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Early Months, New Beginnings
​Dear Friends,
Can you believe we will break into February this week? For me it feels like a time-wind tunnel. Overlain with the delights of being part of the Waters School community:
Yet another gorgeous art gallery/show;
Chinese New Year, bang the drum, the year of the Rooster!;
the trips with kids to the forest and Lake,
singing together, We Shall Overcome,
Happy Birthday Ms. Crespo, you should be proud!,
so, too, the daily torrent of news events has me holding on to the trunks of our old oak trees to be reminded how to live life on this world of ours.
I don't want to use this space for political messages,
though politics certainly impacts our kids, and school and neighborhood.
So, I wanted to let you know that I will be posting most political commentary at
www.BeyondToday.org, a local site developed and moderated by Julie Peterson, teacher, mom, neighbor, activist. This first posting is about our decision as a family to divest from Chase bank. Please join the discussion, and join the movement for a more beautiful, just and peaceful future.
That said!
Monday, I will be teaching trees to the 1st grade. And prepping 2nd grade for their river trip (We're All Water!).
But first, I will be working in my office (lunchroom, staff room, classroom, and conference room) taping together trip maps for the 6th grade journey to the Wilmette locks. This tedious business can produce a zen-like state of peace and tranquility for participants, which can be moderated by repeated doses of strong coffee. Please join me after drop off, if you can.
On Wednesday, February 1, 4th grade, Room 207 is off to Sauganash to cut brush and track the wild beings that live there. Hallelujah the ground should be frozen, and maybe the slough, too! Join me at the fish tank at 9:00 for a briefing. We'll be back at school around 12:30
On Thursday, February 2nd, Room 209, 4th grade does a repeat of the above. Please join us.
On Friday, there is no school, and Deb and I are going to Michigan, by train, to do our taxes, and to look across the Lake, at Chicago, and wonder what it all means,
Mr. Leki
Ecology Field Trips and Mid-Winter Clean-up
​Hello friends,
So nice to see so many of our neighbors and school families at the Woman's Rally on Saturday.
What an uplift!
Favorite sign?
Too many, I know.
But how about:
Here we believe:
No human is illegal
Science is real
Kindness is everything
Trabajando al comienzo de un historia,
sin saber el fin.
(We are working at the beginning of a story
without knowing the end)
– Victor Jara
So let's make some history!
On Wednesday, January 25, 5th grade, room 304 is off to Sauganash to explore, identify trees, and cut out buckthorn.
Volunteers meet at the fish tank at 9:00. The bus leaves at 9:30 and gets back st 12:30. Lunch is in the classroom.
On Thursday, January 26, 4th grade, Room 307 visits as above, with a focus on ID-ing buckthorn:
Small terminal thorn,
sub-alternate bud arrangement,
cambium ring orange and green,
cambium has distinct (pleasant) smell,
female tree has black, cathartic berries (don't eat, unless constipated)
young bark is smooth and glossy, growing crusty and peeling with age (like me).
Friday, January 27, Room 303, 7th grade travels to Montrose Point
to learn 10 Amazing Facts about the Big Water (Lake Michigan)
as part of their study of the origins and geology of the same.
I really wanted the kids to experience "extreme" weather at the Lake front:
the blast of arctic wind over water,
the crash and terrible power of wave against rock,
the sounds, the sounds, the sounds,
and the swirl of ice sculptures,
made of snow, ice and sand,
dotted with air bubbles and bits of feather,
teeth,
tiparillo tips!
But last Friday the weather was mild,
subdued,
after a week of subdued and warm.
The entire city-scape was in a shroud of fog,
the swelling waves were an indescribable shade of blue, green, grey,
the shore was like a primordial estuary stretching out a thousand yards into the Lake,
with stranded chunks of ice,
sand bars,
open waters,
geysers,
and a ridge of piled ice flows.
The sandy beach at the edge of this had been gratified
by some unsung acolyte of mother Nature herself:
the most intricate,
immense,
swirling motif of curves,
and braids
and millions of round depressions,
like berries,
or the eyes in a peacock's tail feathers,
so skillfully assembled as to be one
master work.
It reminded me of Persian or Indian art from long long ago.
Beautiful and fearless in the face of ruin,
Prepared at the very first opportunity to pick up the tools again
to create new beauty in this world.
I asked some kids to take pictures and hope I can share them with you soon.
But this week the temperatures will drop,
and I am so happy to know that what we will experience will be unpredictable.
​On this trip, the students' task is to create 2 or 3 phrases describing the Sky, the Lake, the City and the Shore.
They are supposed to use analogy, simile, metaphor, comparisons,
straight from their own creative core,
to describe this place and moment through the prism of their own 7th grade (12-13 years old) Being.
We work on these and share out after lunch.
Then they are joined together in a collective poem,
a mosaic description of their shared experience,
which we will share with you.
On Tuesday, January 24, during lunch time,
I am going to try to organize an impromptu
mid-winter
tidy up,
spruce up,
with any kids that are willing to forego their other important recess activities.
We will sweep the sidewalks,
haul wood chips to places thick with mud,
pick up trash,
while the weather is mild,
and the grounds absent snow.
Any volunteer available between 11:00 and 12:30 would be much appreciated.
Every day there is something new.
Ecology and MLK Day
​Ecology is the study of how the household works,
"household" meaning our world, the animate and inanimate,
the air and the water and all the interactions...
and us.
Never before have us had such a big impact on the household,
we have made a mess of things,
hold on the to handles,
we about to do more mess.
So this is an ecology message that focuses on human impacts,
human volition,
hates and hopes.
go see Hidden Figures,
the story behind the african-american mathemeticians that helped steer the US space missions to success. I thought that this was going to be a kind of documentary, but it turned out to be so much more. Beautifully shot, beautifully acted, this film is a tense drama that keeps you on the edge of your seat from the opening frames to the finale. The tension is kept humming in space by two vertices, the urgency and perilousness of the mission to put humans in space; and the racial and gender oppression that is pervasive in the society at large and the science community in specific. The film powerfully argues that prejudice holds us all back, it is a brake on progress and discovery. This film is perfect for families with school age kids. There is no foul language or violence, and there is plenty of love, laughter and joy. The women mathematicians are, of course, a wonderful model for young people, girls especially. But, more than modeling women struggling for entry in science careers, it is about people struggling for justice in this world. It is a perfect film to see on this MLK weekend. It educates and inspires.
Second, in the past week or two our Alderman, and neighbor, Ameya Pawar announced his candidacy for Governor of Illinois. I don't need to tell anyone about this part of the "household", the state of this state. The current governor is holding the state's education, health, environment and human welfare programs hostage to his grand scheme to destroy unions, lower wages, privatize schools, and further skew the extremes of wealth and poverty. Ameya has fought hard for our local schools, and in announcing his candidacy he has upped his game. He sounds kind of like Bernie Sanders. If you have not had a one-on-one with Ameya, you probably haven'y experienced the power of his intellect, sincerity and determination. I can imagine him traveling to the rural, southern parts of our state, meeting with the farmers, and unemployed and people struggling with countless burdens, and laying out a practical vision for a way forward. He can do that. And with our help he will.
There were two fabulous interview with Alderman Pawar over the past two weeks. One is a local television comedy show, the other a lengthy WBBM radio interview. Take the time to listen to and have a look at this brilliant rising star.
Everywhere I go, I hear people talking about organizing to take action, to assert a vision in opposition to the one about to take power, a vision of fairness, community, friendship, peace, healing, and hope. Many will be marching in the Women's March on Saturday, in Washington, and Chicago. New organizations are springing up to galvanize a progressive movement (Indivisible Chicago). Our Bullfrogs Community Choir does a song by Sly and the Family Stone. It is one of our anthems. It is called
If It Were Left Up To Me
It would take more than a notion
We would put ideas in motion
If it were left up to you
Would you try?
If it were left up to me,
I would try.
We would live in a bubble
If it were left up to me or you
We would stay out of trouble
But it's the way that they do
Makes you cry, makes you cry
And still it's left up to you
Got to try.
Would you sigh and forget it
And get some sleeping to see
If you live to regret it?
Now that it's left up to me and you
Will you try?
I promise from me to you
I will try!
Let's get together and fix up our messed up house,
our beloved community, country and planet.
First Week of Winter Ecology
Hope for "bad" weather!
Fresh snow, 20 degrees, are perfect for winter ecology outings
much better than rain and mud.
And they start next week!
On Wednesday, January 18, Room 310, 5th grade will scour the woods for buckthorn to remove, and in the process learn to identify some of our other trees in winter by their bud arrangements. Want to join us? Meet at the fish tank at 9:00 a.m., bus leaves at 9:30 a.m., back at 12:30 p.m. Lunch is in the classroom.
On Friday January 20, 7th grade, Room 301 is off to Montrose Point to study lake geology and to experience the frozen waves, and swirled blends of ice, snow and sand sculpture. Volunteers welcomed. Yellow bus leaves at 9:30 a.m. and should be back by 1:15 p.m. Students will have lunch at the Yacht Club!
Monday is Doctor King Day. I was happy to be able to sing some with the 5th grade about Dr. King and the civil rights struggle. The courage! That's what gets me. The courage that King and thousands of others showed in facing dogs, water cannons, billy clubs and lynch mobs to confront injustice. My family will be finding some appropriate way to hold Dr. King's spirit close to our hearts and carry on his work on Monday.
To that end I want to share with you a newly released documentary called "Refuge". One of my and Deb's former students is the cinematographer. It is beautifully shot and powerful, and so important at this moment: to put a human face behind the refugee label. Watch here and be sure to view the statement from the Director Mathew Firpo that follows the documentary.
Mr Leki
A New Year!
Happy New Year Dear Friends and Neighbors,
A momentous event is coming our way.
Not the one in Washington D.C.
(I said momentous, not monstrous!)
This year, in a band slashing down to the Southeast,
from Tacoma to Charleston,
there will be a
TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE.
A TSE is NOT like a partial TSE.
It is "Lights Out"
once in a lifetime,
on your knees,
life changing moment.
It happens close to home (in Kansas, southern Illinois, Kentucky, etc) on August 21, 2017.
I would like to recommend viewing of this event
to all our community,
to encourage families, groups,
entire cities,
to vacate,
to witness this 2 minutes of disjunct,
of life altering newness,
to consider the fact of how,
"what is" can change
to something else so quickly.
They say that at
totality,
one can expect the temperature to drop 15 degrees in seven minutes,
due to the loss of solar inputs.
What does this teach us about the Sun,
the Earth,
the atmosphere,
the climate and CO2?
Please study up, empty your calendar, and make plans to meet up with this solar spectacular.
This website has a beautiful narrative of what to expect,
and everything you need to know to be able to witness it.
Closer to home and a bit more mundane
there are a few more days left to early registration for the
WILD THINGS CONFERENCE
at the UIC Forum on February 18. This is an all-day smorgasborg of workshops on all aspects of nature in our region, from monarchs, to bryophytes, to prairie orchids to home gardening. It is an excruciating challenge to select from the scores of workshops offered simultaneously. If you love nature, and are drawn to science and activity, find a way to attend this gem of a Gatheriing. I'll be there. Meet you for lunch? Register here.
our Winter Field Ecology kicks off Wednesday, January 18. Hope you got some long underwear, winter boots and Carharts for holiday gifts!
I look forward to this new year full of possibilities and challenges.
The very best to you,
Ecology Program & Calendar
Mr. Pete Leki, Waters Ecology Program Founder and Director
Visit the Waters Ecology Program Website for current/historical writings, films, photos, and interviews.
Email: petelekisan@gmail.com
Water Ecology Program Website
Riverbank Neighbors
Friends of the Chicago River
Forest Preserves of Cook County
Openlands
North Park Village Nature Center
CPS' Non-Discrimination Statement: cps.edu/nondiscrimination