Summer at Taproot Farm
Summer is well under way here at the Farm. We have been eating lettuce and peas for since early May, due to succession planting. And now we have cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes and all kinds of herbs to eat! For several years I have created edible landscaping in front of my solar house, in addition to a more conventional garden elsewhere on the farm. You see here a view from the side of my front door showing the glass front of my house with the herb garden and some of the vegetables growing there. It is amazing what a small plot will produce! And it gives me added shade in summer months when I don't need the solar gain!
Family Harvest Weekend
October 2—4
Family Harvest Weekend will be held the weekend of October 2—4. These weekends are for the whole family. All activities are designed to be multi-generational. They include, drama, nature study, knot tying, singing, science, food, fabric dyeing, etc, etc. More details and online registration available here. Save the dates!
Teacher Trainings
Both our Grades Training and Kindergarten Trainings were a great success this year. We had two groups of highly dedicated parents and some nursing infants to remind us of our wondrous responsibility for these young lives.
Save the first weekend in August (5—8) for Taproot Teacher Training 2010, and the second weekend in August (13—15) for Taproot Kindergarten Training 2010
Learning By Doing It
According to a recent article in the Winston Salem Journal, recent national tests graded by the US Department of Education found that a representative sample of American high schoolers did well on an economics test, much better than on similar tests of other subjects. Educators were surprised because only a third of the states require a high school economics course. So, where did these kids learn this stuff? They learned it delivering pizzas, flipping burgers or negotiating for allowance. Therein lies a lesson for educators: If schools can make education relevant to the lives of students, they'll get better results.
Book Reviews
A Nation of Wimps, by Hara Estroff Marano.
Watch Yourself, by Matt Hern
These two books treat the growing trend of Americans over the past generation to overprotect their children in the name of safety, and to control every moment of their lives in the name of preparing them for “success.” In actuality, they have made young adults into permanent children who cannot think for themselves, nor recognize the presence of danger. Both books are a good read with many anecdotes and statistics to back up their premise.