some hearts as the cafeteria ladies head home for the summer break!

Salad for 500

The thought of preparing strawberry spinach-salad for 500 was daunting. Luckily I have people! Martha Stamps, chef extraordinaire, was consulted for a recipe for dressing that young tastes would welcome! Her husband, Shayne of Good food for Good People was able to find a flat of locally grown strawberries. The two of them gave me courage to believe that I could carry it off.

Garden helpers appeared at 12:00 noon the day before excited as usual to go outside in the garden. One of the young charges noticed the rather large knife I was carrying with me.
He recoiled, "That's dangerous." he pointed out. "Yes, it is, but it is the right tool for the job at hand." I said. As this weeks garden helpers strode out among the plants giddy with excitement, they learned some knife safety and proceeded to use the imposing tool to harvest the spinach. This brought me much stress as I reminded them at each moment how to carefully handle a knife. A hundred years ago the children would have probably been able to wield an axe by this age.

These children had no idea of how to handle a knife or use it to free the spinach from its stalk. They also had no idea how to gather the ripe berries. Things I grew up knowing without being taught through the example of my parents or grandparents, theses students had not experienced. They had to be taught to pick the ruby red strawberries and to remove the ripe ones without injuring those which had not yet matured.
They had to be encouraged to eat the fruit straight from the garden..."is it clean?" one asked. "We haven't used fertilizer or pesticides and it has been washed with rain water....do you think it is all right?" The answer was a red berry in a happy mouth!

We picked slightly more than two bushels of spinach -- but I confess we did not succeed in picking many berries, for most of those went into waiting mouths. One of the youngest students announced, "I do not like strawberries, but these are good. "Red-ripe strawberries sweetly warmed in the sun and delightfully juicy yielding to gentle pressure are different from those we buy in the store which have been engineered to be hard enough to ship, red enough to look ripe, but lacking in the real taste of a strawberry.

It was 12:30 before I got to bed last night. I had begun washing and tearing the spinach. I had bravely announced a SALAD DAY for Friday. But upon reflection, it was daunting. That is when your friends come in so handy... On Friday our gifted teacher, who had been displaced came early to help me cut the berries and two of the moms seeing that I could use extra hands stayed on to help toss and serve the salad......Salad for 500? Piece of cake with a little help from your friends!

Here is the recipe for the dressing -- it makes a quart - 2 cups oil, 1 cup red wine vinegar, 3 cloves of garlic chopped fine ( I used a garlic press) 1 teaspoon of salt, pepper to taste, and emulsified in a blender.

REAL SCIENCE for REAL KIDS - a school garden

In order to understand why a library would sponsor a school garden, you must have some idea about why school libraries exist.

We support the curriculum, and helping kids become independent readers, but far more than that we support the ultimate goal of formal education; to create life-long learners who are curious and able to develop answers to their own curiosity! Since much of what happens in the classroom is based on the outcome of passing the tests school libraries can stand in the breech!

I wish you could experience the moments of unbridled, undirected, curiosity and growth that happen in our school garden! Because we have too many kids for one session a week, we divide into two groups. One is for 3rd and 4th graders and one for kindergarten through 2nd grade. It has been such a busy week I didn't have time to dream up any formal ideas of what we would do. Since the second group of helpers has a parent volunteer it is helpful to have a good plan in place, but this week would be informal.

Sometimes there is great value to learning on the fly. Let me explain. When I don't have a goal of what I want to cover -- the children create their own lesson plan! As students filtered in with their garden helper passes, both groups were excited by how much (6 inches in a week) the paperwhites and amaryllis bulbs had grown. Then I directed their attention to the windowsill of experiments they created several weeks earlier. I realized that the soil we planted in (taken from our butterfly garden and hard as rock because it is primarily clay!) was far too hard for these tender indoor plants which we had rooted from cuttings to thrive.

I could hear opportunity knocking! I quickly put out soil samples ( one from the butterfly garden, one from the peat of the pots in which we had planted the bulbs and one with soil mixed with compost, sand, earth, and perlite). We compared these by touch, smell, and by looking at the plants we had planted in each kind of medium --- We planted our cuttings in plastic cups so the kids can see the roots and even the act of adding water to these --- brings excitement as the kids see how the water drains down through the soil changing the soil's color as it goes!

We had experimented with my old hoya and cut off a section of it --- one part we had stuck into water and one we had just laid on top of the soil in another pot --- When we dug that one out --- we could see how the plant had put roots into the ground wherever it touched the earth! One of the little girls said, "that is really creepy" To which I replied --- "yes it is --- that is why vines are sometimes called creepers! They creep along the earth and start new plants wherever they touch!" "No she said, I mean it is creepy like monsters!" I guess she was thinking about how weird it is --- maybe thinking about people lying on the ground and starting new people or something!

You never be certain what they are thinking because you never know what their experiences have been! We potted the plants which had now established root systems-- and they left thrilled after having a science lesson which they had actually paid for with their hard earned 'dragon dollars'! A lesson they will probably remember and relate to the science kit that comes in 3rd grade -- that has them planting seeds and watching them grow through the entire cycle from seed to seed.

The second group of 3rd and 4th graders came on Friday --- Denise walked through the garden with them looking at the plants after the deep freeze of the past week --- miraculously the peas are still alive though the kids observed that the tops had some clear frost damage. The plants that appeared to have done best --- were the herbs --- we will be exploring another question --- what makes these herbs withstand the cold better --- these questions which seem so obvious to us --- are real mysteries to them. I do not want to explain and teach too much as I want them to question productively --- I must keep quiet and let them struggle. I want them to develop skills to observe and draw their own conclusions which they must then develop experiments to confirm or debunk. Next week we will make notes about the differences between the peas and the herbs, to see what they actually do see.

We will begin keeping our gardening journals --- But even that will require some thought for them to see why they need to keep a journal --- otherwise it would seem too much like school. If we don't write our observations down -- we can't possibly remember them when we need to refer to them we won't have the information we need to help us make decisions! I'm wondering if I can sell the idea to them. We will store the journals for now in between each visit in the library -- we will write in the journal when they come back in to observe what changes they see in what they have planted.

Their ability to reason is limited by their limited experience! For example -- we cut the sweet potatoes and watched as droplets of water formed on the surface of the potatoes -- we compared and contrasted them to the white potatoes we eat --- The kids came up with the fact that potatoes have sugar in them to make them sweet -- which I thought was pretty sophisticated reasoning!

But when they stuck toothpicks in the potatoes I realized that sophistication in one area is not necessarily cvarried into another! One third grade boy stuck his three toothpicks all on one side of the potato and when he tried to balance the potato on the clear plastic cup --- his turned over and the cut side went in the water --- that resulted in trying to figure out how he needed to rearrange the toothpicks to keep that from happening -- this was far more difficult I thought it should be -- the hypothesis they developed were mostly wrong! It took about 5 minutes to figure out and I actually had to give away the answer away! I had not thought about turning that into a math lesson with 4 toothpicks -- versus three and dividing into thirds or fourths and the concepts of balance and symmetry! It also generated an opportunity to talk about "curing" drying off the potato before we put it in water -- mold-- rotting---

We discussed leaving the potatoes in the library over the holiday so I could make sure they don't dry out! Then I asked them where they would put the potatoes while we wait for them to develop roots. The unanimous answer was "IN a window" so that it gets lots of light!" But then I threw this out --- "If we were planting these in the ground -- would they be getting any light? LIGHT BULB MOMENT! So we put some of the potatoes in the dark and some in the window to see if it makes a difference --- REAL SCIENCE for REAL KIDS!

I didn't know grown-ups did that

At dismissal I stand at the door making sure children don't leave the building before their parents cars pull up to a full stop. We use a park bench to hold one of the doors open as the cars move in a rhythm established by teachers who direct their movement in a ballet that lets us load cars with children in just 15 minutes.

As the time stretches on I sit on that "doorstop." Since I injured my back, I find it difficult to just stand for long periods and especially on a day like today the bench beckons! The sky is that remarkable shade between cerulean and cobalt with puffs of white and dancing yellow leaves dotting it. When I first began sitting on that bench at the beginning of the year, I noticed how sitting results in more frequent personal interaction. Something about being at the same height as the children inspires them to come up and hug me, and share little secrets as they stand in line waiting for the cars to stop.

A quirky little girl stopped to tell me she was having a problem last week. She had come up early, not waiting to hear her name spoken, so that she would be invited to sit and chat. Usually I send them back if they are breaking the rules and coming before they are called, but something in her demeanor made me invite her to sit next to me. As I listened, I thought there might be more to her story than could be resolved by short visits at the bench. It might be helpful for her to talk to our school counselor, a beautiful black woman who inspires trust.

Trying to think of a way to invite such a conversation without stating outright that she needed to talk to a counselor, I told her that after all the cars have gone Lee, who calls the childrens' names as the cars form into two lines, often comes and sits next to me. "Sometimes I pour my heart out to her about things that might be troubling me." I said. " You know sometimes we just need someone we think is wise to listen to us , and they will help us sort things out."

" I didn't think grown-ups did that." She looked shocked. "Oh, honey. I remember when I was your age, I thought grown-ups were finished, too. I looked forward to being finished someday, myself. But what I have found is that I am always learning and changing and growing, I still make mistakes in working with people and have to ask for forgiveness. Even now, that I am 60 years old I am still growing, learning and changing."

Her eyes grew bigger, "You're 60?!" she said incredulous. "I thought you were 40." Just then her car pulled to a stop and she had to leave before we explored the issue of my advanced years! For this nine year old, I was as old as Methuselah! She left with lots to ponder....and I got up from the bench feeling very ancient indeed! I found myself hoping that the people in that car line had access to a great article from PBS about how to talk with you kids about school. http://www.pbs.org/parents/goingtoschool/talk_child.html

The World is sort of FLAT & Cuba is next to Africa

4th graders had just arrived to do "research." They each had an explorer. I had created WebPages at various reading levels (3 & 4) that answered all the questions their teacher had given them. I wanted to insure their success and believed the WebPages would make their reading easier. Each page had two graphics - a portrait of the explorer and a map showing their explorations.

Admittedly, the questions they were seeking answers for were not interesting. They were things like --birth and death dates, the dates of their explorations, and locate two interesting facts. They were then to draw the explorers routes on a blank map provided by the teacher. The purpose of this was to learn material that will be covered on the TCAP tests, and to practice map skills.

Here are the results that four 4th graders came up with from my Cabot page.
http://www.westmeade.net/Library/EuropeanExplorers/Cabot.html

1. Cabot died in 1557.

2. Cabot got 10 pounds of fish for his explorations from the King of England.

3. He explored North America.

It made me aware, once again, what we understand is proscribed by experience.

The first child either read so poorly that she never saw that the ships sank on his 2nd expedition and he and his crew were never heard from again, or she apparently didn't realize that the article moved on to talk about John Cabot's son and his accomplishments.

The second child made a completely logical leap --- Cabot found an abundance of fish in the harbors of Newfoundland and the King rewarded him for his exploration with 10 pounds of fish. He had no idea that he knew so little that his assumptions would be completely false.

The third child had no ability to articulate in the specific what Cabot explored.

Adding to the problems of some of the children was the fact that the map they were using to draw the routes didn't have any of the Caribbean islands on it. This is a big problem for those who had Columbus or deSoto. I quickly penciled in Cuba.

When I returned to check on this group-- I found that one of the children had drawn deSoto's route from Madagascar to Florida. Even after a discussion of the fact that Florida was not in Africa the student still maintained that Madagascar was the only thing that look like Cuba on the map.....sigh......

Our little friends need much more exposure and much less testing for specific skills and facts over which we will judge their learning and judge the effectiveness of the teachers who teach them!