No More Playday

The enrollment committee met on wednesday and voted to cancel playday. Tuesday was a little nutty but I didn't realize how stressful it was for staff to keep playday going. I'm glad that I happened to be planning my own exit strategy for other reasons because if I hadn't I would have been pissed. I came home wed night to a message that basically said playday is cancelled and I hope you get over it. It didn't bother me at first but then I thought about it and realised that it was not the way to handle things. I suppose I'm not handling it well by posting it on my blog but nobody really reads this so no harm no foul. Anyway I talked to staff and it was brought up that a staff had to play an authoritarian role because Playday is not democratic. Which is true because preschoolers are not ready for that. It was an interesting way of looking at it that I hadn't thought of. I was under the impression that one of the goals of playday, in addition to introducing new families to the school, was to get younger siblings of students accustomed to sudbury. I don't know how the democratic aspect could be introduced. I mean Cady would happily vote on stuff, as long as what she voted for always won! Ha. I tried to think of a happy medium. Maybe a group that met once a month or something like that but really, I should be grateful that I was able to take advantage of it last year and now we will move on to other things. I haven't told Cady and I'm not going to. She will be disappointed but I don't want other people to be unhappy to indulge her. I'm just going to try and fill up our tuesdays until she forgets about it. There are some pluses to having a three year old!


Today's list:
Occupations that Fascinate Me

1. sandhogs
2. demolition experts
3. forensic accountants
4. composers
5. lighting

oops I forgot the list

Places I Would Love To Visit But Probably Never Will:

1. Petra(the city carved in rock that is in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade)
2. India
3. Jerusalem
4. Lake Victoria
5. Tuva
6. Lhasa
7. Nepal
8. Angor Wat
9. Galapagos
10. Mt. Rushmore/Crazy Horse
    

More DIA

Here are some more thoughts from Tocqueville-

On the spirit of religion and the spirit of liberty:
"Religion perceives that civil liberty affords a noble exercise to the faculties of man and that the political world is a field prepared by the creator for the efforts of mind. Free and powerful in its own sphere, satisfied with the place reserved for it, religion never more surely establishes its empire than when it reigns in the hearts of men unsupported by aught beside its native strength.
Liberty regards religion as its companion in all its battles and its triumphs, as the cradle of its infancy and the divine source of its claims. It considers religion as the safeguard of morality, and morality as the best security of law and the surest pledge of the duration of freedom."
O that we would heed these words today!

An interesting observation about the remnants of laws and customs from the old country:
"The picture of American society has, if I may so speak, a surface covering of democracy, beneath which the old aristocratic colors sometimes peep out."

Something I had never thought about before:
"But the law of inheritance was the last step to equality. I am surprised that ancient and modern jurists have not attributed to this law a greater influence on human affairs. It is true that these laws belong to civil affairs; but they ought, nevertheless, to be placed at the head of all political institutions; for they exercise an incredible influence upon the social state of a people"

On the mediocrity of our intellectual pursuits:
"In America most of the rich men were formerly poor; most of those who now enjoy leisure were absorbed in business during their youth; the consequence of this is that when they moght have had a taste for study, they had no taste for it, and when the time is at their disposal, they have no longer the inclination.
There is no class then in America, in which the taste for intellectual pleasures is transmitted with hereditary fortune and leisure and by which the labors of the intellect are held in honor. Accordingly, there is an equal want of the desire and the power of application to these objects."

Plus the guy could wield a semicolon!

Crackdown!

JC is cracking down this year. I know I've mentioned this before but it bears repeating. I don't know what she did but Amelia is restricted from going outside for 5 days. Two kids have been suspended and were restricted to different rooms for 3 and 4 days respectively.

Maybe they felt like they just had to be tough from the get go to decrease recidivism. I wonder how the indefinite suspension/expulsion sentences will play. I thought it was ridiculous myself when I found out that someone could come back in the same school year after being expelled. That just seemed like a long term suspension to me. I wonder if that rule will be amended.

Amelia is serving on JC now but there hasn't been anything too juicy or she is just getting better at resisting my interrogation. :)

Here's my list for today:
Religions You May or May Not Have Heard Of

1. Tenrikyo
2. Ahmadi
3. Vodoun
4. The Cult of Scarro
5. Jainism
6. Juche
7. Cao Dai
8. Rastafarianism (Rastas!)
9. Yoruba
10. Candomble
    

the real difference between us and animals

We make lists.

I love to make lists. I have a list of lists I intend to make someday. I have 3 or 4 different types of to-do lists. Lists make me feel like I have things under control. Lists can classify, they can bring order, they can help you focus on your true objective in any undertaking. Lists are great.

I don't like popularity contest type of lists like "top fives" or "all-time best..." They are too subjective.

I also don't like the term "bucket list". Lame to begin with, made worse by the movie.

I don't usually do themes but I think this week I will end each post with a list. If I remember.

For today:
Some Famous Men I Have Encountered And It Had No Discernible Impact On My Life Or Theirs

1. Richard Nixon
2. Bill Cosby
3. Larry Hankin(maybe I'll save him for the sort of famous list)
4. Kevin Bacon
5. Mike Meyers
6. Some people at a Soap Opera softball game(again, may be better on the sort of famous list)
7. Stanley Tucci
8. Arthur Ashe
9. Robert Urich
10. Mark Messier
    

The Wall

Des called me from school today because he was having "a bad day." His friends weren't there and he was a bit at odds. "Nothing here is fun."

"Hitting the wall" is a phrase that is used when a kid is bored or is struggling to find out what it is that interests them. Staff members can probably recognize the condition faster than I can but take a hands off approach as a student works through it. This is another aspect of the school where the value of the process is not readily discernible or easily explained.

When our kids seem unhappy our first instinct is to help them. It's natural but at times wrongheaded. Boredom is a challenge not a problem. We all need to struggle to find our way because when we struggle with boredom or dissatisfaction we are also thinking about what is important to us, what we want, what we need to do to change the situation. If a kid complains about being bored a staff member might make a suggestion but they are not going to direct the student. It is a subtle but important distinction. Saying "have you been to the art room today?" is different from plopping them down with paper, supplies and a model for a project to complete. The first is a suggestion, a bit of advice, the second is a distraction from the real problem. Yes, the child now has something to do but it hasn't addressed the real problem of figuring out what it was they wanted to do in the first place.

I'm just a mom again

School Meeting decided that a staff member should be in charge of playday. Yeh! The system works! Well, it worked for me, not the staff member that may have been trying to get out of playday. I did have a twinge for a moment,you know, thinking, maybe it isn't that they don't want an outsider they just don't want me. But you know what? That's ok too. And I have a confession to make. I'm feeling very overwhelmed by the Hallowween fair enterprise and that motion is going to be discussed tomorrow. There is a small part of me that hopes I get a phone call saying school meeting doesn't want a Hallowween fair either. I know it could be really fun I just keep making lists of things I need to do or buy or make and they just keep getting longer and longer and longer...

I think there should have been a motion put before SM in the first place about whether or not to hold one although I can't imagine why they wouldn't. SM is a strange and mysterious entity to me. It's both a people and a place in my mind. Right now in Democracy in America I'm reading about the first New England Towns and Town Meetings and also came across a very interesting quote about religion and liberty which I will have to share with you at another point because the book is out of reach at the moment. anyway, School Meeting is based on the idea of governance through a Town meeting.

There is also a movie called Dogville that features a town meeting but in a very ugly way. The power of the meeting is abused to the point of absurdity. (somehow a character played by Nicole Kidman ends up wearing this odd iron collar attached to a an anvil that she has to drag around) The town is destroyed by violent criminals(in every endeavor people would do well to remember that there is always a bigger fish) and then during the credits there is just image after image of all sorts of nasty stuff that has happened in our country. I think the director, Lars Von Trier, was trying to say, you think this is a fable but look at the violence you yourself are capable of. He could have taken images from around the world and all of history to highlight that aspect of man's nature but he specifically chose to use only american images. I'm not sure why. I think europeans think we're deluded. I have veered way off topic here. Sorry. From sudbury to dogville. See if you can find those two in the same sentence anywhere else on the internet. :)