Work is what you do

Definitions of work and school are being re-invented on the fly.

Around here these days, kids are working hard at making a living, and grown-ups are working hard at educating and being educated.

None of the people in my house actually WORK for someone else in exchange for wages now, but we're all incredibly busy anyway; and all bringing home the bacon, one way or another. My husband is a teacher, so he teaches kids. All ages, all subjects. School is continuing in our area - although nobody's getting paid for it by the state, because school funding has been diverted temporarily (let's hope!) to other needs. Is this true everywhere, I wonder? What are other communities doing with thousands of bored teenagers roaming the streets?

When the school year began, Bruce, eight of his teacher-friends, the high-school principal and the middle school librarian just voluntarily reconstructed the educational system in Bremerton on a sort of ad-hoc basis.

The students who are interested in continuing school - and there are lots more than I expected - voluntarily use their rationed Internet time to stay in contact with their little web of teachers.

The schools have gotten a lot more neighborhood oriented, for lack of transportation, and reflect the new values we've developed since petroleum started to fail. For example, on our street, we have a horticulture "pod", which is led by a former real-estate agent and master gardener.

She knows dirt; )

In the "pod" there are six middle-school and high-school kids who live on the next street or up by the park; there's my downstairs neighbor and her two adult daughters and five young grandkids; there's the old lady across the alley with all the nice canning equipment; and there's me and Gavvy.

The "pods" generally have a practical purpose besides education. We're pretty serious food producers in our neighborhood. We learn about soil, and what makes healthy soil; we save and share seeds; we compost; we design garden spaces; we plant and irrigate; we weed and control pests; we watch the plants grown through their life cycle, and learn of their biology; and we harvest, preserve, and cook. Pretty good chunk of education mixed up in there.

All of us are learning according to our interests, sharing what we know, and all of us are working. I have even dragged out my college biology texts for the occasion; )


(There are more academic "pods", too - or more research-oriented, I should say. Calculus is not dead.)



Another thing I've noticed is that the rhymes and songs we're coming up with to amuse/teach the little kids are different. They've been drained of their oil; )


Here's a little something from the Madrona Street Hortipod...Gavvy's new favorite.


Howdy U. Pickamellen

Looket alla yellamellens
stack'd in a heap
wonder which allamellen
i'm gonna keep

heffamellen thunkamellen
tink tink tink
settem back down
for'n yetamellen sleep

pushamellen givamellen
not too soft
green at the stripey, cushy on top
holdem to your ear and
thump thump thump
rollem on home and WHACKEM ALL UP!

Storytellin in the hood

Now that electronic entertainment's hard to come by...
now that people actually talk to each other again, because it's free...
now that dinner has become an art form because food is precious and processed junk food is yesterday's bad news...
now that we gotta teach our kids on our own, and Dr. Seuss is falling apart...

...guess what's enjoying a grand REVIVAL around my neck of the woods?

The story...and the storyteller.

My brother says, no matter what year you live in, no matter where you go, the one who tells the STORY around the campfire gets the biggest chunk of yak.

Here's how he earned his yak the other night:



The Cat and the Rat (imagine that!)



Hey Cat, said the rat -

Why you lookin at me
like that?


I'm hardly a healthy SNACK.

I'm greasy, I'm fried
I'm genetically modified -

I'll give you a heart ATTACK.

(ack, ack!)


But the fish there in the dish
could be lunch if you wish


She's practically cholesterol-FREE;


like a flounder, cod or sole
but swimming 'round in that bowl

You can catch her so eeee-Zi-LEE.

(Not me!)


Don't worry, said the cat,
about ME getting fat...
I'll just skip the supersize FRIES

Now, better take your head start
and scoot away if you're smart



and give me some ex-Er-SIZE.

(Run and hide!)


Oh.


Well...


How 'bout the bird? I'll bet you've heard
they're abso-LUTE-ly superb

stuffed with parsley, a little thyme, and some SAGE

not only that, said the rat
as he grabbed for his hat...


she's busted the door to her CAGE.

(Next page...)




Gavvy made him tell it five times, which is the only reason I remember all the words; )