There’s a wonderful walk along the Housatonic in Kent, Connecticut. We were there early enough to have it to ourselves for over an hour on Saturday. And then today more amazing color and beauty at Innisfree Garden, near Millbrook.
It’s been a cold winter here in the Hudson Valley. Poughkeepsie records only go back to 1949 but this February was the coldest with a whopping 12.7 degrees below average temperature. And then March came in like the proverbial lion breaking another record with -2 degrees F in the first week. And then there was … Read more
This well outfitted German trench has a lighted Christmas tree and soldiers celebrating with music and sausages! It’s true – there was a truce in parts of the line along the western front in 1914. The official diarist of the 3rd Battalion Rifle Brigade reported: “Christmas in the trenches will always be remembered by the … Read more
BBC’s Radio 4 first tweet for 2014 was a thrush with a bright blue sky background and a quotation from The Darkling Thrush – a poem that Thomas Hardy dated December 31st, 1900. It’s all rather grim and gloomy. The poem records the desolation of winter, the dregs of the day and the end of … Read more
Wonderful pictures of what looks like a creative classroom in a pre-Plowden primary school. Look at the desk arrangements. From the Imperial War Museum collection.
For adults like me who work in schools September means being confronted with a world of change. There are new faces of course, and names to learn. There are new courses, fresh paint on the walls and sometimes new structures and renovations to get used to. And the familiar is unfamiliar too. Children have grown … Read more
School is closed tomorrow – Wednesday – because of the impending storm. In anticipation, middle school director George Swain spoke to the students at lunch about how to make best use of the day. (It included plenty of time for play and being outdoors if that is possible.) And this is from the letter he … Read more
I like these words about our Fall Festival Reimagined: Three Cheers – from the Poughkeepsie Journal today: To Poughkeepsie Day School’s First Fall Festival Reimagined, an ambitious new festival designed to celebrate the local and the global community. Visitors were given festival passports to mark the places and things they learned about during the day … Read more
Ever wonder what happens in an all-school assembly when all students and faculty pre-k through 12th grade gather in the James Earl Jones Theater? Along with all-school activities we we have these regularly scheduled throughout the year including Thanksgiving and the annual Peacemakers Assembly every winter. The welcome back assembly last week did not include … Read more
From the Poughkeepsie New Yorker (Over 78,000 Read-Round-the-Clock 35 Cents Weekly) December 1941 came this news item about Poughkeepsie Day School. It was the annual Christmas Festival “with many of the school’s alumni present, as well as parents and friends.” It was a community event. There were student made decorations including a clay figures and … Read more
The farmers’ market is full of strange squash and gourds and pumpkins of every color, shape, and size. Autumn – mists and melancholy, falling leaves and nostalgia – is a time for memories. Mists that burn off by mid-morning and skeins of geese and migrating birds. Dark evenings when you can still play outside exhilarated by … Read more
The weather played havoc with the Winter Festival and instead of an all-school event it was presented in segments. We managed to celebrate with some beautiful music and dance nevertheless. Here are a few pictures from two events.
When the night winds whistle through the trees and blow the crisp brown leaves a-crackling down, When the autumn moon is big and yellow-orange and round, When old Jack Frost is sparkling on the ground, It’s Thanksgiving Time! – from Thanksgiving Time by Langston Hughes I hope your holiday is wonderful.
Halloween and time for some fun. It’s one thing to talk about the importance of school community and quite another to devote time and resources to making that talk walk. The ASA – all school activities, a cross divisional group – planned this afternoon’s event. It brought together all ages from kindergarten to the twelfth … Read more
“Modern studies indicate that creativity is not a rare, magic gift visited upon the isolated genius; it is the natural birthright of every human child and is a series of cognitive skills that can be taught, harnessed and applied to unleash what we are now discovering is the infinite creative capacity in every child. Learning … Read more