which reminds me...

Yesterday my two of my 4th grade students began work on the lathe for the first time, and as they worked, I was reminded of Beth Ireland's Turning around America project when she was here to work with our kids. This year, she and Eliot School in Jamaica Plain are collaborating in a project "Turning around Boston."

I thought of Beth when I gave colored pencils to the girls to use in coloring their lathe work, just as Beth had used colored pencils with kids when she was here.

Of course there are elements of form that can be obscured by the use of color, and there are those who would argue that development of the use of form might be addressed more simply if the colors were left off. But if you saw the pride with which these students held their work and the excitement they expressed in making it, you would know that color or no, turning with kids is a wonderful experience.

As one of the many supporters of Beth's Turning around Boston, I received a small booklet of photos as a thank you gift. The photos are beautiful and the quotes of various educators in support of the program tell a great tale.

I also got invitations to two memorials for Bill Coperthwaite. One will be held May 25 at Bill's burial site at Machiasport, Maine, and the other on May 31 at the Brown Center for Innovative Learning in Durham New Hampshire. If you are one of many friends of Bill and are able to be in New England during that week, and are interested in hand crafting a better life, it would be useful for you to attend either or both.

On yet another subject, some of my readers may wonder why I would have become so upset about a power line being proposed through some of the most beautiful parts of Arkansas. One of the proposed routes is 75 feet off my deck. This is not an ordinary power line like folks are used to, as you can see in the photo below. Please study this. You can see normal size power lines in the foreground. These gargantuan power poles and the 150 ft. wide right of way would be devastating.

Make, fix and create...