One of the things Seattle's teachers won in their 2015 strike was a commitment from the school district that elementary school students would receive a minimum of 30 minutes of recess per day. In fairness, some schools were already providing more than that, but there were several, apparently, that were limiting their youngest students to a meager 15 minutes. It's actually disheartening to this play-based educator to learn that a half hour is considered a victory. The ostensible reason for such pathetically restricted recess is that longer recesses cut into that all-important "classroom time," but I also heard that some administrators favor limited or non-existant recesses because when children freely play they are more likely to wind up in conflicts. Let me...
“He had an uneventful childhood. He played baseball with the other kids on the block, became fascinated with the antics of what later became his heroes – The Three Stooges, read Spiderman comic books, thought Jerry Lewis was hilarious and the Little Rascals even more so. What influenced Raimi to become the ‘horror meister’ of slash and gore films is not found in his past.” —Dead Auteur: How a 20-year-old ex-college student carved out his horror niche in Hollywood by Sue Uram, Cinefantastique, August 1992 Immediately following Raimi’s very serious director period, his career changed drastically again. After so many stabs at the mainstream, he finally made the leap to genuine blockbuster filmmaking, bringing one of the most famous...
Fertile Ground, greater Portland’s 13th annual festival of new works, opens its 10-day run on Thursday of 37 new projects, some of them showcases of several short works. For the second straight year the festival is virtual because of Covid precautions, although a few projects also have scheduled live performances. Fertile Ground offers a kind of smorgasbord of the creative process, ranging from staged readings of plays to workshop productions to full-blown premieres. It also adds the challenge of virtual delivery, via video or audio feed or Zoom: Some shows in the Jan. 27-Feb. 6 festival are streamed live or even interactively, others are prerecorded. And it covers the performance waterfront, from traditional comedies and dramas to dance, musical theater,...
25 Valentine’s Day Date Ideas For Parents Valentine’s Day — it’s when love is truly in the air and dates can be had a plenty, but not for parents right? Wrong! There’s no reason that parents can’t celebrate Valentine’s Day with a bit of fun and romance, providing you have the right idea for your potential date. Here are a few to get you started, regardless of whether you get a sitter, spend it with your kids, or do it at home when the kiddies are in bed! When you have a sitter… You’ve planned ahead, secured a baby sitter, or roped a willing family member into the role, and you have either a whole night or part of the...
While many people in Panama were at home, passing time during the pandemic, five kids were out shooting a clay ball at trees with a slingshot. They wanted to give themselves a challenge, so they were targeting slender cecropia trees in particular. One of the kids was aiming for its broad, flat leaves, but hit the stem instead, leaving a clean, gaping hole, from one side to the other. William Wcislo, an entomologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and father of two of the kids, had been tending to this tree, and was worried that it had suffered irreparable damage. But when he returned later, he was in for a surprise. The holes had been patched up. Closer inspection...
