Underground

Wednesday night we headed out to a state park to watch the sunset. This photo was taken at about 10:30 pm.

The next morning we went way underground at Quincy Mine.
This photo was taken about 365 feet below the surface; the mine goes down another 9,000 feet.

Once they passed the era of three-man teams, two men holding a spike in place and the other bashing it with a twelve-pound sledgehammer in near darkness, these were the tools they used to get the copper out of the peninsula.

Miners get tired.

They had to cut this steel drum into thirty-two pieces to get it into the wheelhouse in 1918.
It's the axle for a four-mile-long pulley, pulling men, equipment, waste, and ore out of the ground.

The day was about to get colder.

Lake Superior

We kept warm on a beach between Munising and Marquette, on Lake Superior's southern shore.

Yes, it's ice. These floes are comprised of thousands of rod-shaped icicles welded together by water.

We must conquer them.

Or not.

Jayonne was pleased with her decision not to go into that water.

This little accidental beach by the side of US-41 was our favorite hour of the trip, up to that point.

Lake Michigan

We settled into the house just west of Saint Ignace. Mike built a beautiful fire.

Some of us started testing the water immediately.

The next morning, we all got out on the lake in kayaks.

The Bridge is an impressive backdrop. We rowed toward the morning sunshine and held collection in a little cove.

Jonathan plans to row in the fall for Pioneer High.

We rolled up our sleeping bags and headed west and north, toward Lake Superior.

Lake Huron

On the first day of the Spring Trip, we were a little bit crazy even before we left.

We walked a mile or two in Bird Hills Park to burn off a little energy.
We ran into Mr. Gil Leaf, former Head of Summers-Knoll, and chatted with him for a few minutes.

On Saginaw Bay, we went out on the schooner Appledore IV.
To raise the sail, you must respond together to the command 'Haul Away!'

Haul Away!

We also got lessons in navigation, history, survival, limnology, and knots.
Then we got back in the bus and back onto I-75. A couple of hours later, we crossed the Mackinac Bridge.
That was it for Lake Huron, for the time being.

Detroit Lives On

Strangely, even though we completed our Detroit Projects with the last Exhibitions on April 14, Detroit continues to exist. Who knew? So we had to get back there to see what's happening.

On May 9, we jumped on the eastbound SK bus for our now-accustomed mobile lunch, downing sandwiches, apples, and those weird sticks of yogurt en route to Earthworks Urban Farm over by the St. Bonaventure Monastery. As we learned at Scattergood Friends School back in 2012, when you pitch in short-term on a farm, you're probably going to see a lot of weeds. Under the direction of Denis Rochac, Earthworks' education man, we took care of a strawberry patch, a raspberry patch, and a tangled berm protecting fields of a unique hybrid called Motown Garlic. We asked about a house we saw on Meldrum with giant numbers painted on the side. He smiled. 'That's our friend Tyree.'

A week later, on a day off, we headed back into the city for a three-stop tour. First, we went to the Heidelberg Project. What a difference to see the installation in bright and warm sunshine after our first view in sub-zero whites and greys. The neighborhood was filled with action, lots of tourists, another school group, and Tyree Guyton himself, the Project's creator, presiding over work, tours, and conversation.

We thought we would be cleaning up a playground, but Margaret Grace, Heidelberg's education woman and our good friend, had other ideas. Margaret had gathered together discarded tires from a vacant lot on Mt. Elliot Street and set us to work weeding, seeding, hauling, planting, and painting. All this was situated near one of Tyree's newer installations, Taxi House.

That mission completed, we accepted a lovely blessing from Tyree and headed over to Cass Tech for the Detroit City FC match against Michigan Stars. En route, we stopped by the Boggs Center and read a little about that groundbreaking collection of civil rights activists (founders, incidentally, of both Earthworks Farm and Avalon Breads).

The stadium at Cass was packed; City's largest crowd ever (until the following week). We were greeted by Donovan Powell, City FC's general manager, and spent the half-hour before the game scarfing high-end macaroni & cheese and Korean beef burritos. The game was great. the crowd was rowdy. Stars' captain had been a City FC player till the week before, and the supporters gave him a hard time. After the match, we got loads of autographs and chatted with City FC's midfielder Kevin Taylor, who is also Pioneer's coach, and who we hope will conduct a soccer clinic for SK kids in the fall.

Here's a link to the club's match report:
http://www.detcityfc.com/news/detroit-city-fc-thrashes-the-michigan-stars/

A week after that, on May 23, we were delighted to welcome a delegation from the Friends School in Detroit to our Mythology Projects and seventh grade Exhibitions. Ten seventh graders and the eighth grade advisor, our friend Bryan Baker, joined us for a tour of the school, a dash around the playground, and an hour-long afternoon session exploring the essential stories of China, Ghana, Mesoamerica, Britain, Brazil, and Australia.

It's impossible to say for certain that our connections in the city are here to stay, but the evidence of May 2014 is awfully promising.

High School 101

High School 101 is wrapping up with bang; no whimpering allowed.

Last week we were joined by Craig Levin, SK parent and longtime math teacher and Forum leader at Community High. Craig took questions and offered plenty of advice from years of ushering ninth graders into the world of high school living. Above all he enjoined the kids to deal with the new social setting by remaining true to their own natures rather than trying to identify what it takes to fit in.

This week we will have four guests from three institutions.

On Monday, Fan Wu will be here to talk about Pioneer High, where she continues to teach Mandarin. Fan also teaches at Huron High; the contrast should be illuminating. On Wednesday, two representatives from the Neutral Zone will be here to talk about programs for high school students: Mary Thiefels, the visual arts coordinator, and Jamall Bufford, the music coordinator. Last, George Albercook and his son Zander will be in on Thursday at lunch to talk about Washtenaw International High School, aka WiHi.

The following week we're on our spring trip; our last HS 101 session will engage practicalities, including map-reading and combination locks.

Spring Trip Packing List

Saul has made a packing list for our spring trip, to which I’ve added a few annotations here and there. The funny stuff is all his, though. Thanks, Saul.

Average May temperatures in Houghton: high 61, low 39. It’ll be colder on the lake. Bring layers. We will have access to automatic dryers every night of the trip.

Two nights of the trip--the first and last--we’ll stay at a private home in St. Ignace. You’ll sleep outside or on a couch. The other two nights we’re in dorm rooms at Michigan Tech (the college students won’t be there). Our chaperones are Karl Sikkenga and Jayonne Wynne.

Don't pack too much. 

There will be fourteen of us on the bus. Your stuff should fit into one big duffel bag which can be crammed under your seat.

Stuff that everyone needs.

• Three or four sets of clothes (outfits)
• A swimsuit
• A towel
• Hiking boots (these don’t need to be hard-core)
• Shoes that you don’t mind getting wet
• A hat
• Two warm blankets or a sleeping bag (for when we’re sleeping at Karl’s parents’ house; we won’t need our own bedding at Michigan Tech)
• Some sort of warm outer layer (a sweater, for example)
• A bag lunch for the bus ride to St. Ignace
• At least two pairs of extra socks
• A reusable water bottle

Stuff that’s optional.

• A flashlight
• A small backpack
• A camera or a phone with a camera
• Money for souvenirs or raiding vending machines (you’ll have to keep track of it yourself)
• A pillow (again, for the nights at Karl’s parents’ house)

Stuff that you might need if you’re sleeping in a tent in St. Ignace.

• Something soft to sleep on (if you’re bringing a tent, you should know what that requires)

Stuff that there’s no point in bringing.

• Fishing gear (there will be no time for fishing, and fishing gear is a pain to fit in the bus)
• Electronics that can’t be used on the bus ride (that’s the only time that electronics are allowed, except for cameras and phones used as cameras)
• Way too much money (people will only borrow it from you; Jayonne & Karl won’t look after it)