Knowledge can be acquired only by a corresponding experience. How can we know what we are told merely? Each man can interpret another’s experience only by his own. — H.D. Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack RiversWELLFLEET -- From here on the Cape, Chicago's school crisis and the issues of urban education seem a millennium away. The problems on folks' minds here have more to do with the heat wave hitting the east coast, the slumping Red Sox and the area's worst ever moth infestation. Check out this interview with moth Glerg in the Cape Cod Pulse.
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| Sturgis Charter School in Hyannis |
I guess even in the whitest and wealthiest communities, there will be those who want even more exclusivity by running off the other. In this case, English-language learners and students with disabilities and other special needs. So they're willing to pull money out of neighborhood public schools to serve their own needs.
But as far as this blogger is concerned, I'm taking a short break, restoring body, mind and spirit and will resume next week trying to shake things up a bit and raging against the Machine (in Chicago that's with a capital M).
In the mean time, I'm pond jumping. I started with a dip in the pond out behind Deb Meier's house in Hillsdale, N.Y. Then I paid tribute to one of my all-time favorite education radicals, Henry David Thoreau by jumping into Walden Pond in Concord, MA. After drying off, it was in the car and out to Wellfleet on the Cape, with guidance from an old friend and great educator in his own right, Bob Pearlman, for a swim in Long Pond and some beachcombing.
I love pond jumping.
Ponds with "no swimming allowed" signs are always most fun to pond jump.
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