Spring Has Come to TMS!

The fruit trees and lupins are in bloom and the garlic plants are stretching themselves tall - spring has come to TMS! Students spent last Friday's work study weeding and planting in the garden and moving couches between Bliss House and the lounge.

On Monday students enjoyed a surprise "beach day" at Sunshine Beach at Lake Contoocook in Jaffrey.

Seniors have now completed their academic requirements for graduation. This weekend is the all-school camping trip with graduation right around the corner on May 30!

See more of Liz Stillwell's amazing photos on our facebook page.

Boston Globe Movie Critic Speaks at The Meeting School

On Saturday, May 1, Boston Globe film critic Ty Burr spoke at The Meeting School in Rindge about the future of movies and moviemaking.

In his presentation, Burr suggested that the most exciting things happening in the movie industry today are with short films, telling his audience that filmmakers can go places with metaphor and message in short films not possible in full length movies.

Also, with the readily available cameras, editing software, and You Tube distribution, it is possible for many more filmmakers to create and distribute their work today. He says that “between the feet of the dinosaurs of Hollywood there is a new way of making films taking place.”

While Burr is adamant that filmmakers don’t need a big budget to create meaningful films, he does believe that “every major movie will be in 3-D in ten years.”

Burr talked a little bit about the economics of television. He said that essentially, advertisers are the "buyers" of television content - they are the ones who pay to have it on air. The consumers of television - us (or those of us who have televisions) - are the ones being purchased. The movie or television show is the bait.

Ty Burr has been a film critic for The Boston Globe since July 2002. For ten years prior to that, he worked for Entertainment Weekly as the magazine's chief video critic, and also covered film, music, theater, books, and the internet. He began his career at Home Box Office in the 1980s, where he helped program the Cinemax pay-cable service.

He is also the brother of one of our faculty members, Emily Burr.

(Blog photo courtesy of student Liz Stillwell)

Be a Happy Dog

This posting comes from guest blogger and faculty member Cynthia Durgan, who houseparents and lives in Thomas House with her poodle Paisley (Paisley doesn't houseparent, though).

Paisley has always been a sensible dog, and a contented dog, but she has not always been a very sociable dog. She was about eight months old when I got her, and had been kenneled up to that time. She never feared people but, apart from the individuals with whom she bonded, she hardly paid attention to people either; she didn't expect any good from people generally.

But at The Meeting School, Paisley has gotten used to notice and pats from every person she sees. She finds kind words and friendship from everyone in this little world. Now when we go out into the greater world, walking downtown in Keene or stopping in an unfamiliar town while traveling, she expects kindness. She approaches everyone assuming that they ought to be nice to dogs, and that she ought to notice them and be nice to them. People are charmed, and they respond. People are a source of joy to her now. Here she is, an old dog, and this community has taught her a new trick, a new world view.

The Meeting School is a place where everyone can do for one another exactly what everyone has done for my dog, because the way we treat one another is education. The way we treat one another issues a message, a lesson, an example, a good one or a bad one, about who we are and what the world is, and how much we can trust it and ourselves. We educate one another constantly. It is in every word, in every moment of noticing and caring.

I want students to go out from this school with the expectation that they are worthy of regard and love, and willing to offer it. I want every student to leave here with the confidence of kindness. I want every one of them to go into the world and be a happy dog.

Stopping by Junior Writing on a Spring Morning

"If Romeo and Juliet had made appointments to meet, in the moonlight-swept orchard, in all the peril and sweetness of conspiracy, and then more often than not failed to meet - one or the other lagging, or afraid, or busy elsewhere - there world have been no romance, no passion, none of the drama for which we remember and celebrate them. Writing a poem is not so different - it is a kind of possible love affair between something like the heart (that courageous but also shy factory of emotion) and the learned skills of the conscious mind." - Mary Oliver, A Poetry Handbook

During Monday's Junior Writing Class, students considered the meaning, rhyme scheme, and diction of one of Robert Frost's well-knows poems and played with some meaty vocabulary words like concatenation and sybaritic. Thankfully, the poem's interior didn't match the our spring-like climate - students were able to enjoy class outside, taking advantage of the early warm weather and the sunshine.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know,
His house is in the village though.
He will not see me stopping here,
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer,
To stop without a farmhouse near,
Between the woods and frozen lake,
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake,
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep,
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

- Robert Frost

Save Your What?

Last Thursday the Radical Witness class (a Social Studies elective) visited Save your Ass Rescue (www.saveyourassrescue.org) in South Acworth, and The Sustainability Project (www.emersonbrookforest.org) in Gilsum. The purpose of the field trip was to give students the opportunity to see examples of positive change and direct aid that people might not typically think of as "radical witness," a term that many associate with mass social movements or direct action focused on an institution or unjust cause.

At Save Your Ass Rescue, students had the opportunity to meet with Anne Firestone, the founder of the organization. They experienced a sense of her deep commitment to saving asses - and the day-in, day-out effort it takes to work and fight their behalf. (When TMS Blogger asked students about what cause they would fight for, they replied "peace activism," and "fair trade."

The class then went to visit with The Sustainability Project and met with Valerie Piedmont. The project is part of Emerson Forest, which was created in order to provide a piece of land where people can go learn about sustainability, including wildlife conservation and permaculture.


Students came away from the field trip more aware of the many different acts people are engaged in daily, both as individuals and as communities, to make the world a better place.