From Waldorf School to Public High School

Helen has begun her Sophomore year at our local public school. Three weeks into the semester, she is starting to find a routine to her days and weeks.

Many, many people have asked and continue to ask how Helen's transition from Waldorf school to public high school has gone. I'm not sure how Helen would answer, but I would say "quite smoothly." We struggled throughout her 7th and 8th grade years with which high school would be best for her. With no Waldorf high schools in the immediate area, our choices were the public schools or a small, private academy about 30 minutes away where many Waldorf students attend.

In the end, Helen (with our complete support), chose the public school. She was attracted to the wide variety of English classes and the massive art department. We were attracted to the fact that the school was in the Dartmouth community which would give her access to all sorts of opportunities. This has indeed been the case.

After just a few weeks of being unsure of where she stood academically with her classmates, Helen settled right in academically and maintained A's throughout the year. She joined crew and made some friends. For her, sports made all the difference in finding friends.

Helen would say that the classes and homework are more interesting than what she experienced in 8th grade. She appreciates the challenge. She misses the creative work and interconnection of content between classes. She misses the festivals and seasonal spirit of the school.

This year she's taking Algebra II, Biology, Chorus, Health, French III, American History, and Shakespeare. It's a challenging load, but she is up for it. My challenge? To learn to LET GO. She constantly proves to me that she doesn't need reminders about homework or looking over her shoulder. Let go. let go. let go. We'll both be better for it....soon I'll have no choice...she's driving.

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New Perspectives in 7th Grade

Liz began 7th grade last week. I can't believe it. She is all dressed up because they begin the day with a formal ceremony where the 7th graders are paired with entering 1st graders. Liz's class will mentor the first graders all year.


The 7th-grade curriculum is a favorite of mine. This year the teacher has begun with two weeks of perspective drawing. Partly a review of geometry and partly an introduction to the Renaissance, these two weeks are also a time of getting comfortable in 7th grade and with their new roles as leaders of the school. This focus on perspective will be an ongoing theme in school and our family this year--since school has begun, we all have been challenged to look at our family life from each others perspective (more on that later).

A snapshot from her main lesson book

Here's how her teacher describes what they will be covering this year~

Renaissance History
This block will develop a picture of the Renaissance world, as it evolved out of the Middle Ages,
focusing on the areas of art, religion, government and science. We will pay special attention to the discoveries and works of the great artists and and astronomers of this period.

Algebra
An introduction to the principles of algebra, including variables and coefficients, positive and negative numbers, order of operations, exponents, expressions and equations. We will continue to work with algebra in math classes throughout the year.

Creative Writing
We will study creative writing and poetry using many different sources as inspiration. We will put to practice our knowledge of grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, and begin to examine aspects of style and usage in our writing.

First attempt at perspective drawing

Geometry
In our study of geometry we will review the geometric principles introduced in sixth grade, moving on to the introduction of new principles, including more complex work with the properties of angles and triangles, the Pythagorean theorem, construction of the pentagon, and an understanding of pi.

Chemistry
This introduction to chemistry will be an exploration of the material quality of the world and
will include the study of salts and crystals, acids and bases, combustion and the quality of gases
and the lime process.

Reformation and the Age of Exploration
This block will focus on the shift in thinking and belief in Europe that resulted in the
Reformation and the rise of Protestantism. We will also examine the lives and travels of the great
explorers, becoming more familiar with the geography of the world, with a special focus on the
continent of South America.

Another drawing from the first week of school

Physics
Building upon the work of sixth grade physics, this block will continue with the study of sound,
light, heat, magnetism and electricity and will introduce the study of mechanics.

Human Physiology
This block will include the study of the main organ systems of the body, including the digestive
system, the respiratory system, the circulatory system and the reproductive system.

Art Class
The seventh grade students have an adventurous time discovering new artistic perceptions in a
multitude of artistic problems related to the main lesson studies of the Renaissance. This artistic
investigation of the Renaissance correlates well to the intellectual awaking of this particular
age of the students. These lessons will challenge their abilities to understand perspective and
mechanical drawing, chiarascuro, and human proportion. In this year, we will draw the human
form, as well as sculpt a hand and a foot in proportion. Each lesson will have significant
artistic reference broadening their artistic perception, as well as some freer lessons of self-
expression.

Woodworking
Students will plan and construct their own version of a marionette out of various woods and other materials. They will revisit the study of human anatomy in proportions of a puppet and learn the very old craft of puppet making. There will be many fun tasks and challenges thoughout the process, which, if successful, will end with a performance for all to see!

Orchestra
Repertoire in seventh grade will include music from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. In
addition we will begin to look at music written after the turn of the century as we begin to look at
where the music fits into a basic historical time line.

Then there's German, French, Handwork, PE, and Chorus...... and homework. Another post topic, perhaps.

In writing this up, I was struck once again by how integrated the curriculum is--human physiology, woodworking, art, and history all weave together as do history, music, handwork and art.

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Song Collecting

For the past two summers Helen has toured with Village Harmony. It's an organization that supports musicians and ethnomusicologists who wish to gather village songs from around the world. I received an email from one of her summer conductors telling the story of his trip to Georgia. In the video below, a family is teaching him a song called "Chaghma Chaqrilo Venakho." Then there's a bit of scenery from Georgia. Finally, there is this event. He writes:

Later on you'll see an unforgettable incident of "kidnapping" - or perhaps, toast-hijacking. We had been at a festival where we sang & there were some other local singers who wanted to meet us but there just wasn't time. However, they knew which road we had to take to get back to our village, so they set up a table in the middle of the road & waited for us. As you see, other cars have to stop, and by the time we left there were 3 or 4 cars stopped in either direction. It was pretty amazing, and a truly Georgian experience (don't try this in North America!)

Merisi from Kazio Sosnowski on Vimeo.

Here is Helen's group singing a Georgian song last summer. Now it's easier to picture where the music came from.

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The Healing Power of Stories

This chalkboard drawing greeted the students on the first day of school yesterday.

Every child drove past the wreck that was once the bridge to school. Every child knew that the playground was covered in mud. Many children knew more about the hardships of a natural disaster than they should at such a young age.

This year's opening assembly featured a story. This story, told to all the children, featured a conversation between the earth and the sun about the flood. Mother Earth was so upset about all the problems, but Father Sun was heartened by all the goodness he had observed. The story went on to feature little tales that all the adults had been reading in the paper for days such as this story about the horseback rider who forded a river to bring medicine to a woman.

You could have heard a pin drop in the assembly. 100 or so students listened intently and nodded when they heard a familiar tale of benevolence. You could almost see the tension in those children's shoulders just drop. It really was the perfect way to start school--acknowledge something bad had happened, but help the children see that good was coming out of it.

I've written before about the power of story. While my girls are beyond the need for me to spin a healing tale, I think I will quietly place before them more stories from the flood--stories of courage, caring, and commitment to community. Stories can be healing at any age.

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Cleaning Up

Revels is a big part of our family's life. Both girls have performed in the summer Revels and this year Helen got into the Winter Revels. It will be an incredible performance with an Elizabethan theme. Here's Queen Elizabeth's costume from a previous year's performance.

Queen Elizabeth's costume, along with about 3,000 other costumes are now encased in mud. This heavy, heavy costume fell in the flood and only little bits of sparkly jewels showed up through the muddy floor. Here is a video as the costumes were found.

Helen and I stopped by the costume shop to help last week. Because we didn't have power, we couldn't take costumes. Instead we took plastic tubs to wash in the yard.

I have never dealt with flood mud before and I can tell you it is like scraping wet clay, filled with sewage, chemicals, and who knows what. We washed the tubs 4 times and they still aren't clean. I think I am going to just go to Ikea and buy them new. Our lawn is now covered in a fine, white clay-like ick.

After we finished, we read in the paper dire warnings about working with flooded materials. We were wearing gloves, but still....

Another area needing major clean-up is the main shopping district for the region. Here it is flooded~

Here is a parking lot after the water receded. The Walmart employees have to wear masks as they move carts. We drive into town to get a few supplies and turned right around. The paper says to not open your car windows as the dust has who knows what in it.

This may seem trivial in light of it all, but Liz needs sneakers for school. There is no store with reasonably priced sneakers within about an hour and half (that I know of, anyway). Kohl's, JCPenney, TJMaxx, Payless, Pier 1, and just about EVERY store (but Walmart) is now closed for months.

There is NO complaining on my family's part. I have a bit of survivor guilt. It is a strange feeling to know that the only thing I have to deal with is driving further to buy shoes. Many families are still trapped in the hills and many no longer have homes or jobs. Nelson and I both feel the need to spend Labor Day doing some volunteering.

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You can't get there from here

There's an old Vermont saying~ you can't get there from here. It has never been more true. Here's a map showing road closures. We live near one of the only east-west roads. It is closed and the local gas stations seem to always be crowded with people holding maps, trying to plot out routes.

Here's a photo of that road.
Winter's not far away and I wonder how they are going to get it rebuilt in time.

During the storm, my neighbor came upon this spot on our road. She saw some water running over the road and briefly considered driving through, then quickly changed her mind. That chasm is at least 10' wide and 10' deep. All of us in the neighborhood are relieved she didn't try to drive through. It's a big reminder that water running over a road is NOT SAFE to drive through. There are several new teen drivers on our road (including Helen!) and we have all been using this spot as a lesson in caution.

Here's the bridge to Liz's school. Happily, the local road crew has configured a way for us to get the kids there tomorrow and figured out how to get water into town.

So, we move along. We leave extra time because just about EVERY bridge is a scene like this and we consult our maps to make sure "we can get there from here."

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