The Adams School
P.O. Box 29
27 School Street
Castine, Maine 04421
326-8608
www.adamsschool.com
Monsieur du Jardin of St. Castin, France visits Castine!
"J'habite à St. Castin," he says, "Mais j'aime Castine." He's scheduled to return to France
before the start of the school year. More photos of his visit.
The last newsletter of the year!
Moving to September
We are
packing. Each of us has a box with our names on it. Perhaps it is the
box of 2nd,
4th, 6th or 8th grade. Into that we
place the
carefully wrapped, sealed boxes of language arts and science and social
studies. Don’t forget the box of P.E. and art and band and music and
sports!
The box of recess, lunch, and homework club too. The box of meetings
and
conferences; conviviality, joy, consternation, frustration, and even
heartache—but mostly triumph and fulfillment. In June, the schoolhouse
begins
to fill with these real and imagined boxes that come in all sizes. They
are the
vessels for all we have experienced, learned, made, sung, acted,
danced, run
and cherished between September and June, and they begin to pile up in
anticipation of the Move to a new year.
There are
book boxes and china boxes and wardrobes—small boxes for a few heavy
items, and
bubble-wrap and tissue paper for the breakables; wardrobes for all
those
costumes that are put to use every day, plus the extra-special costume
day we
call Halloween. Sometimes they are disguises, sometimes just character
or scene
changes. Everything we need for the next place is being prepared for
loading.
We are
only moving around the corner to a new neighborhood: September 2008,
and a new
school year. It’s not far, but nonetheless all of these boxes must be
carried
home, or loaded onto the school bus. Some go into storage, and some
just get
immediately reopened in a new location—at your house, at the yacht
club, art
camp, golf club, sleepover camp, grandma’s house, tree houses, boats
and
minivans. Perhaps new things will be added in July and August? Good!
There’s
always room for the box to expand. Just
be sure to bring ‘em back to school on September 2nd, when
it will
be time to unpack and move our belongings into School Year 08-09. New
room?
Same room? New teacher? Same teacher? It’ll be different for each of
us. But
there are always new costumes…and always new boxes to fill. The new
kids in
this neighborhood might look familiar—even the same names as the old
school!—but I guarantee they’ll be different. We’re all going to be new
kids by
September—it’s just one of the laws of summer.
If this
move is like all the prior ones we’ve experienced, September will mix
new
discoveries of old things, reunions with favorite toys, and perhaps a
few
insurance claims for broken glassware that the movers packed
inconsiderately or
that fell off the truck. The unpacking script might go like this: Now where are those math skills I put in an
easy-to-find place? I know I put the comma rules in here somewhere…I
just hope
the box isn’t under the box spring mattress! The French vocabulary was
in a big
box with “Français” across the top in big letters. Ou est-il?
Uh-oh: the
science box is leaking. I wonder what I packed in there? Perhaps it
should have
been double-sealed? And the papiér maché mask and puppets
I worked so hard on
in art class? Crumbled. No worries; time to make new ones…I’d choose
different
colors this time anyway. It’s the making of it that’s the most precious
cargo.
Our
belongings are ourselves. We are what we pack and unpack. For a while
in June
it feels as if we are living in two houses or in two years at once;
departing and
arriving at the same time; to and from the same destination. Packing up
the
present school house is inextricably bound to our expectation of
unpacking in
the new one, next year’s, particularly since so much of what we have
packed was
chosen with the new one in mind. We may even find that some of the
things we
most cherished have lost their value over the summer, during the move,
and
we’re ready for entirely new, unanticipated treasures. It’s one of the
benefits
of moving, of changing, of growing: finding that we can be new and old in knowledge at the same time.
We're
packing the house of friendship too—which is much harder to box up. It
goes on
the truck last. It wants to stay unpacked until the last minute, but
even this
most sacred belonging needs a little time away from school to
rejuvenate and
grow. The new kids in this neighborhood might look familiar—even the
same names
as the old school!—but I guarantee they’ll be different. We’re all
going to be
new kids by September—it’s just one of the laws of summer.
You know the forwarding address. See
you at the new place.
À bientôt.
—Todd
Thanks for
a wonderful school year!
Have a good summer vacation!
See you on
September 2.
One more
time….
Free Sailing Week:
June 23-27 at the Castine Yacht Club.
Must be 8 years old or completed the 2nd grade.
No age limit for Adults. Please
register by June 20th at the Castine
Town Office. Contact the Town Office at
326-4502 or Debi McLaughlin, Castine Recreation Committee, at 326-8787
for more
information.
Sailing Scholarship Program:
Sponsored by the Castine Yacht Club & Recreation Committee. Must be 8 years of age or completed the 2nd
grade. Please submit application with a
letter of interest (sailing interest, what you wish to gain from the
experience
& list your sailing experience).
Deadline is June 20th. Applications
are available at the Town Office.
Scholarships are not financial need-based.
Lost and Found: Hurry!
NICHOLS DAY CAMP OPEN
HOUSE
Nichols Day Camp welcomes
families with children that have special needs.
Does your child like to be
outside, go swimming or do arts and crafts? Come explore the
opportunities that
Nichols Day Camp has to offer.
If your child is between the
ages of 4 ½ and 13, we’d like to invite you to take a tour of
our camp grounds,
talk with our staff, trustees, and executive director. Come sample some
of the
activities that Nichols Day Camp has to offer on Saturday June 28
from
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Tuesday,
July 15th---