with various forms of study from writing to art to business. Betsy Voinovich handles most
of this work, and does just an amazing job.
This past month she has been working at Emerson, and I have had the pleasure of working
with her, Kevin Spooner, a group of 5th graders and Principal Brian Siftar. They and so
many of the people involved with the schools are just wonderful people, and it usually sends me away with a great feeling.
A couple images from Emerson with a great payoff the other day, and why I love this project!
Entering Emerson for the first time, well the first time since we caught the ABLE day, I looked
up at the portrait of Ralph W. Emerson hanging over the doorway and saw...
After Thanksgiving...
And this underlines the creative, open learning atmosphere of Emerson and all of the schools.
In my day, students schemed to alter icons, here management beats them to it.
Yesterday was the Invention Convention. Participants were told and shown just how
easy it is to think out of the box, and to fix problems. They were informed that if you do it together, it can become easier and more fun.
But here is the payoff for me:
While I'm standing in the hallway with Principal Siftar, two students approach carrying a tray of food. Thinking they were offering me lunch I turned to them, and they said...
"Are you that Observer guy?" I said yeah, they said, "Look at the food they make us eat."
I said, "Looks much better than my lunch 50 years ago in Lakewood Schools." They said,
"We need you to do a story on this, does that look like real fish?" I then said, "The Observer is about you writing the story in your words from your point of view. After all I think it looks pretty good." They assured me the story would be coming and walked away.
Brian chuckled, and said something to the effect of, we like openness around here.
A breath of fresh air for sure.
And then I saw this outside...
I love this city and the schools, not because of the buildings but because of what is inside of them.
.