Longhouse School

12:00pm, Lolita, in front of the Dewey House, watching the kids play during recess. I’m not “on duty”—just observing “recess” for the pure pleasure! Finally finished and posted at 4:00 p.m.

I love our kids!!! They are so smart, beautiful, inquisitive, and sincere. I could include a dozen other suitable adjectives. May their smiles never be cut off from their insides as they grow up in this very cruel world.

This morning we played a bit of catch-up and did our ELA and math workbooks. I am surprised how much the kids like them. I think it gives them the sense of “doing real work” They like the structure. It’s not my thing.

My mentor back in NYC had me read a book by Lisa Delpit called, “Other People’s Children”. It’s about an African American young woman who attended very liberal, progressive schools as a child and through college. She saw her experience as a gift that she wanted to share as a teacher with kids in the inner city. But she grasped that her teaching was not nearly as effective as old-timer teachers in her school who taught in old-timer ways. She had encountered, as stated in the other half of the book’s title, a “Cultural Conflict in the Classroom.” She shifted her pedagogical approach to match what kids and parents perceived as what they needed. I think this is true for our kids as well.

Dee came around mid-morning with cookies. “These are soooo good, Ms. Dee!” It was a universal response, from me, too! “What type of cookies are they?” they asked. She responded, “Acorns.”

“What? We thought that only squirrels could digest acorns!” Not true at all, she responded. But acorns are indigestible and even poisonous to people if they are not leached. “Bleached!?!?” No, not “bleached,” leached!

We went with her into the kitchen. She showed us the container of “acorn flour” she used to make the cookies. “I added sunflower seeds to give them crunch! Now I am making a big batch from fresh acorns right from our Park. Group A Cooks will do something called ‘hot water leaching’ and Group B Cooks will do ‘cold water leaching.’ Either way, we have to peel the acorns, crush them, soak them about 7 times, and bake them. This was an important part of the diet of the indigenous people who once lived here hundreds of years ago!”

“Ms Dee, did you know we are “F-nographers?” The words shifted with different kids. I also heard “ethno-grifters” and “neffers.” They wanted to get their notebooks so they could document the acorn cookies.

We went back outside to work. Why is it that kids love sitting on the ground so much? Who invented chairs anyhow?

I have my own table and cushion, too. I give kids “free words.” They ask me for some words. The most popular today were “ethnographer,” “acorns,” “leaching,” and “document.” I write our their “free” word on a post-it and they carry it back like they are hundred-dollar bills.

Lunch now, then swimming, then nature walk.

Guy and Bernie want to do a unit on the types of trees in the park. What a great idea, and just in time for the season of falling leaves! I also researched an article in the New York Times archive about nut trees in the Northeast Forest. Absolute goldmine as a learning resource.