Monday, June 22, 2009

The Times They Are A-Changin’

After seven years of elementary school at PS 3 in New York City, my daughter Sophia graduated from 5th grade on Friday. It was quite a celebration. The auditorium was packed with parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, friends, teachers and students. The proud graduates were well-dressed and well-behaved (a rare sight) and like little angels they sang John Lennon’s Imagine with so much heartfelt emotion that there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. There was a lot of hugging—teachers hugging each student as they received their diplomas, parents hugging children and each other, the principal and vice-principal hugging everyone. PS 3 is an affectionate school. And, there was cake.

PS 3 was started in the early 1970’s by parents as an alternative progressive public school. Even before Hair came back to Broadway and tie dye was trendy again, PS 3 was known as the Hippie School, a place where kids called their teachers and principal by their first names and where desks were few and far between.

I have good memories of this school and this community. I remember when I took a tour of the school way back when Sophia was three and we were looking at Pre-K programs. I visited a Kindergarten/First Grade classroom where organized chaos flourished. I knew the minute I saw a poster of Bob Dylan and three child sized guitars hung on the wall that PS 3 would be the right school for me. Luckily, it turned out to be the best school for Sophia, too.

We sang protest songs in the auditorium when the US invaded Iraq in 2003, gathered together to march for peace, and raised money to start a school in Afghanistan. We critiqued George Bush’s policies and after campaigning tirelessly, we watched and celebrated Obama’s inauguration all together in the auditorium. Most recently, we joined together to protest the ineffective and shortsighted policies of New York City Mayor Bloomberg and School Chancellor Klein. It’s been great.

But the times they are a-changin’. PS 3 is more conservative now than it was in the 70’s or even than it was back in 2003. The recent boom years of financial speculation are over and lay offs and scaling back are now the norm. Obama is in the White House but our economy and the world is still in turmoil. Despite everything, I am not sad or disheartened. John Mayer might still be waiting on the world to change, but a new crop of young hippies is moving onto middle school and they already know how to make a difference.

Tami

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