Got back from vacation and the garden had cooked the lettuce into giant flowers. May be too hot, but I’m going to try and start summer plants with the hopes I can harvest in October.
SSE: Blondkopfchen
SSE: Hartman’s Yellow Gooseberry
SSE: Plum Lemon
SSE: Gold Rush Currant
All of the left over basil seeds.
It was a privilege to travel for thirteen days across the American West. It fed my soul.
As we’re driving Wyoming, the incessant American need for more natural resources stayed in constant view. You’re always in sight of a gas or oil operation — you can see them dotted across the landscape — even if you rarely find yourself confronted with a massive coal operation, as we did on Tuesday. Driving past the Thunder Bay Mining Operation — an operation I know nothing about (maybe it’s the cleanest, best coal company going) — and you’re struck by the massive scale. Those trucks your kids you used to watch in videos? There they are. Signs that read “Blasting ahead! Avoid Orange Cloud” are on the side of the road. The landscape has been dug up and completely turned over.
Yet you’ll only see this if you go down the side road of a side road, a highway you needn’t ever travel.
How do you convince people to change their behavior when the thing that enables their behavior is wrecking the land 2000 miles away on a highway they will never see? How do you underscore how all decisions are interconnected when so much of mass culture is designed to make sure you don’t make those connections?
Bison
Elk
Black Bear
Pronghorn
Mule Deer
Sunday, July 10th, Hike.
6:05 Wake up in Keystone, South Dakota. Leave in rented Kia Rio
Drive 374 miles.
12:25 Drop car at Denver International Airport
12:30 Get on bus to go into terminal
1:10 Get on short train to go to gate
3:05 Fly 800 miles to Houston
7:05 Take short train to new gate
7:40 Fly 1200 miles to Philadelphia
11:50 Hit Uber app. Taxied 10 miles home.
1:00 Go to sleep.
Almost 100 miles an hour for sixteen hours straight.
Article here.
This is an idea that came up during an excellent conversation with Urban Studies undergraduates. What does happen when a teacher’s altruism fades away? It also helps you think about whether this is a tank that can be refilled. It also helps you think about whether altruism is or should be considered a fuel source.
Thank you. It’s an honor to be here to talk about these wonderful graduates. I’ll be brief and I’m only going to share from their own words. I’ve pulled a few quotes from the activities, projects, assessments, and work you’ve done over the past nine months. The wisdom and power of each of you shines through.
All of us are lucky to have spent time with you. To have learned from you. To have experienced the immense potential that each of you possess. Like all human beings, things are going to get rough, and I hope, I hope, I hope that you can remember some of these moments when that happens. These are your moments, your insights, and your thoughts.
CR:
“I connected to the world by first thinking what the world needs and then I try and change it.”
“I’m not an expert on anything for real, but J is, and J is, and T is.”
“Love who you love, it’s pretty simple.”
ES
I think this bit of writing is good advice not only about project work but about life. Here it is:
And our last senior:
“It’s important for projects to connect to the outside world because this is a project based school. I don’t know exactly what to say so I’ll leave this. Either way, we get real live skills out of the deal.”
“Why I do my best? I should do my best because it builds good work ethic and someone could look at what I’m doing and give feedback and how I could do better. It says that I always put forth maximum effort. It is okay to shut down though when you’re done and when you deserve downtime. You figure that out by looking at what you have done, what you could do, and look at the number of hours in the day. Everyone needs sleep.”
“Get more inspired to do the things that you set out to do. Go back to your previous inspirations, influences, and see what mattered.”
Our friend Aiden likes to say that our lives are conversations with folks important to us: some are with us, some are with us but no longer near us, and others have gone. Continue those conversations and stay close.
On behalf of all of us at the WS, thank you for your work, your ideas, your voice, your vision. You have come so far, we’re all waiting to see what you do next.
MC
SFL: The SFL has been a great success although I’m worried its life in the neighborhood is winding down. When we went to bed, there were 8+ books, including a battered but readable copy of Angle of Repose. When we woke up, there was this:
A neighbor around the corner uses their tree for political (moral?) messages. Love this one.
And the current status of my community garden plot. Chard! Hooray Chard!
I don’t always like but once I’ve read his stuff I end up thinking about it.
“…which shows that while some teachers are good at raising their students’ test scores, other teachers are really good at improving their students’ school engagement. Teachers in the first group are amply rewarded these days, but teachers who motivate their students to show up every day and throw themselves into school life may not even realize how good they are, because emotional engagement is not something we measure and stress.
Teachers are now called upon not only to teach biology but to create a culture: a culture of caring criticism, so students feel loved while they improve; a culture of belonging, so fragile students feel their work has value. Suddenly, teachers must teach students how to feel about their own feelings; how not to be swallowed up by moments of failure, anger and sadness, but to slow the moment and step outside the emotional spiral.”
All true and well-said. However, very few teachers of any sort are “amply rewarded” at this point. The best you might say is that raising test scores frees you from a visit from a coach or a misguide principal with a clipboard.
