I can still recall it with clarity and joy: the sunny day in May of seventh grade that altered my life. Personal history for me is divided between Before or After Green Man Day—the day when Jimmy Butler and I painted our faces green at the 7th grade Arts festival. What were we thinking? What … Continue reading →

Epic literature comes in unexpected packages. We forget that all the rules of the greatest books also apply to children’s literature, so-called…and that children need great literature. “Children need art and stories and poems and music as much as they need love and food and fresh air and play,” says Philip Pullman, author of The … Continue reading →

In David Denby’s recent book, Lit Up, the New Yorker magazine writer embeds himself with several quite varied American high schools in order to explore the state of reading and teaching literature at the secondary level. A few items caught my attention as they affect the middle level and the “onramp” to secondary school language … Continue reading →

School is still, at its heart, a dance of men and women of character. A school is its teachers. An experienced and wise school head once exclaimed to his teachers during a faculty meeting: “I wish we could put a sign out front of the building saying ‘Only a School.’” Intended as humor, his lament … Continue reading →

 The Weekly Packet, September 10, 2015 Todd R. Nelson She was from Virginia and drove a Navy Blue (not Black) Volkswagen beetle. She said “y’all.” And when my mother dropped me off at the new school, with the new teacher, and the new kids, in a new city…I balked big time. It did not bother … Continue reading →

Kerplink, kerplank, kerplunk. You know what I’m talking about. This is a summer sound. It will be heard on a windy, sunny day here in Robert McCloskey country. One morning I will think, Atop our favorite blueberry picking hill the berries are finally pickable. We will have come to gather food for the winter, like … Continue reading →

The Weekly Packet, June 11, 2015 Graduation season turns my thoughts to our watershed—our education watershed. Perhaps it was our 5-6th graders visiting nearby Snow’s Cove to learn about the Bagaduce. They now know why oysters that grow in the top layer of water at Little Island Oyster Company are sweeter and less briney than … Continue reading →