At Garden School, parents play a variety of roles—as class parents, chaperoning class trips, and of course their invaluable contributions through the PTA. Lately, we’re starting to see yet another type of involvement: parents offering their skills in ways that are complimentary to what we envision as enrichment for our students.

Last semester, for example, a parent/talented fashion designer taught an after-school course in fashion design. Once a week, she led a group of students through the stages of designing and constructing clothing, culminating in a runway show at our Winter concert. Another parent is now leading an after-school international cooking class in which students prepare a full meal from a different country each week. Before the dicing and slicing begins, students spend time learning about the country itself, taking a “tour” to the lands where pizza, stuffed grape leaves, and dumplings—among many others—are made.

Two days ago, I visited a seventh-grade Shakespeare class being taught by a parent who specializes in the staging of Shakespeare plays. The session, the first of three guest lectures by this parent, focused on The Tempest, which the seventh grade is now reading for class. I stepped in to find a classroom pulsing with energy as students enacted a scene from the play accompanied by music and choreography. Another teacher, who was observing, said that if she had been in a class like this when she was in middle school, she would have instantly fallen in love with Shakespeare! Here was an instance of the talents and skills of one of our parents supplementing and enhancing the work of one of our teachers in a very positive and supportive manner.

All of these examples are what we regard as enrichment for our students, and point to a dynamic connection between all segments of Garden School’s community. When teacher, parents and students come together to create “this fine madness,” the results can be astonishing.

This is a very interesting and thoughtful time at Garden School. As we move toward the winter vacation, here are some of activities that have taken place or will take place this week.

Today was “switch day” for grades 1,2, and 3. Every six weeks, these grades choose a theme and then mix up the classes for special sessions, i.e., either stay in their classroom or participate in the activity of one of the other grades. Today’s theme was, appropriately, Black History Month. Grade 1 made postage stamps in honor of Afro-American leaders; grade 2 read and wrote poetry; and grade 3 read the story Tar Beach. Students had a choice of which section to attend and then worked with the classroom teacher on each project.

What else? On Thursday, our grade 9–12 trip to Italy leaves for its educational journey. Students on the trip (40 of them) have a trip-related research assignment to complete before they leave and will report to the group on that particular aspect of Italian culture while they are there. Topics range from Renaissance painting to the Keats Shelley House at the Piazza di Spagna to the development and use of pasta in Italian life. This Friday, our other travel group—from grades 7 and 8—will leave for Italy and England; they, too, have assignments to complete.

And finally, we had some one-day administrative changes this week. Noah from the 1st grade was acting Lower School Principal on Tuesday; I am told he had a wonderful time working with Mr. Vogel and the Lower School faculty. Today, Ben from 2nd grade was acting Headmaster. Together, he and I visited classes, interviewed staff members, communicated with Garden’s Board, and made some plans for the school’s future. After all, Noah, Ben, and every child at Garden are the school’s future!

There was an article a few days ago in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, published as a daily in Rome, about the percentages of 10 year olds who read. Essentially this was a statistical breakdown of how much reading is done by this age group across the world. I was surprised that the United States did not rank within the top twenty countries.

We all know how important reading is to the development of what the critic Northop Frye called “the educated imagination.” Reading is one of the few activities that forces the thought process to unfold in a systematic and linear manner. The process of moving from one word to another, from one sentence and one paragraph, and so forth, makes us hold one piece of a thought while other pieces are then added onto the initial premise. If the passage is dense enough, then the reader weaves his or her way through the thought process to some kind of conclusion. Reading transcends the quick and often spurious “thought image” found in the sound bite.

In the reading process, the reader encounters and must decipher “signs,” semiotics for the literary critic. All life revolves around the decoding and understanding of signs. Music, art, mathematics, religion science, literature, economic–all that we engage in an intellectual manner–requires us to understand the signs and symbols of human (and sometimes non-human ) expression. The French critic Derrida was on to something when he wrote about the grammar of human life as the interplay of sign and interpretation within a recognized and shared field of thought.

For children, reading plays an important role in not only the development of the skill of “reading” but also in the lifelong process of managing in a world of “signs” to be read, decoded, and interpreted. What is critical thinking but the ability to understand the signs of an argument? What are science and math but the arrangement of signs as a way of understanding reality?

Children who read daily have a greater opportunity to develop the skill of reading itself and of learning more about decoding signs within the reading. For example, a child who reads about a character that has various experiences while moving from place to place may begin to understand or decode that there are elements in traveling, of making a journey, that tell us something about character; when that child-reader encounters several stories about making a journey and recognizes that the idea of a journey can mean having experiences that lead to understanding, then the child-reader (or the adult-reader) has learned about plot and narrative and also about decoding the significance of plot and narrative.

All of us should read every day; all of us should encourage our children to read every day; all of us should insist on genuine thought in school, in the workplace, and in the political discourse to which we are subjected every few years. Genuine discourse results from genuine thought. Let’s demand it from ourselves and from others.

I have been thinking a lot about foreign languages lately.

We began teaching language in the Lower School six years ago. After considering the earlier introduction to language for a while, we began offering French to students in grades one through six.

A year later, we had our first contact with the Teacher Exchange Program in China and sponsored our first teacher from China. Since then we have offered Mandarin to students in the PreK and several grades beyond. This year we have Mandarin in PreK through third grade and French in grades four through six. What began as an informal program is now developing into a genuine curriculum that includes books and materials.

We are now thinking about the long-range implications of foreign language teaching at Garden School, meditating on what our long-term plan is going to be. Should Mandarin become the third language of grades four through six over the next few years? Should we offer Manadarin, French, and Spanish in the Upper School, beginning with grade seven? We have a lot of thinking to do in this area, but this is precisely the kind of educational issue that excites us the most.

Yesterday was a very special day here at Garden. A group of younger students organized a bake sale for the purpose of adopting endangered animals in threatened environments. Some of these students had asked Ms. Maisano about starting an animal rights club as well. Our first-, second-, and third-grade classes took the lead with the bake sale and then the rest of the school joined in by sponsoring a Jean Day fundraiser to support the Heiffer Project.

The money raised by the bake sale will go toward adopting an animal—a rhino for first grade, an elephant for second grade, and a gorilla for third grade—and

helping to maintain its life. The money from the Jean Day will be used to purchase a farm animal for a needy family in Africa, which will aid in making that family’s lives as farmers more productive and therefore more viable.

Children of all ages worked the bake sale table and I must tell you that it was really wonderful to see senior-class boys and girls working with the younger students. This is one of the treasures of our school—an ongoing school; older and younger students can have the experience of working together for a common cause.

Each aspect of yesterday’s project involved animals in different ways, and our students learned how people and animals have the power to improve each other’s situation. Let’s hope that our community takes away from this event a growing understanding that harmony between us and other species of the world is something that can not only be established locally but also have long-lasting and far-reaching effects.

Have a wonderful weekend, and let’s hope that the Sunday’s storm doesn’t affect Monday’s school day.

I am always amazed at the amount of thought and work our PTA puts into its projects. The Holiday Boutique, which ended last week, was a resounding success. The parent volunteers, led by Martha Palacio, converted Mr. Hale’s room into a boutique, a shop, that became the center of the school for a few days. Students, teachers, and parents were able to buy small gifts for loved ones and go through the process of shopping in a safe and cordial environment. The Holiday Boutique has been a part of the Garden experience for many years, going back beyond my seventeen years as Headmaster.

Congratulations to all of those involved in making this boutique a wonderful experience for the children and a successful fundraiser for the school.

RM

Our new Web site is now live, and we believe that it represents the beginning of a new chapter in the life of our school—one that looks forward to many new and exciting developments. The unveiling of Garden School’s new Web site was truly a collaborative effort between Garden administration and parents in the school, and judging from the results, the most successful kind of collaboration. Stay tuned as Garden’s site adds even more information and showcases very special moments occurring throughout the school.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to bringing this site to its reality:

Writing/Editorial: Karyn Slutsky, Richard Marotta, Joan Zinner, Lisa Sohmer, William Vogel

Photography: Ivette Mayo, Edward Ermler, Kim Cummings

Web Design: Neil DeMause, Eileen Mullin

Project Management: Karyn Slutsky, Mary Maisano

The administration gratefully acknowledges the contributions of the following people: Jacqueline Quinn, Karen Vicente, Chris Chudnovsky, Orlaith Staunton, and Martha Palacio

Tonight there will be mountains of pasta served at Garden School as the seniors host their annual fundraiser for the Senior Prom at the St. Regis Hotel. Rumor has it that there may also be the singing of some show tunes by staff and students. Ciao.

This is my first blog post. I am looking forward to sharing thoughts about education, learning and life with all of you over the next few months (aka forever).