“The more that higher authorities impose standardized procedures and demand that school-level people adhere to them, especially when these procedures have demonstrably limited merit in their particular situations, the greater is the likelihood that strong people will not join the profession, or if already in it, stay in the work but a short time — Peace Corps volunteer-like — even when the allure of working with children is an extraordinarily powerful one.”

Theodore R Sizer, The Red Pencil: Convictions from Experience in Education (New Haven, Conn.; London: Yale University Press, 2005)87.

Back from vacation and spent forty minutes early this morning working on the front gardens. I figured that I need to add a third category: landscaping. While I pulled a bunch of weeds and took care of the various plants in the front yard, it was less about tending my garden as it was making it look great for passers by. I may be gardening when I tend to our three street trees but when I’m pulling weeds, I’m actually working the landscape.

I don’t know. Another category to ponder.