Note: This blog was written on March 21st, and has been sitting on the desk top because the author was just too busy “springing into action” on this and that. Sorry for the delay. It’s the thought that counts.
Today is the first day of Spring and as usual, I waddle down the driveway in my bathrobe to pick up our three newspapers (it must be Wednesday): the Argus-Courier, the Press Democrat, and the SF Chronicle … but something is different …. its bright and the sun is coming up. Something has changed. What is it?
Oh, my golly! It’s 7:00 a.m.! For the past several months I ‘ve been waking up between 3 and 4 a.m., logging on to the Internet for a couple of hours writing a blog, and then going back to bed around 6 or 7 a.m. for another couple of hours of sleep. Is this the result of the daylight savings time change, or the fact that I’m was still on the computer until 11 p.m. or midnight? (Computer addicts keep strange hours, you know.) Whatever the reason, no matter what time it is, it’s time to spring into action with a new blog for our newly created community and neighborhood-centered website - OPEN. (Our Petaluma Electronic Network)
This morning, I’m still reflecting on the citizen turnout and participation in the last couple of City Council meetings. The various causes and the passionate and sincere public comments have been most impressive, IMHO. One in particular, almost brought tears to my eyes. A teacher from McNear Elementary School spoke about how an old barn might be saved and used as a nature study center rather than moved or destroyed in order to permit the building of more homes. Her description of what sixth graders are experiencing - now, at the site, caused me to remember that it was “promoting the greater use of the out-of-doors as a learning laboratory, that brought me to California and San Francisco State University in 1960. My job was to direct a field campus in the Sierra Nevada during the summer months and to develop an outdoor education program for teachers during the academic year. I also recalled that the first, three student teachers we placed in a resident outdoor school for one week was right here in Sonoma County. That all happened almost 50 years ago. (My, how time flies when you’re havingh a good time.)
Hey! Wait a minute. None of this blah-blah-blogging is related to the title of today’s blog. Oops, sorry; I got carried away thinking about my days as an ECO Educator, when I was an activitist for utilizing local school grounds, city, parks, summer camp sites, and for that matter - any natural area, anywhere, as a laboratory for teaching K-12 students principles and concepts related to environmental, conservation, and outdoor education. Although we didn’t have blogging in the 1960s, my brother and I did put our thoughts and ideas about how to use the out-of-doors for learning in a book titled, Teaching in the Outdoors. After five editions and translations into both Japanese and Chinese, it is still being published.
Today, instread of writing books and essays, activits are finding out that blogging on the Internet can be most effective in spreading the word about their pet causes, thoughts and ideas. One of the reasons OPEN was established, was to provide an independent platform for community and neighborhood activists to express their viewpoints. It’s time for any citizen with a cause or a concern to spring into action and create an OPEN Weblog. What we “plant” in the Spring, we can “reap” in the Fall. Stay tuned.
