So far, so good January 25, 2010

Ya win some , ya lose some.  Life takes all types, and I must remember compassion instead of sarcasm.  People are in their own minds, and thanks to tech & internet have become somewhat trapped there. 

Recently I’ve had lots of little signs in the world that tell me to persevere.  Like my husband’s 101 year old grandmother dying on New Year’s Day, after we’d had the Christmas blizzard here in Kansas.  Or one of my dearest friends having some serious heart issues at 50, most likely due to diet and lifestyle.  Grandma Lola didn’t smoke or drink, grew her own food (including chickens) and lived a long, prosperous life. Floyd the Barber has grown up during the 1st Green Revolution, and his body has absorbed goodness knows how many chemicals, whether illegal or legit   Heck most of the health issues we face today are due to boomers and The Greatest generation being exposed to synthetic chemicals through food consumption.  Lola is probably one of few of her generation to suffer only dementia.

My point is, this isn’t working.  We civilized people have had like 2 or 3 generations to practice Monsanto’s and Exxon’s ways, but it’s not working.  How far will Greed take us?  Are there enough greedy people in power to eliminate the rest with less?  What happens when 1% of the wealthy becomes 1 person?  Sometimes I envision these men with their “backroom deals” and I wonder: will it really always be this way?  It seems men have been goverened by profit since time immoral. I think much of what we’re seeing these days with the Supreme Court and the Senate are last-ditch efforts of a generation about to lose power, and I must say, our nation’s politics will likely get worse.  Can anyone out there remember, or know of a good political machine?  I’m dying to know.  Even China can’t get Taoism right…

Something I’ve learned about biophelia  is that each new generation of specie adapts to its present environmental conditions, and learns what is normal beginning with its individual existence.  Therefore, an individual experiences environmental factors as they are, not as they were in earlier generations.  How long has it been since we’ve seen Small Pox?  Do today’s adults understand just what small pox is?  Or staff infection?  Our young children will take for granted that there is food, shelter, clothing.  They will not relate to Little House on the Prairie because there may not be any such thing as a prairie at the rate of Industry.  Our children will virtually hike the Appalachain trail, because the real one will have been demolished.  Dude, just watch Wall-E.  That’s where corporate democracy is taking us, man.  Yes I know Disney is evil too, what can one do?  The message is in the medium. 

Here on the home front, things are changing, if one takes the time to watch the flowers turn.  Things are not always as they seem.  I am being patient and going with the flow, but geez its only Monday!  I am still excited to garden this spring & summer, and look forward to sowing seeds.  See the thing is, Nature gives all the world’s species what they need to survive and thrive.  We people experience Joy from the flowers, Sustenance from the fruits of the trees and vines, and sweet honey from the bees.  What is there but to Love and Be?  Why does it matter if he has more tomatoes if I can trade him my honey?  So long as we both eat, and Live.  Our children can learn to be responsible, caring, peaceful, and fair, all from being nurtured by nature <3

Starting Anew January 12, 2010

The great thing about snow is that it insulates (yes, really!) the ground and any perennial plants rooted outdoors.  The great thing about Winter is that it gives us time to imagine how the garden will bloom.  This year with all its snow will make for an awesome planting in the Spring, and I will advance into Toddler 2 to begin hands-on work with the garden project.  As a Teacher, it has been h-e-double-hockey-sticks working with an age group of students who were a bit too young to tend the garden, and many of the staff knew less than I thought they did so… the garden and compost classroom activities dwindled off.  I hope to remedy this issue by working with teachers and staff to model the garden curriculum. (I’m better at modelling anyway, I’m Montessori at heart)

Another benefit of moving into the Toddler 2 classroom is practicing a process called looping, where a teacher advances into the new classroom when her/his students do.   This past year Ms. Aimee looped up from 1 to 2, and the children had a successful transition into activities that challenged them and encouraged development.  Young children become attached to caregivers much like a parental relationship, and many may experience severe anxiety being introduced to a new physical environment coupled with a new caregiver.  Stranger Anxiety overload.  We have a few students advancing this semester who need more support and guidance, and I look forward to practicing garden activities with a variety of learners.

So far, this year is looking up

2009: The Year of Uff-da December 16, 2009

“Uff-da” is a Norwegian expression I learned from my husband’s family, and is similar to “oy-vey” or “aww-dang” It’s just been that kind of year :s

This year, I’ve learned about patience the hard way.  It started off with a bar brawl on my sister’s birthday in January.  This hippy hasn’t been in a fist fight since high school (20 years ago).  I think I just lost  my last marble this year, trying to balance Work along with Washburn and Motherhood.  That and our family budget resembles an overcooked noodle.  I had hoped to be more available to the UCD garden project this summer, especially after the success of our Flower Power fundraiser.  Although my studies at Washburn kept me away from the garden site, I did try to share information via facebook and sometimes this blog.  What I didn’t realize, and couldn’t really comprehend, was that some of our staff literally did not know how plants grow.  I’ve had chilling visions of young children’s chores consisting of dusting the plastic plant decor, instead of watering and caring for live plants.  This aspect of society, that an entire generation of now high school and college graduates has zero knowledge of plant life, is quite alarming.  I realize just how over-dependent on others the People have become.  This makes it all that much more important to teach the next generation how to grow plants for food and sustinence.  However, I became impatient in allowing others to learn at their own pace.  And I grew impatient with the time it takes for any grassroots project to truly grow.  Our staff are still learning that plants take time and care.  While we did not harvest any food out of our garden, we did learn that rabbits like spinach and squash.  We learned that strawberry transplants need lots of water, but not pine-sol & water.  We learned that the roly-pig composter needs to be watered, because it does not absorb rainwater like a traditional, open compost heap.  If I could see inside the pig, I’d know what the problem was.  Has something taken root (like whole potatoes)?  Is it seriously clogged and needs to be taken apart and started over (stinky-dinky)?  BTW, volunteers welcome   Another downside to this year and the garden project is that I have not been able to work on it first-hand, because I’m in the Toddler 1 room, and these children are too young to dig a garden (but we do water our container plants).  See, the thing is, its not about me wanting to garden with children, its about children learning how to garden.   If these children in our care can be introduced to plant science, they will be successful science learners in higher grades, and maybe, just maybe, those with school gardens across the nation can grow a generation of individuals who know how to work a farm and provide food to communities.  The current state of the farming industry is about to collapse (hunch), and our nation will be in dire straits if we lose our ability to engage in a cooperative relationship with nature.

So I ask you, dear reader, to take a baby step with me.  Side by side, with our own two hands.  Remember, we should forgive our friends their flaws as readily as we forgive our own.  This is possibly the one difficult lesson it took me a year to learn, and I apologize for getting too pushy back there in September (it was my 37th birthday, and I was freaking out!).  Also please understand that while some staff at UCD are only temporary, others have long-term, professional goals in Early Childhood Education; this garden classroom is what I hope to accomplish in transforming UCD to grow with the 21st century.  When thinking of technology, think about what life was like before Mr. Weatherman’s radar, or even a rain gauge for Mr. Almanac.  Today’s technology gives you a soil test tool the size of a pocket-light.  Think about how processed food has affected previous generations of the People (cancer, diabetes, heart disease) and think about how our bodies are part of the Natural world.  Where does real food come from?  Time to tip the scales back to balanced in the world, and each of us has to act.

The baby step begins with a tiny seed, care, and Love.

New Moon, New Post November 16, 2009

It’s the first snow here in Topeka, KS, and I love winter.  I love all the seasons really, and I’m fascinated by science learning because we can explore what we observe.  The weather does not have to be at our comfort level in order for us to explore what kind of effect today’s weather will have on tomorrow.  No, not because the roads may be slick or because I may be put out (trying to drag my patooty out of bed earlier) but because this snowy winter will be beneficial for the spring plow & sow.  I hope this is not the last snow, but the first of many.

I suppose this is why I could never truly be a pessimist: I have Hope.  Not hope in any Diety per se, but hope that we (mankind) can someday find Nature’s balance between our knowledge & our intuition.  It is the Human Condition to understand both Science and Philosophy.  It is unnatural to put a Wall between the two, when we homo sapiens are both.  So when I catch another thread about Creationism v. Darwin’s theory I wonder: aren’t we done with this bit yet?

I mean, seriously,why couldn’t God have given us Evolution?  I personally think it was the other way around, but that’s my belief.   Can we move on and accept that It is what It is no matter if It was Created or not.  Religion is to the World stage as Opinions are to you and me.  Isn’t it enough that we are here?  Think about the Experience of life, and not so much about Who or What it came from.

I had the pleasure of listening to Dr. Richard Jackson, of UCLA, speak in Topeka in October, and he shared plenty of new information on Nature’s role in human health and wellness.  Dr. Jackson is an advocate for walkable communities and limiting urban sprawl, but our group spent almost two hours discussing how & why to get children and adults outdoors away from the TV (and here I sit at the other Zombie Box).  Our group mostly consisted of folks from KDHE, and one of the points we discovered about society today is that parents do not know how to be outdoors.  This fact is one that is quite disturbing to me as an educator.  Part of my professional duty is to educate parents as well as their children, and I cannot stress enough how simple it is to spend 30 minutes outdoors with your children, everyday.  Do not fear your neighborhood; it takes good people to make a neighborhood good.  As to what to do with your children once you do get to the park or to the backyard: explore.  No toys necessary.  If you do have a backyard, or even a balcony: garden.  While I understand there are some neighborhoods, even here in Topeka, KS, where one should not take their children outdoors, I’ve seen some poor slums thrive with children outdoors in the afternoons and evening hours.  Parents, if you need to relieve stress for a moment go outdoors with your children.  Grow flowers.  Grow herbs on a balcony.  And all you brown thumb naysayers I tell you this: growing a plant, or a garden, is as simple as caring for pets.  More simple, really.  And its food.  It is this inter-dependent relationship we Humans have with Flora & Fauna that make our existence truly unique, as a creature on this Earth.  Savor Life.

Heart on my sleeve October 27, 2009

Now, some of you have called me ‘preachy’…well, many do, but I speak what I understand is Truth, and if you disagree then by all means share your thoughts.  Please, no cussing wars, this is a family room!  Today’s events in  Topeka are quite alarming.  A woman was gunned down at a community center across the street from a middle school.  My heart goes out to the family of 34-year old Marini McKnight, and I light a candle for this tragedy.  The murderer is 20 years old, and this area of town is definitely the ghetto.  Please do not misunderstand, Dear Reader, as a hippy I got nothin’ but love for mankind.  My idea of ‘ghetto’ is inspired by Elvis.  “An angry young man with a gun in his hand.”  This is one of the worst kinds of violence (ghetto wars) and I am confused as to why people are reduced to living with violence?  My stepson (who thinks I’m the Devil) went to Jr. High here, and I can’t help but think: What IF this event had happened at that time?  He could have been at the center… I also have an almost 20 yer old daughter, and while I did not raise her I also have to wonder: what did these children learn that our gunman did not?  Yes, he’s 20, an adult legally, but still so young as to be some mother’s son.  I won’t get too deep into behavioral psychology, but think about this, Dear Reader: What did this young man grow up with to feel justified in murder?  What threat did this woman pose to his way of life that he felt it necessary to shoot her dead?

Who is brave and bold will perish;
Who is brave and subtle will benefit.
The subtle profit where the bold perish
For Fate does not honour daring.
And even the sage dares not tempt fate.

Fate does not attack, yet all things are conquered by it;
It does not ask, yet all things answer to it;
It does not call, yet all things meet it;
It does not plan, yet all things are determined by it.

Fate’s net is vast and its mesh is coarse,
Yet none escape it.

Tao Te Ching 73

I will admit recently I have been too preachy.  But when I hold my tongue stuff like this happens.  I understand this event has nothing to do with me directly; it’s some bad thing that happened in my school community.  But I also believe there are no coincidences.  What could community members do for this child, this individual, that he would not have considered murdering another human?  Let alone someone’s mother?

I believe school community gardens are a solution to the issue of reducing neighborhood violence.  Throughout history every large city has had its share of violence, and this Truth is brought home today.  Murder is a moral issue of Good and Bad, Right and Wrong.  And yet, ghetto violence, the Mob, Gang wars, and the like are a result of a community’s social order.  We as a people can act immediately to get violence out of school neighborhoods.  However, our society honors a schedule that is not beneficial to families and children.  School gardens are benefical in several ways, too many to list here.  Check out Ten Benefits if you haven’t yet Dear Reader.   

I understand how difficult it is for any community to come together, when We have become very diversified within neighborhoods.  ’Community’ is no longer exclusive to ‘Home’ because the working class (near poverty) isn’t at home.  The poor have been neglected, and have lost Hope, as evidenced in today’s woeful misfortune in my hometown.  I believe it takes Good people to create a Good community, and the one place we can come together is in our schools.  I urge residents of Central Topeka to come together and build Robinson a garden.  A FOOD garden.  I hope our city leaders can make this happen, cause lip service just don’t fly no more.  Schools don’t have money because parent’s don’t have money because mom’s have a full-time job and pay someone else to co-mom, and education is undervalued in the current social order.  Before entering the workplace, Mothers played a crucial role in society.  This role is just not realisticly achieved in modern society, and it is time for Us to Help One Another.  When an individual’s basic needs are not met, he cannot concern himself with morality.  He’s in survival mode.  How many of us honestly know about survival mode in an urban ghetto?  I’ve been there, and I am thankful for learning to Love. (right now I’m working on esteem and cofidence, thanks Maslow)  Help a child learn to Love by volunteering in your neighborhood school.  Whether or not you have children, whether or not you live in a large community.  Employers: support your workers in their community, and offer volunteer incentives.  Citizens: see about a tax credit for volunteer hours. 

Let’s Work Together

How to grow your own fresh air October 13, 2009

A group in India has found a mathematically correct way to use plants for fresh indoor air in a sealed building

Ted Talks

Light Bulb To The Dome September 21, 2009

Parents & Teachers, I believe it is our responsibility as adults to correct and protect the environmental damage wreaked on the planet by previous generations, and the current Energy Elites.  The children we care for today will have a bleak future as adults if we do not act.  Please do not misunderstand me, I struggle with my own flaws and weaknesses every day.  I’ll admit giving up a convienient lifestyle has been terribly hard.  I have a deep respect for working moms who cook the whole week’s dinners on Sunday.  But it’s the shopping on Saturdays that cannot be the bread & butter of this country’s economy much longer.  I’ll admidt I miss eating at Wendy’s, or driving the kids thru McD’s when we’re running late, or the convenience of frozen lasagna.  Yet this lifestyle change (how & where I spend my few pennies) is simple because I know in my heart its the right thing to do, not merely for the environment, but for the community and my family’s health and wellness.  That is why I hope to urge you to write or call your congressional representatives and insist upon them to support the President’s environmental agenda.  “Greening” our infastructure will provide new jobs for generations to come.  I hope that when my boys graduate high school they can go to tech school and know their career choices will not involve the promotion of shady backdoor politics or endanger their own lives just to put food on the table. Republicans have not considered the people, but only their people, since the Regan era.  Today, the GOP wants a moratorium on the EPA’s regulation of “heat-trapping emissions from stationary sources like power plants and industrial facilities.”  They propose that the EPA only be granted regulation of mobile sources of pollution (as though one is any more viable than the other).  What it really boils down to is that the cronies have all their gold invested in non-renewable resources, and supporting renewable energy sources would cost billions of dollars in structural changes.  Yet this issue is not the same choice as, say, letting your old junker car drive itself to death and then buy an economy car.  The government must also shift its spending.  Instead of investing one more dollar into coal, it must invest dollars in wind and solar.  We the people need to insist that government stop spending our tax dollars wrecklessly, and consider the constituents they represent, the ones that do not have $10,000 or more  to contribute to a campaign fund.  We the people can also vote en masse  for individuals who do not represent The Corporation’s machine.  The time for apathy has passed, even Zen masters know that there is time for action, as there is time for non-action.  To everything there is a season, and the change is now.

Obama’s Kitchen Garden September 15, 2009

I am so glad to have greenies back in the White House!  They’re methods are not as progressive as you’d think, and several times I have wondered how our society got the idea that consumerism was conservative.  Michelle Obama is bringing back the traditional kitchen garden, and just in time!  The people need to understand that this one simple step, growing a garden specifically for use in your own kitchen, is a step toward a healthier self and a truly conservative society.  Growing your own food saves money, energy resources, and prevents obesity while teaching healthy habits to children.  Our GOP only fights this because organic gardens do not put money into Big Ag’s pocket.  As I’ve said before, it’s not about the money!  Kansans would be wise to continue to vote for true conservatism by getting back to our roots and growing a garden.

Kids Gardening How To September 14, 2009

…involve kids in the necessities of maintenence.  This article, from the experts at National Gardening Association, has such wonderful, simple tips and tricks to help you get kids into the garden and keeping it healthy and sustained.  Think of the garden as your child’s exploration into the web of life, and let him journey to discover bugs, dirt, weather, food, and how each organism is connected right in your own backyard!

Kalanchoe August 25, 2009

I acquired two varieties of Kalanchoe from a friend cleaning out the small campus greenhouse for use this fall semester.  This plant was everywhere! It had taken over.  So at first, I was wary to bring it into the preschool classroom, where it would shed its babies onto other potted plants, and takeover the room.  Then I thought of a simple experiment that made the plant worthwhile: soil structure.  One container of sand, one container of soil, and one container 50/50.  What will the children think of this experiment?  And will their patience hold out to wait and see which type of soil the plant thrives & survives in?  What if I could avert their attention to Geography and discuss the area of the Earth in which this plant does grow wild?  Hmm…. Observing plant life, the possibilities become numerous.  We could count how many teeny-tiny sprouts each plant produces.  We could measure how far the Kalanchoe actually spreads its stem.  We could observe that one plant has thin leaves, and one plant has broad leaves.  Hey! Why is that?  Teachers, just remember that its ok for you to learn alongside your students, no matter their age, about the wonders of the natural world.