I've been thinking a lot about our last class--how we tried to grapple with educational policy, realizing how difficult it is, and how frustrating it can be.  We all seem to be emotionally invested into the cause.  As students at a liberal arts college, we undoubtedly value education and what it can provide.

What I want to respond to now is the last comments made before we moved on to the next class.  It expressed the frustration of "not having enough time" to execute all the goals we set out for ourselves when trying to be good teachers and educational policy makes.  I make mention of this point because I think "the time crunch" that all educators feel is one of underlying problems, and one that we all had a hard time trying to grapple with as well.  

Perhaps then, the problem isn't necessarily that we don't "have or possess" enough time to get everything we want done in the day, but that we think that must accomplish everything by a certain date, or else we're doomed to failure.  A kid who does not pass meet the requirements of a third grader by the end of his school year must repeat the year all over again.  If the teacher does not prepare her students by this date, then they will fail the state exam.  In other words, maybe we're a little too concerned about the deadline than the inquiry of the kids themselves.

You'll notice this post is quite late. And I didn't forget. Maybe I did procrastinate a bit, but then when I sat down to write the post, I just couldn't do it. I was already somewhat overwhelmed by the small amount of the texts I had read, and feeling anxious about what I would write. I began scrolling through other posts, hoping to find something to which I could respond, but I found myself growing even more overwhelmed. The posts were great, and very insightful, but the sheer bredth of topics sent my mind and my thoughts in several different directions and I couldn't really follow any of them.

The three terms that I chose to explore in more depth were: Garden, Permaculture, and Anthropocentric.

1. Garden

From Merriam Webster’s Dictionary Online: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/garden

1. Noun

a : a plot of ground where herbs, fruits, flowers, or vegetables are cultivated

b : a rich well-cultivated region

c : a container (as a window box) planted with usually a variety of small plants

2a : a public recreation area or park usually ornamented with plants and trees <a botanical garden>

b : an open-air eating or drinking place

c : a large hall for public entertainment

Verb: to lay out or work in a garden

transitive verb: to make into a garden

2: to ornament with gardens

Adjective: of, relating to, used in, or frequenting a garden

2a : of a kind grown in the open as distinguished from one more delicate <garden plant>

b : commonly found : garden-variety

Origin of the word:

Middle English gardin, from Anglo-French gardin, jardin, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German gart enclosure — more at yard

First Known Use: 13th century

When I visited Bryn Mawr for the first time and for the second time I was given a campus map so that I could find my way around. And at some point in the seemingly constant stream of mail from Bryn Mawr over the summer I got another map. At that time the pictorial map of the campus was one of the most accurate image representations of Bryn Mawr that I had come across. And for the first few days on campus that continued to be the truth. Now that I have been here for a few weeks, and now that I have been prompted to think about it more deeply, I have come to realize that this map can only represent one layer of Bryn Mawr (as any map can only represent one layer of what it is depicting).
The place that I am going to visit each week is the space behind the English house (the backyard of the English house?). There were some shiny leaves there the last time I went and I liked them very much. This spot is connected to the pictorial campus map because it is on the map, but it isn't labeled.

I saw the word "community" a few times in a few posts like those of Nan and Rachel, I just wanted to share this song (music and meaning of lyrics) as I feel it may add to our discussion and musings on that term.

Originally from a small island neighboring Madagascar known as Reunion, Davy Sicard sings of “Maloya Kabose” – “a gentle reminiscence of generosity and hospitality given, Sicard paints an intimate picture of the bonds which hold a community together and the culture that sustains each member.”

Lyrical Translation (French into English): “You saw light that you came closer to see, you saw that it was open and you came in, we didn’t try to find out your history, or to know who you were, we simply told you that it wasn’t that important but to come and eat a little something”

“Kabar for a talk about life as a tribute to celebrate. A Kabar where things end up, meet. A Kabar as an invitation, a message of peace submitted to the chances of paths of life for anyone who wants it, while others choose a bottle to lock up their distress or their wishes and leave their few words wander in a sea of hope until they find a sensitive and generous soul. A Kabar for last words, the very ones who do not always come at the crucial moment as they collapse under the weight of the sentence, but that sometimes arise later, without warning. A Kabar Between you and me.” (From Davy Sicards Official Site)

The Bryn Mawr College campus is a beautiful, complexly interesting place that few maps can capture every aspect of. This map I have selected is no exception. The map I have selected is located front and center of the campus center, and its border reads, "Here lies the Bryn Mawr campus, all its wonders great and small twill fold to fit your pocket or unfold to fit your wall." Well.... yes and no. This map does depict many wonders of the campus, but not all of them. Firstly, let me start off with saying this is an AMAZING map. It is beautiful, and every aspect of it is symbolic. The colors that are used to draw the map are exclusively blue, light blue, red, and green. A coincidence? I think not. This map places huge emphasis on the traditions, the people, and the buildings that make up Bryn Mawr. It gives a fun, quirky representation of Bryn Mawr that it is more than accurate in describing the amazing community and the people who make it up. However one glaring aspect that is not done justice in this representation is the fact that the equally beautiful enviornment in which the campus is set in is muted. The green of the landscape is represented, but it is flat, not only in color, but in dimension. The undulating lascape (most notably the valley separating the Pensby Center and Brecon from the rest of campus) is absent, and the many different types of trees and flowers are nowhere to be found. Not only the is the plant life underrepresented, the animal life is completely ignored.