Then and Now

Steve found this photograph in the basement. Along the bottom it says: Kindergarten Thru Ninth Grade Established 1934. And on the back it says: You can see the original  by Tricia’s desk in the lower school office.

Winter Recital

Great Winter Recital on Thursday with music from J.S. Bach to James Taylor via Debussy and Charlie Parker along with some original compositions. Wonderful performances from students of all ages in all three divisions. Thank-you musicians for an outstanding evening of music and song. More pictures on Flickr. Photo: Marcin Nowak

New semester in motion

It’s day one of the second semester in the high school. That means the  start of new high school courses.  Here we are at the first meeting of Physics of Motion. The first experimental challenge:  Find the relationship between the distance a ball runs down an incline and the time it takes to roll. Students … Read more

“Stony the road we trod” The inauguration of President Barak Obama

PDS marked the inauguration at its Peacemakers Assembly on Tuesday.  Entitled “Stony the road we trod” the event began with the singing of  James Weldon Johnson’s Lift Every Voice and Sing. In the collage you can see pictures of the participants from high school to lower school. Ater lunch everyone returned to the JEJ theater … Read more

PDS is a a part of it.

More about our assembly later but here is a screenshot from the NYTimes website. The middle school Photo Journalism class previewed some of the pictures on the site. One student sent a picture. When the class noticed that it got published it sent another one. Picturing the Inauguration: The Readers’ Album PDS MAKES THE NY … Read more

Nice photographs

There’s a rather nice set of photographs by Karl Rabe on- line at the Poughkeepsie Journal. This one shows the gym with it’s new maple hardwood sports floor, reinforced walls and retractable hoops. There’s also a gym divider to enable flexibility of use.  It was taken last week during a boy’s varsity basketball game. The … Read more

Winter Festival Delayed

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.        

The Lower School chooses Joan Miro

If you’re going to MoMA for the Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night – good luck. It’s a wonderful exhibit, of course, and very much worth the visit. But the popularity, my timing, and the rather haphazard MoMA crowd management made it a less than stellar gallery experience when I was there last … Read more

“It was awesome and totally rocked!”

“It was awesome and totally rocked!” – that was the verdict of one member of the 3rd/4th grade chorus who sang at the Market Street branch of TDBanknorth in Poughkeepsie last Saturday. They were there for the official tree-lighting. They sang and there was hot chocolate, candy canes and a visit from Santa on a … Read more

The financial storm

“Understanding the Economic Crisis in Plain English” – that was the title of the presentation for grades 7-12 today.  In his lively and most informative presentation PDS parent and trustee Bruce Judson explained the origins of the current financial crisis. His talk set out the dominoes of the events that led the way.  You can … Read more

Human capital, stars aligned and the wise owls

On the way home tonight I heard Robert Reich on NPR’s Marketplace. The topic was Human Capital. The one sentence summary: Failure to invest in human capital (i.e..education) is shortsighted and counter-productive. Basic idea: Our future competitiveness and standard of living depend on our collective skills, capacity to communicate and solve problems, and innovate. They … Read more