Yes it is February and we are covered in snow, with more on the way. But we do live in New Hampshire and no one seems to care, well except those school folks who right now may still be in school June 30, or going Saturdays, or longer days, or cutting vacations-I guess a reason I never had much interest in moving up the education ladder into top administration! It seems there should be some way to have young folks learn more quickly or give credit for "life experiences". It has been a while since I shared words of wisdom, posted many pictures of wood projects but will try to get back on track.
Have been out testing as part of the NAEP program, the "Grade Card of America's Schools" and is interesting to visit middle and elementary schools in New Hampshire collecting data from 4th grade and 8th grade students in the areas of science, math and reading. Some of the buildings are new, some old but as soon as you walk into the office can tell the "school culture" of the building, mostly from the administrative assistant sitting behind the first desk. I visited on school where the woman seemed to be angry that I was even in the building! Others treated me like a long lost relative! So guess where more learning was taking place. I have spent time talking about the importance of "RESPECT" throughout school buildings and that respect may be a key component to learning plus I knew very quickly that if the principal was gone, school operated smoothly but if the secretary was gone, chaos was usually the result. I have seen a teacher's desk too small with a piece of plywood duct taped to the top to make it bigger; milk crates were the book shelves and a wonderful classroom teacher but with the look in her eyes that she was tired of stretching supplies, time and energy. Other classrooms were filled with exciting, bright, posters, number charts, spelling words and excited young people led by a just as wonderful educator-the difference appeared to be-they felt respected and expectations were high for their achievement.
I know it is not fair to make judgements based upon a 3 hour visit but after 40 years in education I feel I know the signs. I listen to people speak of wasting money on education, the evils of teacher's unions, the lack of academic progress and on and on and wonder just how much respect they have for those people who educate everyone that walk through that classroom door! Recently I heard a man speak at a board meeting wanting to cut the budget by 10% across the board, when asked if he was familiar with previous board meetings and financial committee meetings and had attended any of the meetings. His response was he worked nights, his kids were home schooled and he didn't have time to come to the meetings but he thought the public school was a waste of money! This makes me tired so will stop on this subject.
As Pat and I walked through the snow to the car tonight, the crunch of the snow, the smell of the wood smoke and the crushing temperatures that make your nose hurt brings back those memories of Union Star, and growing up on the farm. Walking into the gym with my basketball uniform and my Converse All Star High Tops, the smell of pop corn helps me remember just how small our gym was and just how bad we were at basketball. We were a .500 team at best, never went far in district championships, usually would win the consolation games to at least get a trophy but boy did we have fun. Teams that followed us became better (they had a new gym full size floor), won some district championships and had some guys that could "light it up"! But we had fun.
My dad and I built model airplanes on the dining room table-the kind with strips of balsa wood, bent, glued and pinned to a pattern then covered with tissue paper. Power was a long rubber band that ran the length of the body-funny I don't remember flying any of the planes, have no idea what happened to them, I just remember them hanging from the ceiling in the dinning room during the winter months. If we were doing that we listened to the radio shows and read-he got our books from the Book Mobile that stopped up at Empire Prairie. We checked out books by the book full!! I wish I could say, those were the good old days, but polio could put you into a machine. A ruptured appendix could kill you, cars were death traps (no seat belts, everything was pointed and usually if the car turned upside down the top met the top of the seats), roads were narrow, cigarettes were open to anyone and big time advertising was the market. DDT was the pesticide of choice. We worried that someone would drop the bomb, duck and cover would save your life....right!! So those days have some memories but not sure if they were the good old days.
Today, we have a warm place to sleep, we have wonderful daughters with great husbands and outstanding grand kids! So to me yesterday was a good old day! Everyone still has their challenges, some physical, some mental, some just because of adolescence or growing older but nothing is so big that we can't make it work. I still get to do some of the things I have always like to do plus getting to work in wood making some things that will be passed on to the next generation is pretty cool. Even "cooler" is listening to some of my former students report and post pictures of their families as they live this adventure too. I was talking to a grand kid today about risk taking-they said that risks were too scary and they didn't want to take any, but just going to that middle school dance tomorrow night is a risk taking bigger that I ever wanted to take! So we just have to find the right risk, then ease into it!
Carving wise, finishing up some ice fishing decoys, a santa or two and still have the pintail to burn and paint. Had a commission for a couple of oak leaves that worked out well-bought my coffee and cookies at Starbucks tonight while I am waiting for Pat to finish a meeting. Have a couple of walnut blocks that I am anxious to cut into and some white pine that were given to me by a dear Missouri friend. Have some new ideas for summer camp wood shop-a different design for some benches and adding decoy profiles for the campers to mount and paint. Hard to think about summer when the snow is piled so high that I can't see the road sitting here drinking coffee! But I do know that it will come, just as will those projects to complete, 8th grade graduation and the opening day of camp.
I miss the farm, I miss our Missouri friends, I miss St. Louis and Columbia but if I was there would really be missing the chance to see Harry, and Spencer play basketball and soccer, Sam play basketball and baseball and Molly dance in the Nutcracker and compete in gymnastics. So on the scale of "life is good" I would say that we have made the right choices!
So, not much about carving or even many words of wisdom but here it is. Keep that line tight (especially you Missourians opening trout season March 1) and always measure twice! Peace
