At 08:27 PM 1/24/02 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi All, Our 150 year old ash tree is going to be cut down on the school
>playground. . . . .
>Betsy
Betsy,
I am so glad you asked. Too many people simply accept losses like this
without thinking about it or shedding a tear. Whatever you do will help
your students become more aware, sensitive, and appreciative of nature and
the ways it enhances all our lives every day. It will let them know how
much you care about this tree because of how wonderful it has been for
them. To me it is the same thing to be tree hugger and a kid hugger. If
you show sadness while you discuss this in class, I think it would be just
fine.
I am sorry that this is a LONG message. So if you read nothing else, you
may want to skip to the end and read my last paragraph. It is a short
personal story.
I will try to make a list of ideas here. Others have also given some good
ideas. Maybe there will be other ideas you and your students can add to
the list when you discuss it with them.
1. First, I might not TELL this list or anything else to your students. I
would try to ASK. Start by asking the students make a list of the ways in
which artists might respond to the loss of something that has long been so
valuable to a whole community. In some classes this may make a good team
activity. While it is good for students to "do a project" about the loss,
it is even more important for them to learn how to plan the ideas for their
projects. As the teacher, one can try to guide this with questions, get it
started, and so on. To get my own thinking going, I might ask myself, "I
wonder what Maya Lin would ask the children if she were the teacher?"
Maybe ask for a list of ways in which this tree has been our friend and met
our needs. Maybe ask them to list particular things will they miss the
most when this tree is gone. These questions develop two important
abilities. They learn to reflect on memories and they learn to use
imaginations to predict the consequences of choices, actions, and events.
2. Ask the students, "If you were a famous photographer, how would you go
about making a photographic story about this tree?" Maybe your students
will want you to call the newspaper and invite their photojournalist to
come and record a human interest story. I might be wise to discuss this
with my administration in advance. Could the photojournalist visit your
class and explain how she thinks about her work while she shows some
examples. Perhaps you have a group of older students who could then check
out some photography books on nature photographers from the library and
bring them to class to show how photographers like Ansel Adams have helped
us all be more aware of our natural wonders.
3. Often we have three feet of snow at this time of year, but right now we
are having a mild winter where I live. My ice fishermen friends are
driving their wives crazy at home. So, can they pick up their coats, or
can you ask them to bring coats to class so you can go out to the tree with
your cardboard viewfinders to study all the parts of the tree. Tell them
you will be drawing the tree later, so you need to study it first to make
it easier to remember the details. Ask them to study the tree with the
viewfinders using questions like, "How much bigger is the trunk than the
thickest branch?" (describe size relationships), "Do any branches go
straight sideways?, straight up?, at what angle?" Can you hold your arms
like two of the biggest branches?" (angles of branches), "Where is the
biggest triangle you can find that is framed by branches?" shapes of
negative spaces between branches, the most unusual place they can find in
this tree. Have them compare these things when standing directly under the
tree looking up compared to being 100 feet away from the tree.
4. Last semester my student teacher took her students our with the
school's digital cameras. Their lesson was to find the visual elements,
photograph them, display the prints and have the other classes sort them
according to what they felt what visual elements were represented by each
print. In your situation where a well loved tree is being lost, the
students might simply want to find ways to photograph it being loved by
children. Could they figure out ways to act out ways in which this tree
has been important so that their peers could take turns photographing them
with the tree?
5. Would it work to collaborate with the classroom teacher or science
teacher to learn more about ash trees? Their geographical range, their
economic value, leaf shape, wood qualities, etc.
6. If this tree is 150 years old, can we make pictures based on some study
by also imagination that are focused on the "tree planting" event 150 years
ago when this tree was born. Can you follow this by talking about the work
of a famous artist that was painting beautiful landscape pictures 150 in
the year 1850. Maybe the tree is the only remaining tree of the original
forest that grew at this location in 1850. What a picture that could be
for the imaginations of the children to ponder!
7. Does you community have anybody who makes beautiful objects from wood
as a business or hobby? Often these people love to tell about various
varieties of wood and explain the beauty of the grain. Ask if the person
is willing to bring in sample of ash (it is often used for kitchen
cabinets) and a few other similar and contrasting woods to give the
students some insights into why she or he loves the various qualities of
the woods. One or two small finished products, cabinet doors, or something
can help the students appreciate the aesthetic and economic significance of
what trees have to give us after they die.
8. Many communities have wood carvers, wood sculptors, etc. who love to
show their work and their methods. So something like #6 above, of if the
sculptor is good, see if you students can convince the sculptor to take a
piece of the tree to make something for you class or for you your school.
Personally, I was not thinking of a chain saw eagle, but you will have to
decide how to approach this one. I would love to try this if a Barbara
Hepworth or Henry Moore lived in my town.
9. I have a friend who is an artistic and physical genius using a lathe.
He can use wood that the average woodworker might heat the house with. He
turns it into a bowl so exquisitely beautiful that you hate to put even an
apple in it. Ask around an see if somebody like that could come to class
and show the "before and after" of wood turning.
10. This idea is certainly one that the administration would have to agree
to, and it might not work for other reasons. I once had a man come to my
house with his portable band saw. He cut up a large log for me. Now I
have a supply of beautiful hardwood. He is hesitant to mill any trees that
might have nails in them because his blades are expensive to replace. I
recently learned about one of these folks who is equipped with metal
detectors so that he can be warned before ruining a blade. This might be
worth exploring, but do not be surprised if no one is willing to risk it.
This does not preclude using the chain saw chunks for sculpture or for wood
turning. I always have several chunks drying in my studio with paraffin
wax on the ends to control the checking a bit. How many children today are
aware of the workings of a sawmill and the economic and aesthetic merits of
wood products in our plasticland culture fake and pretense?
I hope these ideas have helped us take a moment to reflect on what we are
so busy doing that we may sometime forget to think about the possibilities.
I hope take a minute to add to this list.
MY BEST TREE STORY
My oldest brother and his wife, Justina, were recently in the Ukraine to
visit the village where Justina grew up. Her father was killed by Stalin's
secret police. Justina with her mother and siblings were able to flee as
war refugees when she was 12. Now now, on returning to the village, she
found an old tree in the town center that has died many years ago. The
villagers love the tree and have built a steel framework with steel cables
that continue to support the remaining branches in their original
positions. It is a moving site for me just to see Justina's photograph of
this tree - one of few remaining artifacts of her childhood.
