Longhouse School

This post is written by Guy, our Longhouse School Co-Director and one of the Park’s owners.

Yesterday started off as a kind of write-off day. Everyone had stayed up late to watch the Bills-Raven game on Sunday night. Me, too! It was such a great game with the Bills coming alive in the final quarter and winning in miraculous style right at the end with a 32-yard field goal by veteran Matt Prater, who had just joined the team the prior week.

What to do? “Let’s put it out of our minds and get back to our schoolwork?” Or enter into the world we found ourselves in and try to create value out of it? So, we played the reruns of the game and talked about plays; some we played a few times. I called up Artie and asked whether, at the Costco run, he could buy a half dozen footballs.

This was a sloppy game for both teams. But we–and mean both the boys and girls equally–talked about how to keep going even when you are losing. How do you take advantage of every single second? We talked about “momentum.” I was so surprised that this word was in their vocabulary. Who knew?

Throughout this conversation Lolita was writing down her observations about the class discussion. One of the kids asked, “Lolita, what are you doing? Why are you always writing?” I didn’t think they would be interested but she told them about her college course and that she’s “documenting” Longhouse Elem. She’s what’s called “a participant observer” in “ethnographic research.” She studies us the way an “anthropologist” would study an unusual society.

Believe it or not, they decided that they wanted to be participant observers, too. “It’s our school, too, and we want to write about it! It’s our history!” I called Artie back. and asked him to purchase 27 wide-ruled hard-covered writing notebooks. That’s right, 24 for the kids and 3 for the teachers. We will all be ethnographers!

I felt a need for an energy change and said, “The Buffalo Bills are named after the bills of ducks. Let’s go swimming!”

The water was a bit chilly but for lunch, Dee had made a delicious squash stew that warmed us all up. The kids were very excited about their notebooks. “How do you write?” one of our first-graders asked. We told her to start with drawing small pictures and add a word. Lolita set up a “Free Word Table” where she gave away “free” words on post-its. The older children also helped the younger ones. They kept at it for over an hour!

We next took a walk to the Field. There is now a large rectangle hole about 2-3 feet deep with a few much deeper holes. Max explained about drainage after a big storm. Where will the water go? How do we keep the field from flooding? He explained that the field would be built on top of 2-3 feet of “gravel.” Gravel spreads out water so it can escape.

“But what about those deep holes, what are they for?” asked one of the students. He explained they are called “dry wells.” They go much deeper and are filled with different layers of gravel. They containerize excess water which flows into them. If that’s not enough, at the bottom are pipes that attach to a “pump station” which pumps extra water away. Kids had a lot of questions for him.

Bob the Builder: “Once we finish the drainage stage, you will be surprised at how quickly the Field will come together! You’ll be playing on it in just a couple of weeks!

Now they drew in their sketch books. Then we played with the footballs.

The tired day had turned into an inspired day. So what? We skipped the workbooks for one day. Today, with all of us rested and renewed–but still inspired by the Bills–we’ll have a more typical one.

After the kids leave, the three of us meet. Lolita keeps us reading a page or two daily from the Sukhomlynsky book. I find myself falling in love with his spirit. and his poetic words. This book My Heart I Give to Children is a classic, why isn’t it better known?