These days find me busy clearing and chucking, sorting and sifting, storing and saving. Three truck loads of stuff cleared by the junk removers, hundreds of books donated to the Poughkeepsie Library and wardrobes full of clothing to the Salvation Army. And still there’s more. As I clear out the clutter and crap and treasure and trove of decades, I…
It’s a late afternoon on a winter Saturday of my childhood. And that means the big Ferguson radio – the one that had the exotic place names on the dial – Hilversum, Strasbourg, Luxembourg, Limoges, Toulouse – is warmed up. The fire is lit, the coal scuttle is full and the kettle is on. And my father – who was…
When a re-wired, pack-rat educator takes a deep dive in the basement there’s no telling what she will find in those decades worth of edutrivia. (This post by the way is Part Three of “My Life with the Spirit People”. Part One is here. You may ask: “Where is Part Two?” Well – I haven’t written it yet.) Take this…
It’s graduation season and across the land schools are saying goodbye to students and students are moving along and into the next phases of their lives. It’s all very heartwarming and etc. I usually couldn’t wait for them to be over. All that dressing up and ceremony and sitting and waiting in uncomfortable chairs. At least at the dentist you…
I’m early but the staffroom is already blue with smoke and full of strangers who know each other. A row of hard back chairs beneath the window and a long table cluttered with books and papers and ashtrays. This is the old staffroom next door to the head’s office before renovations moved the room up a floor and tripled the…
Dulane Upshaw Ponder of NY and Hope, Alaska died at her home in Hampton Bays last evening, June 18th. She was 70. Dulane was born in Atlanta Georgia in October 1947 – the only child of Burke Dulane Ponder and Ruth Embry Upshaw Ponder. After Westminster Schools in Atlanta, Dulane attended Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia. She later studied at Brown…
When I was four years old I found a sixpence on the quay at Poole Harbour. I’ve been picking up stuff that catches my eye ever since. Beach glass, shells, rounded stones and the sea-drift that the tide brings in. Rusted nails and washers, Gate hinges and horse shoes, Marbles and chestnuts. The lost abandoned, dropped, and discarded; the…
1940 has been well served by blockbuster movies this past year. Last summer there was Dunkirk as legendary saga and then this winter Darkest Hour focussed on the Westminster drama of the political backdrop. Dunkirk tells the story of the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force by following what happens to some representative figures – soldiers trying to get off the beach; a…
Those ever-attentive to such details may have noticed that this blog has a new title. Sort of. I started this blog when I became head of school. At that time I rather foolishly assumed that it would have a small but rather captive readership within the school community. But people are really busy and don’t have the discretionary time to…
If blogging is supposed to have an element of timeliness then I have given up on that ideal. After all – I am still writing about stuff from the NAIS annual conference in February. Fess Parker died in March and while my mind went instantly to the Davy Crockett craze of my childhood, it’s only now that I have found…
The farmers’ market is full of strange squash and gourds and pumpkins of every color, shape, and size. Autumn – mists and melancholy, falling leaves and nostalgia – is a time for memories. Mists that burn off by mid-morning and skeins of geese and migrating birds. Dark evenings when you can still play outside exhilarated by the chill, and the smell of…
Looking through old PDS school photos – pictures of children working with tools, wading waist deep in muddy ponds and handling a plank on a cabin roof – started me thinking about risk. Taking risks is an essential part of children’s play and overcoming fears and obstacles is how we all grow and learn. Here’s a PDS picture that was…
On the way home tonight I heard Robert Reich on NPR’s Marketplace. The topic was Human Capital. The one sentence summary: Failure to invest in human capital (i.e..education) is shortsighted and counter-productive. Basic idea: Our future competitiveness and standard of living depend on our collective skills, capacity to communicate and solve problems, and innovate. They do not depend on our…
You see, there are all those early memories; one cannot get another set; one has but those. Willa Cather, Shadows on the Rock I sometimes think of Cather’s words when I visit the classrooms or the playground or attend the performances and events at PDS. It is there that our teachers are helping students build their storehouse of memories. And…