posted on November 5, 2007 11:59:21 PM new
Not being a native of Portland, I was amazed to find Multnomah County provides an Outdoor School experience for sixth graders - one week residential wilderness camps where school is held outdoors with the focus on ecology. The program was started in 1966 and has been threatened several times with budget cuts, ecology groups always coming to the rescue with fund raisers to keep the program in tact. I didn't realize how deeply rooted the program is in my community until I mentioned it to several clerks while shopping for gear. Most had their own memories of outdoor school- a few had been counselors. No wonder Oregon has been a front-runner in ecological legislation! There's nothing like meeting a spotted owl up close and personal!
posted on November 6, 2007 06:15:14 AM new That's great Pixiamom! More schools like that could serve to alleviate the current anti-ecological trend that seems to be prevalent now. I couldn't believe the negative and frankly ignorant reaction to Gore's achievement in that regard.
posted on November 6, 2007 07:21:25 AM new
Such ignorance of ecology is not surprising when you consider that we have an administration focused on a literal interpretation of the Garden of Eden while promoting the propaganda that Evolution is just a "theory" and Global Warming is a "scam".
All of this is admirable, but it comes from a president who consistently demonstrates a disdain for areas of science that disagree with his personal ideology. Again and again, whether it is stem cells or energy policy or global warming or the dubious need to "teach the controversy," Bush has demonstrated that he is, literally, anti-rational—opposed to the assumptions about proof and inquiry without which science would be merely alchemy.
It would be absurd to blame a politician for a nationwide decline in scientific interest, but it stands to reason that a president elected, and then re-elected, must in some way embody the beliefs of the electorate—here, specifically, its prioritization of science.
We have just entered a century that will present unprecedented commercial opportunity in computer science, biotechnology and nanotechnology as well as unimaginable challenges in the form of energy and resource shortages, disease epidemics and climate change. Addressing the root causes of the erosion of our scientific knowledge base should be one of our nation's highest priorities. This is our Sputnik.
posted on November 6, 2007 08:43:17 AM new
Helen, thanks for that link. In particular I appreciated reading the "teach the controversy" link on that page.
Aren't you originally from Minn? Your school didn't go on one of those trips here? I sure did. Both of kids did and one of them went to two different camps in one year. Wolfe Ridge and Eagle Bluff.
posted on November 6, 2007 07:47:41 PM new
Stone Maybe I'm too old. I think the first Earth Day was in my senior year at West High School. Especially memorable because my Dad forbade me from participating in it (the students were boycotting school that day). Later he apologized and admitted he was wrong. The first inkling that my Dad was fallible.
posted on November 13, 2007 09:34:12 PM new
In Ogden UT, where we lived for 21 years, a trails group learned that many of the low-income children in our community had never been hiking on our mountain trails--which are just 10 minutes into the foothills from the midst of our city. So they talked the school district into a program for all 4th graders; hikes and ecology talks. Shortly after the program started, there were more people hiking on our huge trail system, including many who couldn't afford to go out of town for a trip or vacation. Good program, and it's still going strong.
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posted on November 14, 2007 03:05:14 AM new
Great program, Roadsmith! I was surprised to learn when we moved to the New York area that there are lots of poor children who grow up without leaving the city.
posted on November 14, 2007 09:31:03 AM new
Helen, I had a genuine epiphany shortly after I started my first term on the city council back in Utah.
Our city of 75,000 had some 21 parks scattered throughout the city. I truly didn't understand why they were so important. I'd grown up in a middle-class family that took trips, got out of town occasionally, hiked in the mountains around Phoenix, went to summer camp, etc.
It dawned on me, when on the city council and hearing about the program for 4th graders, that city parks are often the only "vacations" many low-income families can afford, and they use them as getaways from the daily grind.
Only time we ever set foot in a park, all my life, was to go to a sports event a family member was participating in.
Now I see that parks are important--and children need to get out of their towns and out in the wilds. If you don't ever leave your neighborhood, how do you know how good or bad it is? No standard of comparison.
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posted on November 14, 2007 09:38:53 AM new
One more thought: Occasionally an adult in New York City will remark that he hasn't been west of the Hudson.
When I worked for the chamber of commerce in the city I've mentioned earlier here, in Northern Utah, we held an essay contest: "Why I Love Ogden." The top three winners were given a luncheon and plaques. I sat at the table with the top winner, a Utah native of 45, and the conversation turned to Southern Utah and the wonderful national parks there.
This man said he'd never been to Southern Utah. When some of us expressed astonishment, he said, "What's the point? I figure it's just more of the same."
He'd grown up in a large Mormon family that couldn't afford to travel at all. That experience was a real eye-opener for me.
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posted on November 15, 2007 08:02:15 AM new
PORTLAND ROCKS!!!! I wouldn't live anywhere else in the USA. The progressive political atmosphere cannot be matched.
I was a Volunteer Recruiter for several Federal volunteer programs working to place seniors into schools to help with reading, math, etc. The public school system here has really suffered cutting back on many popular programs.
One thing that has always frustrated me has been the inbalance of education opportunities from schools in wealthier neighborhoods to those in poor neighborhoods. We live at the edge of Irvington and Alameda and our child goes to Alameda Elementary School. We actually worked pretty diligently to make sure she would go to a good school here. What amazes me is how organized this school is. As a public school, I was shocked to learn that they expect family donations of at least $500 a year to run many of the programs there. It is a great school with a great staff, but when you go just a few miles away to King, Vernon, Humbolt, you see a much different atmosphere behind the scenes. Those schools are in poorer neighborhoods and parental participation is much lower because most parents work two jobs just to stay afloat. Portland is expensive.
On a side note... One of my closest volunteers was a guy named Laurie Chilcote. He was just beaten by a gang member with a baseball bat coming off of the Light Rail a few weeks ago. Laurie is in his 70s, and has walked with a cane as long as I've known him. He is a wonderful person who has done nothing but volunteer most of his time in the public school system to help kids and participate in local politics. It is sad that this 15 year old gangbanger feels no remorse in what he did... they say it was probably a gang initiation. He is being charged with attempted murder. I hope they catch the others members who were with him.
posted on November 15, 2007 09:14:01 AM new
I was horrified to hear about the beating.It was so senseless.
When my son first started public school, we thought Chapman, which was in his father's neighborhood and had the highest endowment funds, was the best place for him. WRONG! The teachers were squabbling over the funds, many were so angry that they essentially went on strike, refusing to meet with parents after school or even have parents in their classroom. Instead of asking parents for a $20 donation to the cookbook fund, they regularly asked us for $700 several times a year. The school "report card" was mediocre. I went to the PTA meetings to find out why and found they were dominated by the same families who fed the endowment fund. We pulled my kid out and put him in my school district, the Hollyrood/Fernwood schools, which has much higher marks. To this day, the mere mention of Chapman makes me shudder.
http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=11786
[ edited by pixiamom on Nov 15, 2007 10:58 AM ]
posted on November 15, 2007 09:54:06 AM new
Hey, people. My husband grew up in Portland; his father was the minister of Staub Memorial Church, no longer in existence, and the parsonage (still standing) was on Laurelhurst Park. This was during WWII, and he remembers air-raid drills in the school, etc. He attended Sunnyside School and recalls warnings to the children to beware the Gypsies.
About 15 years ago I met a city staffer in Ogden who, it turned out, had not only lived in Portland but had lived in the same house, a few years after my husband's family! He even had the same bedroom, over the garage, and asked my husband if "that ugly maroon wallpaper was there when he slept in that room." It was. What are the odds, I ask you. But I've said for years that, put any two Americans together and have them talk about where they've lived and whom they knew, and there will be a connection!
posted on November 15, 2007 11:42:19 AM new " But I've said for years that, put any two Americans together and have them talk about where they've lived and whom they knew, and there will be a connection!
That is so true, Roadsmith.
A few years ago, someone here started a thread about funny street names and addresses. In that thread another poster mentioned that she lived on the same road in the same state where I was born. After exchanging emails, I discovered that she lived right across the road from the house where I was born and where my uncle now lives. She was angry and reluctant to believe me until I gave her my uncle's phone number so that she could call and verify that fact. It turns out that my uncle was her CPA.
The strange aspect of that close geographic connection is that two people can't be any different in political and social outlook than Terri and I.
posted on November 15, 2007 08:10:22 PM new
A co-worker, whom I later became best friends with, said she was familiar with my neighborhood, she had a good friend who rented the upper floor of a duplex in the neighborhood. As she unravelled their escapades, I realized she was describing my house. On an eBay transaction, I was bidding on a postcard of my g-g-uncle's house. I unknowingly was bidding against my aunt, who graciously dropped out. The winner was a third party, who turned out to be my mother's childhood best friend's son. They purchased the house from my g-g-uncle and he grew up there.
posted on November 25, 2007 08:25:05 AM new
I used to live in Michigan. When my family moved to Florida back in the mid 80's we went to Busch Gardens in Tampa. We were at a restaurant just outside the park when I saw a guy wearing a jacket that read, "Stockbridge Panthers" on it. I went up to him and asked him if that was Stockbridge Michigan and he said yes. I told him I had a friend who went to school there... When I told him his name, he replied, "I was his football coach!"
A few years later, I was on a small island about 30 miles off of the coast of Panama (Central America). I was fishing on a pier talking with Panamanian guy who lived on the island (population less than 1000). We were talking and he asked me what state I was from. I told him I lived in Florida. He said he had a good friend who lived in Michigan. He told me her name... and it was the sister of the guy I mentioned above!!!
posted on November 27, 2007 01:48:49 PM new
It certainly is! Before I started selling on Ebay I used to play bridge online. I was playing with a woman from the Philippines late one night - as it turned out her husband and my husband had played golf that very day in Manila!
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