Weeks 20 & 21 2024-2025 in Review
Week 20 together was an odd one, book-ended with two in-person days and two snow days sandwiched in between. This had us all feeling a sense of "Snow Day Time Warp"! We made the most of the cold and snowy days at home by drawing and playing together virtually, as well as discussing the next installment of The Sapling Cage and trying to beat the computer in another many rounds of the game Pig. When we were able to be together in person, we trekked through the snow among the trees into the forest, and visited the frozen pond. Thursday we enjoyed welcoming our visitors from KC Farm School - most young people there shared at closing circle that hosting our guests was their highlight of the day! They joined us for offerings and accompanied us into the woods - even took a run or two downhill on sleds. They had many questions for us all, and the young people here shared eagerly about our ways of doing and being.
This past week, we were greeted with spring-like temps and abundant sunshine. We were all grateful to feel the expansiveness that being able to roam and enjoy the outdoor space here grants us. The land showed us all the ways it's waking up, and invited us to join in shaping it for the season to come. Discussions about a dye garden, more medicinal herbs, and growing abundant food both for humans and pollinators are all buzzing through the community. We added gardening to our land care tasks in the morning, and a large group of folks gathered to pull weeds in the beds that will get early spring plantings - potatoes, radishes, peas, turnips, beets, kale, and cabbage will all go into the ground soon. We researched how to care for native fauna by leaving native plant material in and on the ground so that overwintering insects continue to stay snug and warm.
Futures, Philosophy, and Civics met again and discussed many possible alternate endings for The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. LeGuin, and our discussion branched into several different new arenas beyond the essay itself, as it has each week. Emily hosted a Current Events/Music That Moves Us… crossover, during which we watched Kendrick Lamar's Superbowl halftime show and discussed layers of artistry and symbolism. The folks reading The Sapling Cage met again, and were eager to discuss all the ways this exciting story is hurtling forward, and all the ways the characters are exploring questions of identity, power, and relationship. R brought another installment of his drawing offering where folks experimented with drawing a still life to demonstrate use of guidelines, using a globe as a model.
We met for TCC Awesome Math to explore a somewhat existential question…"What IS math, anyway?" inspired by C's curiosity about what types of math exist about which he might learn. How would you answer this question? This got us talking a bit, as did wondering aloud about what mathematicians and others who use a great deal of math in their daily lives must…do. We also touched on the differences between "real" mathematics and the math taught in conventional schools - a topic explored artfully in Paul Lockhart's A Mathematician's Lament. We watched a short video that offered an overview of the broad map of mathematics, and it felt like many of us left with more questions than answers. Others left feeling inspired and curious about directions they'd like to take their learning from here. Emily hosted another round of Music That Moves Us… to the tune of "Pork and Beans" by Weezer, exploring concepts of commercialization and self- expression.
R met with the group interested in continuing learning about history, and strategized what timelines they'd like to explore together next (dinosaurs, and the Renaissance, naturally). The group closed the week over at the New Space, joyfully moving through A's and E's Singing and Dancing offering.
In addition to these offerings, a large group traveled to the New Space to do more cleaning and clearing and preparing of the space for our group. The shadow schedule included spontaneous music-making and songwriting and working with hammers and nails and wood and being with the pond as its ice cover transformed from a solid back to a liquid. We also revisited our planning conversations about bringing both a TCC mascot "stuffie" and TCC t-shirts to fruition, and those designs are being taken through ideation and consensus now.
How might we create something that represents and reflects who we are and what we do?
"We're doing so many things!" one young person here exclaimed at the end of the week.
Indeed we are.
With gratitude and care,
Emily, Sarah, and Zoey