very much the same thing

This week the students return to Clear Spring School. A week from Tuesday students return to wood shop. Our Spanish teacher is wanting all the students to make shrines for a show in October, and I plan to make a couple prototypes for her to decorate so the students will have a better idea of what they will make. Then I'll prepare stock, ripping material to width so the students can build shrines of their own design.

In my own wood shop I'm building 80 boxes. I'm machining lots of small parts to be ready  for assembly.

When my daughter was in high school, she had been recently elected as president of the student council, and had a short list of things she wanted to accomplish. She had been elected as a junior to a position that was usually won by a basketball playing senior boy. That, apparently, was a disappointment to some. She was cornered in a room by a teacher (not doubt thinking herself to have the best of intentions) and told what an embarrassment she was to her school and to her teachers.  My daughter was brought to tears.
I was furious that my daughter would be faced by such bullying by a teacher in her school. My daughter insisted that I stay out of it. She insisted it was a thing she could handle. She informed me that she would move on to better things, and she did. She has two masters degrees and teaches high school in New York.

It is a real world out there folks. Children given strength in their other relationships can succeed despite the bullying that takes place in schools. But let's not hesitate to name what we see. The process of naming is the first step in building a better world and better schools at the same time. Whether bullying takes the form of holding a child's arms behind his back while you beat his chest, or closing the door of your office so that you can berate a child without the other staff members being aware, it's very much the same thing.

I chose the photo from my side yard because it offers serenity to a challenging subject.

Make, fix and create...