Molting Mantis

 

The Case for Working With Your Hands

I really liked this article from the Times Magazine: The Case for Working With Your Hands.

When we praise people who do work that is straightforwardly useful, the praise often betrays an assumption that they had no other options. We idealize them as the salt of the earth and emphasize the sacrifice for others their work may entail. Such sacrifice does indeed occur — the hazards faced by a lineman restoring power during a storm come to mind. But what if such work answers as well to a basic human need of the one who does it? I take this to be the suggestion of Marge Piercy’s poem “To Be of Use,” which concludes with the lines “the pitcher longs for water to carry/and a person for work that is real.” Beneath our gratitude for the lineman may rest envy.

on education:

One shop teacher suggested to me that “in schools, we create artificial learning environments for our children that they know to be contrived and undeserving of their full attention and engagement. Without the opportunity to learn through the hands, the world remains abstract and distant, and the passions for learning will not be engaged.”

A gifted young person who chooses to become a mechanic rather than to accumulate academic credentials is viewed as eccentric, if not self-destructive. There is a pervasive anxiety among parents that there is only one track to success for their children. It runs through a series of gates controlled by prestigious institutions.

and from the concluding paragraphs:

The visceral experience of failure seems to have been edited out of the career trajectories of gifted students. It stands to reason, then, that those who end up making big decisions that affect all of us don’t seem to have much sense of their own fallibility, and of how badly things can go wrong even with the best of intentions (like when I dropped that feeler gauge down into the Ninja). In the boardrooms of Wall Street and the corridors of Pennsylvania Avenue, I don’t think you’ll see a yellow sign that says “Think Safety!” as you do on job sites and in many repair shops, no doubt because those who sit on the swivel chairs tend to live remote from the consequences of the decisions they make. Why not encourage gifted students to learn a trade, if only in the summers, so that their fingers will be crushed once or twice before they go on to run the country?

Fragile

 

I spy with my little eye, something that is BLUE!

 

Poetry Reading

We have observed National Poetry Month this year by reading a lot of poetry, experimenting with composing in different styles, and finally, we organized a poetry reading and invited several other families.

The weather in April can be dicey, but it turned out to be dry enough and warm enough.

Six families brought 14 kids to the giant treehouse in our neighborhood park. Several poets read their own compositions. Other poets read works they like. The kids ranged in age from not-quite-two to almost 13, so there was a wide variety of works read--I dare say something for everyone!

On the way out the door I realized I'd left my camera behind. I was running a tad late, so I decided not to go back for it. I have no regrets. I love, love, loved giving the poets my full attention. One of the kids was just so beatific as she read; it occurred to me that I should somehow preserve the moment. That thought was immediately dashed by the realization that a camera would change everything.

My friend A posits that children are like particles, a la Heisenberg (or is it Shrodinger?)--anyway, that the presence of an observer changes the observed.

So, sorry, no photos of the poetry reading. Instead, two of my favorite things from my backyard:

Gimp (by C)

(This post composed by C)

I've been thinking a lot lately about eco-friendly architecture and the way the cities of the future will work. I drew this picture of my idea for an arcology.



I want to use one of those fancy computer programs to create a 3D model of my city, but mom says I should start with Gimp or something simple like that. Well, Gimp isn't that simple, but I think I can learn it without a college class!

So this evening, I did a tutorial from the GimpTalk forum.



Like it?

I think I'll try the animation tutorial next.

The Update

I am sorry I haven't given an update in so long!

We have been busy!

The quick rundown:

This morning we knocked out the table work, and then had friends over for several hours of play and doll clothes making. As always, it was lovely for the girls to share time with their friends, for R to bask in the loving attention of a mother whose toddlers have grown into school aged kids, and for me to indulge in "adult" topics of conversation.

This afternoon we picked up C's friend, and the older girls were off to bookclub to discuss City of Ember, while T and her friend V, and R and I played in an adjacent park.

After bookclub, we dropped off the spare kids at their respective homes, came home for dinner, and then headed up to the batting cage where I whacked the heck out of four tokens' worth of pitches in preparation for our first softball game of the season coming up on Sunday.

In the category of ongoing and upcoming: basketball is going well. C's last game of the season is this Saturday. It will be a big day. She has a Girl Scout program (a ropes course) that morning. T is planning on spending the morning with another little sister who is also too young for the ropes action. R and I will hit the 50% off sale at Goodwill to resupply my stash of dress shirts for my latest crafty obsession, the recycled dress:



In the category of recent accomplishments: Last week we had a virus that took us down for 8 full days. R's fever hit 105.1. T blacked out. We saw the doctor 3 times in one week. We have recovered, but the living room rug saw a lot of action, and sadly, it still stinks.

Our other bit of sad news is that we just lost two of our rats due to age related ailments. Our remaining rat has moved from her basement rat palace into smaller quarters in our dining room. She misses her ratty sisters, but I think she's glad for the increase in social interaction she gets in the dining room.

We have some good stuff coming up next week: on Wednesday, a poetry reading we have organized, and on Saturday another Girl Scout event for C (two weeks in a row!) and a Girl Scout event for me and T at the Museum Center.

It's not that we don't do stuff--it's more that I fail to document it!