Hi, Hi, Birdie

Oh lord is that the lamest pun ever or what?

I have decided to take up birdwatching.

why? well it is an outdoor hobby but not too physically demanding.

It involves learning a lot about names and species and habitats and habits and what not.

It is not expensive. I happen to own a pair of binoculars already and I can get a bird book from the library.

In short, it's the perfect pastime for a frugal brainiac who thinks she needs to get some more fresh air.

Facebook. Oy!

Oh facebook, my best friend and my worst enemy.

I keep getting friended by people and I have no idea who they are. But I have decided to be truly democratic or at least open minded and accept all who friend me. I find myself getting really weird about who I send a little note to or write on their "wall". I also wanted to unfriend some people at first but I'm afraid they would get a notification and I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, I just don't want them in my business, especially if they are basically strangers who went to the same high school as I did.

I have decided to send each and every person who has a friended me at least one little note, if I get a response fine, if I don't, that's ok, probably better.

I've also decided that I will make a point to have a conversation with every single person who attends the reunion(20 th, high school) whether I like them or not, can remember them or not or even if I am still harboring a grudge for some weird slight or not! :)

We're all human beings and I shall honor them all as such. And the point of the notes on facebook thing is that looking at what someone typed on a computer is not really staying in touch. It's kind of voyeuristic (and fun) but, just like I can't send out pre-printed christmas greetings, I can't just look at someone's profile and leave it at that.

OK I have perseverated enough on this topic.

I have a new Social Secretary

And her name is Amelia. She asked to be in charge of the calender. Last week I was doing something and she kept asking me what we would be doing on different days and how to spell some stuff. This week she said she thought an activity we had planned for Saturday was on Friday. Then she showed me her book(a small datebook given to her by our old babysitter).
This is what it looked like:
Monday- TBall
Tuesday-METOTB(The birthday party for some friends)
Wednesday-NanaG (Graduation for her cousin,affectionately known as Nana)
Thursday-PL(Pool)
Friday-LL(the first initals of some friends coming to visit)
Saturday-ROLLER(roller skating with Dad)

She is hilarious.

The Patron Saint of the EBC

The Whitney has a show about Buckminster Fuller, scientist,inventor, lecturer, thinker. I'm hoping to see the show but I read an article about him in The New Yorker yesterday. There was a lot of talk about his relevance today because most of his inventions were failures.

Maybe his true relevance is a source of inspiration for anyone who just likes to think and imagine. How many of us have any true lasting effect or recognizable contribution to our culture or history? Yes, we are part of cumulative effects but go back through the centuries and there are fewer and fewer people that you can name as individuals.

Maybe he was just a really interesting guy and it is enough to celebrate that.

Zimbabwe

What does Zimbabwe have to do with Sudbury?

Right now it looks like Robert Mugabe has bullied his way to running unopposed in his country's run off election. His opponent,Tsvanghiri, (who actually probably won in the first place) has taken refuge in the Dutch Embassy and has dropped out because of the escalating violence being perpetrated against his supporters. (I'm not going to even get started on US complicity in Mugabe's long reign or Mbeki's reluctance to use his influence to insist on safe elections at the very least if not fair ones)

Every day I hear people around put forth the lamest reasons for not voting and it drives me crazy!!! Having a voice in how your country is governed, no matter how small is a gift. And being able to do it without fear of reprisal is an even greater gift.

so I send my kids to a democratic school for them to develop the habit of self governance. I send them to a democratic school so that independence becomes so ingrained that they will have no choice but to stand up to tyrants, wherever they encounter them.

My Adventures on Facebook

What a nightmare.

It all started out innocently enough. My highschool reunion is coming up and there is a reunion homepage that I posted a couple of comments on. That led to an email from an old friend who said "Hey, a bunch of us are on facebook. You should check it out." What was I thinking! I thought I could do a little bit of stalking, sort of like a reconnaissance mission. Oh no no no. Now, I'm afraid to check my email because it is becoming positively clogged with messages from my "friends". Well, technically from people adding me to their friends list.

An actual friend of mine recommended My Space for stalking because you don't have to share anything about yourself and I noticed a lot of overlap. I guess if you are into this sort of thing you join them all. i don't know. Also, facebook is kind of a tease. It didn't show me everyone who was on all at once. They just keep popping up. It's like getting bad news about your house. Hmm, there's a little bit of damage here. Oh it's termites. Oh I'm going to have to tear down the porch.

I'm trying to keep an open mind here. I'm trying to think, "how fortunate to be able to reconnect and maybe I will actually develop a true friendship with someone". But really I'm feeling," great, now I'm stuck with these fucking people forever".

What's in a meme two:meming bugaloo

So my friend suggested that I just google meme to find out what it is but of course I never think to use the internet in such a fashion. although I did use it tonight to double check the definition of ameliorate(and I was right!). Anyway, she gave me a connection to her blog and what I presume are various memes but I still don't get the concept because I still haven't bothered to google it and get a proper definition. I guess a meme is some sort of list of things. Which is great because I love love love to make lists.

(imagine a pause of 2-3 minutes here)

OK I just finished my homework and a meme is a list but of questions that you then answer about yourself. I have received such lists before via electronic mail and will occasionally respond-usually because of the person sending it not because of the inherent value of the meme itself. I doubt you'll see any on EBC because it would involve an inordinate amount of typing or, gasp, cutting and pasting.

I can remember making similar lists on pieces of paper at sleepovers in grade school that usually involved boys we liked. i also remember the great "slam book" spring of sixth grade where many notebooks were passed around. You signed your name next to a number on the first page and then on each subsequent page there would be a question and you would write your response on the same numbered line that you started out with. So I guess the internet doesn't come up with everything!! Take that intergeeks!
Luddites rule!
Masters of sophisticated technology drool!

What's in a meme?

So my friend suggested that I need a meme to get myself blogging again. I don't know what a meme is but I won't let that stop me!

Here's a funny story from last week:
I arrived at school to pick the kids up. They were jumping rope with a staff member and some teenagers and some of their own friends(awesome thing about sudbury-only school in the world where teenage boys can jump rope with impunity and I don't mean like solitary I'm a boxer in training jump rope I mean teddy bear teddy bear turn around jump rope). It looked so fun that I asked if I could have a turn. It has probably been at least 25 years since i jumped rope but I did ok. There were only two problems- I had on an old stretched out bra and I'm chesty so the girls were bouncing around like crazy and I put my arm across my chest to keep them in check. However, I had also forgotten to put on a belt so my pants started to fall off. So I'd try to pull my pants up and my breasts would bounce like crazy but if I kept them under control I was afraid of exposing myself. So I exited gracefully to a round of applause.

Jumping rope was exhilarating. I tried to work it into conversation for a day or two. It's very hard to casually mention that you had been jumping rope recently-when you're 37 years old!

So uninspired

I keep starting posts but I can't get rolling. Help me blog gods!!

I have a confession

In ninth grade I was on the debate team and my partner and I often won. We won despite the fact that I didn't know what the word infrastructure meant and it was a key part of our argument. We won despite the fact that my partner had only been here for a couple of years and had a really thick accent. I don't know how we did it but we wound up with a winning season when there were much more talented people who were losing quite regularly.

I did manage to learn how to evaluate an argument and to be ready to defend both sides when necessary. I forget that people don't know this about me. The email discussion is up to something like twenty messages and i keep chiming in. and part of it is because I just want to win. I don't really expect major changes in policy, I just like to talk about stuff. I bet there are some people reading the emails thinking "This chick needs to go to back work and get a life."

I'm really trying to be more humble and to think about what people are saying and not get too invested or take it personally when they don't agree with me. This really applies to more than one situation.

The winning slate

The winning slate gave hours to everybody. four staff members have 30 hours and three have 20 hours but really everyone will probably work more than they are paid. that's amazing. thank you staff for your generosity and dedication.

It was very close, 19 to 17. Amelia had trouble remembering which slate she voted for. (I swear, talking to a small child sometimes is like dealing with a person with very mild dementia.) I wonder if there were bad feelings afterward.

In "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver there is a passage about the differences between democracy and the village way of discussion until consensus. It is a veiled criticism of majority rule. The argument is that in the latter method everyone is happy because nothing is decided until every last person agrees(although my guess is that it was probably only the men who got to do the agreeing). Let me tell you, I have been party to some very long discussions at sudbury before a vote even occurred, they'd be there forever if everything had to be unanimous.

Quotes

Amelia: "You know Mom, nobody teaches us anything at sudbury but we do learn things because they show us. They show us things about life. JC is like court and school meeting is like a town meeting where people talk about things. " I'm sure some of this was parroted but I like that she absorbs this and can express it.

A staff member today talking about the election process: "I have learned more about working with people here in the past four years than I have in 20 years of working in [conventional jobs]. You get called on your shit and ultimately you're a better person for it." I put those brackets in because I can't remember the actual words.

"All of this has happened before and all of it will happen again."- Battlestar Galactica
Man, I love that show.

where do I begin?

I think it's only fair to give you an election update. After two days of discussions they are down to four slates that will be voted on tomorrow. One candidate did not make the cut. At first I was surprised because she seemed to connect well with the students and she has a nice way about her but now that I've thought about it a little more I can also see {a little insight into my blog process here, I really like this candidate personally and would hate for any criticism i aired to get back to her and hurt her feelings so I guess for once I will keep my opinion to myself} why it might be for the best.

3 of the 4 slates are mostly the same but the fourth also eliminates another staff member so I don't know how that will play out.

There has also been a discussion on the email list about drug use and how the younger kids interpret it. Well, that's how it started off. Now I feel the need to post a disclaimer here because, judging by some of the emails, people have a hard time differentiating between the theoretical and the actual. There is not a tremendous amount of drug use among the students at HVSS, in fact I think it might be less,proportionally, than what you see at other schools. The teenagers there are, for the most part kind and patient with the younger kids and the ones who aren't seem to be rude to everyone across the board. I like this school, I like the students, I feel good about sending my kids there.

That being said, I am a woman with many strong opinions and I like to debate. So I may play devil's advocate or propose hypothetical situations because I think it's good to look at all sides of a problem. I also don't think it's a good idea to say "Well, that really won't be an issue with us so why bother talking about it." I think you should be ready for anything!

The original email was about a philosophy discussion on saturday to talk about drug use and how the younger students see it. Then the parent of a student who was expelled chimed in about how it came a little late for her and what she thought was important. So of course big mouth here has to get her two cents in and I said something about there being a blind spot in the philosophy. then another Mom made a comment about how her kid was scared of some of the teenager and how her kid referred to them as troublemakers and also had some crazy ideas about drugs. then all hell broke loose. A few parents took offense that about the teenager comments and, I think blew that out of proportion, at the same time a teenager felt that the whole question of drug use was getting blown out of proportion. That is the problem with message boards and email conversations, things can get blown out of proportion. I think people also don't read very well. This mom was talking about the comments made by a 7 year old and that was met with responses like "You've been there and so will(the kid)." and "Let's try to teach tolerance." Hello, it was a 7 year old! My comments were about how to let parents in if the school thinks a kid is doing drugs. I mean I would lose it, totally lose it, if one of my kids were getting high and no one said anything to me because they were bound by the dictates of the sudbury philosophy. It has nothing to do with my personal feelings about drug use and everything to do with being able to make decisions concerning the health of my child.

the kicker was when the parent of a 17 year old made a comment that amounted to "protecting their rights is more important than making sure that the school is safe for the younger students". I was actually late getting the kids from school because I was typing my response to that. It is possible that she meant just not separating out the little kids from conversations about drugs. I had put out some ideas about when parents should be notified and ways to shield the younger kids to some extent. I thought I also gave reasons for my thinking but maybe not enough. I know that I affirmed my support for the school and staff a number of times too. What was unfortunate is it seemed like there was this us vs. them mentality developing which i would like to address with another email but maybe I've said enough.
Maybe I'll post excerpts from the emails. I wonder if I'm allowed to do that. It also will require a lot of cutting and pasting and I'm not sure if I can be bothered.


Nahh!

er...

www.storyofstuff.com

I'm still learning

Loyal readers of the EBC know that I am not very computer or internet savvy so the whole idea of sharing something that I see online with other people online just escapes me. Anyhoo, this is something I saw a while back but it has occurred to me that some of you may not be familiar with it. Check it out. It's called the Story of Stuff.

32?

Went to the end of year BBQ today and had a great time. Ray had a little less of a great time because he took Cady on the tour of the property and it ended up being some crazy hour long hike. My co-op city boy is not much of a hiker to begin with much less when he has to carry a three year old half the time. They also showed a video yearbook and people made stepping stones for the playground. There was a sprinkler and water balloon fights. There was a lot of watermelon. It was fun.

anyway, I heard that there are 32 different slates. 32. That's insane. I don't know how many I expected there to be. 60 kids and 5 staff members. I don't know if anyone put multiple slates in. I'm not sure why you would do that. Maybe you can't withdraw your slate once its submitted so if you have a better idea you have to write a new slate. I don't know how they will get through this. the slate discussion is a closed meeting so I doubt Des will go. Amelia might. No eavesdropping for me. :(

This is way more exciting than the assembly meeting.

I did think of another one

I think a good staff member is also a good listener.

I admire good listeners. I am a fantastic talker but not always such a good listener.

the kids and I joke with each other sometimes about listening. We'll say "Are you really listening or are you just waiting for your turn to talk?"

Short post because I am watching Battlestar Galactica and it is freaking awesome tonight!!

more thoughts about staff

I've been thinking about what I think makes for a good staff member and I think these are some qualities that are important-
they like children(I know this seems like a no-brainer but there are a lot of people out there who work with children but don't really like children)
they're approachable
they have high ethical standards and they defend them
they understand and support the sudbury philosophy

There are probably more but these are the ones that I keep coming back to.

More about the elections

OK I am just obsessed with this process.

Today I learned that after the first round of voting staff members can revise their hour requests. Also, only candidates who are already on staff can vote. Candidates who are new to the school cannot.
Also, people can submit as many different slates as they want. I don't know if credit is given when the slates are published or if it is anonymous.

Did I mention that when the kids vote about whether they want someone on staff they can vote yes, no or no opinion. No opinion is not the same as abstaining. I'm not sure why someone would abstain. But no opinion doesn't seem like a great choice either. There happens to be one staff member with more no and no opinion votes than yes votes but since there were more yes votes than no votes they made it through to the slate round. I'm not sure if I agree with this especially since this staff member has been there for a year now. To me, that is a vote of no confidence. The interesting thing about this situation is that I have heard this individual make some very insightful remarks when it comes to the philosophy or more abstract discussions. Which makes me think about what makes for a good staff candidate?

I'm probably following this so closely because I have thought that I would like to run. Not right now of course because I don't know what I would do with Cady and Finn. I'm also not sure if I have a deep enough commitment to The Philosophy. There have been some discussions and people will refer back to how things are done at Sudbury Valley and I think to myself "Who gives a shit how they do things there?" and then I remember that we do. That's why this is a Sudbury school. Duh!

Nail biting time!

So now the real drama begins. All of the candidates who survived the first vote have submitted the maximum number of hours, the preferred number of hours and the minimum number of hours that they will work next year. These were published at the bottom of blank slate forms. Any school meeting member can fill out a slate and come up with their own combo of staff as long as the hours conform to the staff members' preferences and the total number of hours allotted equals 180.

I looked at the form and just totaling up the minimum hours equals 182 so there is no way to include every candidate.

Anyway, the slates have to be handed in by friday and then next week there will be two days of voting on the slates. I guess they just keep voting and negotiating until they come up with something that everyone agrees upon.

I'm not sure if candidates can revise their hour requests once they start voting on slates. I also wonder if there is any deal making among the staff. I mean, I wonder if people will cut their hours to keep someone on staff. It's very interesting. Very interesting indeed.

I was going to ask the kids if they wanted me to help them write a slate but I didn't think it would be honest because I would have had too much influence.

The results are in!

I just realized that since I try not to use names it doesn't matter what the results of the staff elections are because I'm not really going to report them. Sorry. I'm such a tease.

Amelia voted and told me how the staff members had done but said that it still didn't mean that they would be on staff it just meant that students wanted them on staff. When I asked her what happens next she shrugged her shoulders and said "I don't know. They'll figure it out." Des, good little American, couldn't be bothered to vote. He didn't want to waste his time voting when he could be playing.