Our Way of Entering Fire

Last Week: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday By Lydia; Tuesday by Hannah

Monday:

It was the first day back since the ninth grade hike, so naturally all of the ninth graders were talking about it. When I walked into the big room that morning the room was filled with the jabber of happy little students. The bell rang and we all settled down. Luke talked about being with his brother, not fighting, just playing games. We reminisced on how tough Bryn was during the Hike. Never once did she complain about her belly hurting. Even when we asked her, she would just say that it hurt. Nothing more, nothing less.

“She was in pain most or all the time, and unlike some of us, complaining about our hurting hips, or feet, she was silent,” said Tal.

“It’s an awesome experience after three years to go hiking in the woods,” said Henry.

We talked about what it was like when the ninth graders were not at school, and it was just the 70s and 80s.

“ The first day it was controlled, the second day reality sank in more. The second day we were not as excited to do the things that we were doing,” said Rider.

“ I felt like I was not an 80 yet, but I was not a sevie anymore. I am beyond what I started out as,” said Simon.

We talked about some of the problems that happened when the ninth graders were away. One of the groups was fighting about a name, and about who got to model for there group. How some people didn’t really listen to others when they talked about what the name for their group would be. We talked about you can’t always be the leader. Sometimes you have to step aside and let someone else’s ideas be heard.

“ It feels like we made you feel really small by not listening,” said Rider.

“ But, like umm,” offered Claire.

“ An excellent comment, Claire,” said Tal.

“ There is no future in modeling, but there is a future in saying, ‘Okay you go, you can be the leader,” said Tal.

Aylee read the poem “Sunrise” By Mary Oliver, here it is:

You can die for it, an idea,

or the world. People

have done so,

brilliantly,

letting

their small bodies be bound

to the stake,

creating

an unforgettable

fury of light. But

this morning,

climbing the familiar hills

in the familiar

fabric of dawn, I thought

of China,

and India

and Europe, and I thought

how the sun

blazes

for everyone just

so joyfully

as it rises

under the lashes

of my own eyes, and I thought

I am so many!

What is my name?

What is the name

of the deep breath I would take

over and over

for all of us? Call it

whatever you want, it is

happiness, it is another one

of the ways to enter

Fire.

Tuesday, by Hannah

It was morning meeting, we all sat in the big room, notebooks and lunch boxes had already been strewn across the table. “Does anybody have anything?” boomed the headmaster, Tal, over everyone’s chitter-chatting. He called on Reed. Reed told us that he had been reading The Catcher in the Rye for lit and he had noticed Holden Caulfield not knowing how to say goodbye to his prep school, and he was thinking about how to say goodbye to North Branch, and that he didn’t know how to say goodbye to North Branch. Next Tal called on Nathan. Nate talked about his brother’s tennis match over the weekend that he had lost, he told us the scores, but it all summed up to: Nathan was going to miss his brother next year when he left for college. Miles told us that his dad had taken him to an art museum and had seen lots of cool things and he felt bad when he didn’t leave a note in the comment book. Tal asked him if there was any Warhol. Miles said some, and Tal asked Cassie if she had the flyer for the art show hanging on her fridge. Cassie looked at him dully, and said she didn’t in a somewhat confused tone. Rider mentioned something (not as a morning meeting comment) about how NBS Alumni, Fielding Jenks wrote in some comment book for something ‘great stay, women were great’ and his brother, Penn wrote (pretending to be Fielding’s wife) ‘great stay but these girls need to have a talk with their fathers.’ I’m not really sure what he was talking about, but it happened.

“Hen, did you do the poem sign ups?” Tal asked his first born son.

“Yep, I did ‘em yesterday,” Henry said, leaning back in his wooden chair-desk.

“Alright, who’s signed up for today?” Tal asked. It was Claire. She didn’t have a poem. But quickly Anneke jumped to her rescue and pulled out “Brown and Agile Child” by Pablo Neruda. Claire read it and meeting was concluded – or so we thought. While Miles and the other techies were setting up the projector Tal decided to teach us a little bit about the upcoming 2010 World Cup Football Tournament in South Africa.

“The World Cup is to the Super Bowl as a billboard is to a postage stamp,” he explained. He went on about the scoring and the teams, and Calder and Yared chipped in occasionally.

Finally, after much grief with the projector, Aylee begun her project on Oneida, which was a commune founded 150 years ago in Oneida, NY, by a guy named John Humphrey Noyes. He was a utopian socialist who lived from 1811-1886. Aylee told us that JFK’s assassin had once joined the Oneida community previous to his murdering of Kennedy, and the lifestyles of Oneida had made him a little bit crazy. In Oneida they believed that no matter what they did, they could not sin. The community reached their peak of 306 members in 1878. So if you can imagine 306 people running around thinking that they can’t do wrong, you’ve got yourself a little bit of a problem, or at least nothing even remotely under control. Oneida was ranked the 19th century’s most successful utopian project though. One thing that the people of Oneida would do was they would pick someone and tell them all of the flaws in their character to “make them better”. For her activity Aylee told us we were going to do that as well. We had volunteers; Claire and about seven boys. We chose Reed Messner to go first and we soon discovered that things that could be categorized as flaws could instantly be turned into good qualities. Tal gave us the statistics; possibly, he said, about 75% of our character and personality is genetic (we have no control over it—we are what we are) and 25% we can change sort of depending on what we do and the decisions we make (a lot of which may be determined by our genetics). We tried again to find character flaws in Claire and maybe somebody else but gave up quickly as it was obvious the “flaws” were really parts of her that were growing and changing and mostly wonderful.

Next, without a break Miles presented Part Three of his project on Animal Utopias and Societies. Part One had been on bees, Part Two had been on wolves, and now Part Three was on Meerkats, a little bit on elephants, a little bit on killer whales, and a little bit on penguins. He started off right away by telling us Meerkats are not cats. They are technically part of the mongoose family. The English translation of Meerkat is ‘marsh cat’, but they live in the desert, so, he told us, the person who named them was an idiot. Actually, the Kalahari Desert, in Africa is the only place in the world that Meerkats, but don’t worry; they’re not endangered. Each “gang” of Meerkats has a territory of about 1-3 miles, with anywhere from 6-15 burrows in it and they switch burrows every 2 weeks because as you can imagine, they get pretty grimy after a while, and their burrows are 6-8 feet underground. He said that gangs will fight over territory sometimes and when they fight they puff up their fur to look bigger and jump up and down to appear scary. He told us that Meerkats are actually pretty evolved and they basically have a language because they can make up to 20 sounds and 4 different syllables. We were all kind of shocked when he informed us that that alpha female will eat any cubs pups that are born if they’re not her own. Oliver related that this was similar to his project, which had been on Eugenics. We watched a video about Meerkats, which to most of us, or, most of the boys, was more funny than informal, mainly because it involved a renegade meerkat who was trying to get He told us a little bit about elephants, one thing that I already knew was that elephants mourn, and I read somewhere that elephants are the only animal aside from humans that cry during and after death of a group member. Then he talked a little bit about Killer Whales; they live in pods, and Tal played us a video he found of the noises they make. It was almost like singing. For Penguins he told us they are the most social bird. While looking at some of the pictures of the penguins, people shouted about the movies, Happy Feet, and March of the Penguins. At the end he remembered Meer Kats don’t need to drink water because there’s enough water in the things that they eat that they can get by.

We talked a little about it afterwards.

“…learning from other things can better ourselves…” said Nate.

“…we’re dependant on learning. It’s unfair that they have knowledge already, we should have more instinctual stuff…” Rider said.

“…Meer Kats, bees and other animals are born to do certain roles in their societies, we’re not…” Yared said.

“…we’re more selfish…” Simon added.

We have interests we can’t control; we have ranges of what we choose.

“You guys are all like the little Meer Kats on the first day of school; all looking around for potential threats,” Tal said, swerving his head around, as if surveying for predators.

It was break. Nate and Reed Me. went out onto the patio and did cool jumps and tricks with their skateboards. And the seventh and eighth graders all scattered into little groups to practice a couple more times before lunch the songs that they had written about the ninth graders in their specific group for science. I called Lydia, who was out sick to ask her why she was not in school. Her nose was all stuffed and she replied, wheezing something that sounded a little more like “I’b sig” than “I’m sick” and I put her on speaker phone so that Tal and Henry could also laugh at her pathetic speech. I hung up and the 8thand 9th graders went into the big room for lit and the sevies went to Rose for math.

Next I went to science and then it was lunch. We frolicked for a little while but were then called into the Big Room to hear the songs that the sevies and eighties had practiced. The first group: Calder, Evan, Rio, Sophie, and Luke sang about Reed Messner and Cassie, a song they had written to the tune of Redemption Song, which we had sang during intermission of the play this year. The second group: Miles, Anna, Reed Martin, and Jesse had written a rap song about Henry, Isabel and Edgar. Miles made the beats while the girls, sunglasses, hoods, puckered lips and all, rapped about the three ninth graders. The third group: Simon, Anneke, Sarah, Kiley, and Yared, sang to the tune of Mrs. Robinson about Bryn and Nathan. The third group: Ollie, Aylee, Claire and Rider sung about me (Hannah) and Lydia to the tune of You Belong With Me by Taylor Swift. Before they began Rider made the commonly known announcement that he loves Taylor Swift and that she will be his girlfriend very soon. Overall there was much laughter and applause. Rose told us later during math class that she was “blubbering” during the songs because it dawned on her that the ninth graders would soon be leaving and how much she would miss us all.

Soon after that the day was over and we all ran around doing our jobs and gabbing and singing about who knows what. Reed and Nate were back on the patio with their skateboards, Anna and Kiley were running around with their C.U.C. clipboards checking people off for doing their jobs and in the end I think it was a good day at Ye Ole North Branch School.

Wednesday:

On Wednesday, Tal once again brought up our summer homework assignments. He had previously sent out an email with links to various videos about the World Cup, which is going to be held in South Africa this year. Our assignment is to watch the World Cup games, at least one of them, if not all of them. The first match of the US national team, against England, is taking place the same day of the Epigenesis party. Tal so kindly stated that none of us were to show up the Epigenesis party until the match was over.

Rider talked about how after he had watched the previews for the World cup, he watched a preview for the Olympics. About how a guy had been running the two hundred meter dash, fell and broke his leg. His dad came down from the stands and helped him get across the finish line.

“ It really puts winning in perspective,” said rider. “Because he did win in a way, it is almost more of a win for the man who broke his leg, than for the man who really won the race.”

Anneke talked about the show at the MOMA she saw, by Marina Abramovic. The show was that Marina would sit in a red dress, at a table and wait for someone to sit down in front of her, they would just look at each other. Even though there were no words said, it was as though there was some kind of connection, some conversation going on between the two of them. A silent connection.

The Poem read was “To The Harbor Master,” By Frank O’Hara.

I wanted to be sure to reach you;

though my ship was on the way it got caught

in some moorings. I am always tying up

and then deciding to depart. In storms and

at sunset, with the metallic coils of the tide

around my fathomless arms, I am unable

to understand the forms of my vanity

or I am hard alee with my Polish rudder

in my hand and the sun sinking. To

you I offer my hull and the tattered cordage

of my will. The terrible channels where

the wind drives me against the brown lips

of the reeds are not all behind me. Yet

I trust the sanity of my vessel; and

if it sinks, it may well be in answer

to the reasoning of the eternal voices,

the waves which have kept me from reaching you.

In science class that day we were informed that we would be doing Yoga. We all went down to the basement, got out the purple yoga mats, and did some yoga. Sarah taught the first bit of the class. The boys where yelling in pain, saying how they couldn’t do it. How they where falling over. Then when Sarah’s mom Ginger arrived to teach the remainder of the class, all of the boys shut up, and it was practically silent until the end of the class.

Thursday:

On Thursday morning Isabel informed us that she had met with some of her future teachers. Tal was sad to find out that none of these future teachers spit, swore, drooled, or spilled water all over themselves.

We talked about how Kiley has already started researching for her project next year. About how some people see her as just the smart kid. It makes it hard to see past the smartness when that is all people really see. Once we get in the pattern of “Oh, Kiley, she is the smart one,” it is hard to make people see in a new way.

We talked about how when you are not doing very well at NBS, when you are drifting away from your friend, when you are out of the heart of what happens at NBS, you drift away from the Big Room table. It just happened that Rider was sitting in the far corner of the room when Tal said this.

“Rider!” Some of the class shouted.

“You know what,” Rider said as he picked up his chair and moved it right behind Hannah, who was sitting right up to the table. Tal and Rider then proceeded to have what seemed like a 10 second staring contest, in which neither of them won.

Tal told us how surprised he was to find that when he opened his computer he found a big-eyed fuzzy white kitten staring back at him. OBEY THE KITTY!! Miles had changed his computer background from a meaningful picture of the “Pieta” by Michelangelo to photo of a fuzzy kitten named Utopia.

Anneke talked about how lacrosse practice felt weird without her friend Eklutna there.

“ Even though we don’t see each other very much anymore it feels weird when she is not there with me,” said Anneke.

Off of Anneke’s comment, Tal went on to question her ability to play lacrosse. All he seemed to care about was whether or not Anneke was the best on her team, if she kicked people’s butts, and if she hit people with the lacrosse stick like Calder used to hit him. Jesse confirmed that she is really good and really tough.

Aylee read Part of Walt Whitman's song of myself. Unfortunately I was unable to obtain the section she read.

In the afternoon we talked about Yared thinking he was dumb. Thinking he is bad at everything. When really he is not. When you say you are dumb, or bad at something, it cuts out the possibility of growing, or making yourself get better at that thing. It makes you close-minded to the possibility of growing.

“When you say you are dumb it cripples you, you have already given up,” said Tal. “You want to look at the whole, but he honest about what you see,”

Tal then proceeded to prove to the class and Yared that he (Yared) was smart by reading the class Yared’s lit response. Tal Read Simon’s Story about not being able to write very well, not being able to put his all into his writing. Here are some of the responses.

“ You showed your thoughts through your scenes, it’s so direct, you taught me something through it,” said Bryn.

“ He can look at himself so clearly and there is nothing that conflicts his view,” said Rider.

Friday:

During meeting, Claire talked about how she was at a dinner with her mom for all of the Artists showing in her mom’s gallery. Somehow the topic of Marina Abramovic’s art was brought up. One of the artists was against Marina’s art, but Claire really made her see what the meaning behind the art really was. It is interesting, how sometimes people get so caught up on what the surface of something looks like, what their first impression is, that they are unable to see the truth behind things, unable to see what they really mean. Claire made the artist see beyond her initial impression to something that went deeper, and about how art that is not pretty or is “confrontational” is still art, because it makes you think. Claire sounded like a scholar and philosopher, which she is.

Hannah talked about how she was mad most of the day before, and broke down twice. At lunch when she was outside alone on the picnic tables,

“ Well, I had been mad at Lydia for no reason really, and then Yared came out and sat with me trying to make me feel better until class. And then later that night after I got home from soccer practice he called to see if I was feeling any better. I already was feeling better because soccer was fun, but it was really nice of him to call,” said Hannah.

After meeting we all went out to the labyrinth and weeded in silence for about 15 minutes. By the end, there were no weeds left in the sand, and the whole thing had been raked. After we were finished weeding it all, we walked it, also in silence. I, among many, had taken off my shoes to walk it. The sand was not warm yet because it was still early in the day, but it still felt nice between my toes. We all walked in a huge line, following the path that lay ahead of us. The path that took us so close to the center, and then so far out again, until finally we reached the maple tree at the center.

After we finished the labyrinth, we got divided up into groups to finish the various projects we had been trying to finish since the beginning of the year. Some people worked on the bread oven roof. Some worked on our newly created garden. And all of us ninth graders worked on the sun dial we are creating.

In the afternoon, Tal read Kiley’s story about her dream to become a great writer when she was little, and how that dream faded away, until she came to NBS, where it wa s harder, and where she learned how to put all of herself into her story.

“She had to find out that she had to move on from writing a 45 chapter story with 10s of words about mozart to being able to move on and learn the next step. She was in a little world, she had small knowledge and everything seemed easy. Then she came into the big world and everything was harder, said Evan.

Rio did his project on Intentional Communities. He studied the Ten Stones, Blue Moon Cooperative, Hippie Haven, Grigori, and Burlington Co-housing East Village. The main topic of the project was a small group of people that came together, to form a small place to live. A place where if you put something good in, you get something good out, and about how this is done by usually by using “consensus.” At the end of his project, he had us decide by consensus about where our brooms would be stored. We all had to agree to one place. We ended up arguing about it for around 20 minutes, and found we could not all come to consensus, so the brooms will stay where they are. Then he had us come to consensus on whether or not we could follow the covenant that Anneke wrote up from her Shaker project. We did come to consensus on that topic, agreeing that we would try to do it for the rest of the year.

(NBS 2009-10 Covenant to come.)

I had a lot of fun writing this, and taking notes for it all through the week. I hope you enjoyed reading it.