Hopi Wisdom

This bench, stationed outside of a visionary re-purposed industrial building in Baltimore, really needs no further commentary from me...but being who I am, well, I'll just add a few thoughts.

It sits on the sidewalk at the corner entrance to Charmington's, a unique cafe in the Miller's Court development in a transitional neighborhood in northern Baltimore City, nearish Johns Hopkins University. The building, a former tin can company, was redeveloped in great part to be a place of residential support for recent college graduates who choose to teach in the Baltimore City Public School System. In addition to apartments, it also houses office space for educational nonprofits, and, of course, the Charmington's cafe.

(For more on interesting Miller's Court, check out the following two links: http://millerscourt.com/ and
http://www.preservationnation.org/main-street/main-street-news/2009/04/baltimore-rehab.html )

Charmington's has been one of the many wonderful local meeting spots for a group of parents working to encourage our neighborhood middle school to incorporate a daily recess break into its rather comprehensive, yet overly rigorous and unbalanced school day. Sometimes it seems that we are "racing to nowhere" with our kids. Sometimes our societal efforts to provide them the best quality education swing wildly to the other side of the pendulum, and we end up "teaching for the test" rather than thoughtfully educating the "whole child." Our children need quality instructional time, but they also need time to "play" and imagine and just talk with one another...and a little fresh air wouldn't hurt either.

Working to help balance the school culture has often felt like more than I bargained for over the past year or so, but we press on...because common sense, and parent intuition, and really listening to our children, not to mention the volumes and volumes of recent relevant research, have all indicated that the short- and long-term benefits for our children are easily worth more than the sacrifice it's taking to get there.

So, at a step along the journey, July 11th to be exact, this bench gave me a bit of a fresh wind.

Let's live this wisdom of the Hopi Tribe.

Much Love. Take Care.