adding to workbenches

Yesterday I added small tool storage trays to the work benches at ESSA. This exercise was part of my plan to prepare the woodworking classrooms at ESSA for summer classes. The trays lift out for cleaning and will give an off the floor place to put tools, supplies and small parts.

Yesterday, also, I listened to a report about what some are describing as a newly discovered organ  in the human body. It consists of a latticework of collagens between the other organs of the body. It is thought to cushion the various organs, and to serve as a conduit between the vascular system and the lymphatic system.

Some say it is not actually an organ, but it deserves intense examination and research because it appears to offer the pathway through which cancers are spread. The name they've given to this organ is the interstitium (pronounced inter-STISH-um). In any case, whether the interstitium is an organ or not, it is fascinating that we are still learning about the human body, and that researchers had failed up to this point to give such a thorough examination to the spaces between things.

I find it fascinating that once one thing is discovered, we tend to use it to pry open the door to understand other things. We do this through the use of the human power of metaphor, using one thing to describe another. That power is exercised at a very early age when children are trying to make sense of language, and begin nothing the similarity between various things.

In several states, teachers are having to fight for their rights against repressive budgets that have cut funding to the quick. Arkansas' neighbors, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Kentucky have been hit hard by the idea that by cutting, cutting and cutting taxes, businesses will thrive and the economy will grow, thus, raising tax revenue.  Perhaps they also believe in pixies. At some point, I hope we begin to acknowledge the importance of the role that teachers play and make certain they are trained and empowered to fulfill that role. We must recognize the important purpose of education that state policy makers ignore. Schooling must create  a sense of citizenship and recognize as its primary goal, that children know how to get along with each other. Let's call that interstitial consciousness. It offers insight into how children get along with each other, sharing either joy, or something worse.

If you would like to see joy, plan a visit to the Clear Spring School, at 10:15 AM or 12:15 PM when the students grades 1-12 are at play.

Make, fix, create, and enable others to learn lifewise.