It’s dangerous to underestimate the societal value of quality public education. And yet we routinely overlook the economic problems with our school system, perhaps because they aren’t seen as urgent or media-friendly enough for the 24-hour news cycle. Luckily, The Teacher Salary Project is helping shed light on the people and stories behind under-funded public schools.
Inspired by Teachers Have it Easy, a 2005 non-fiction bestseller written by Dave Eggers, 826 National co-founder Nínive Calegari, and Daniel Moulthrop, The Teacher Salary Project is a feature-length documentary currently in production, helmed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Vanessa Roth. They already have a wealth of material to work with thanks to Eggers and his cohorts, but the project is now seeking visual submissions from teachers across the country. If you or someone you know teaches and has something to say about it, send in a video diary, song, dance, collage or chalk drawing to The Teacher Salary Project and get your voices heard!
Nursery school, for most, is a grab bag of murky memories. Peanut butter and jelly on Ritz crackers, finger paint, the odd brawl over who got to drive the toy firetruck– these are the recollections we maintain from our earliest years as members of social society.
The kids at Beginnings might have a different set of memories when they grow up. A nursery school program that began in the fall of 1983 in an East Village apartment, Beginnings is known for its progressive educational philosophy and– best of all– its dedication to the principles of green living.
How does this manifest? Take The Materials Center, for one. Located in the attic of the nursery school, the Center is packed with recycled and found objects that kids can use for problem-solving, play and art projects. Some of the options include seed pods, pinecones, abandoned birds’ nests, keyboards, cardboard tubes, cellophane, lamp shades, clock parts, sponge foam, wood chips, spice jars, spools and egg cartons.
“From the perspective of young children, with their strong inclination towards symbolic play and their tendency to transform objects based on their own interests and imagination,” the school explains, “these materials are ripe with possibility.”
If the name “Lowly Worm” means anything to you, you’ll leap at the mention of children’s book illustrator Richard Scarry. A Boston-born artist who moved to Switzerland in his middle age, Scarry spent eight hours a day at his desk cranking out classics like Richard Scarry’s Please & Thank You and Richard Scarry’s Find Your ABC’s, both of which were canny combinations of storytelling and lesson-learning. If you’re a young adult of a certain age, it is possible that Scarry is responsible for the greater part of your vocabulary.
“It’s a precious thing to be communicating to children, helping them discover the gift of language and thought,” Scarry said of his work. “I’m happy to be doing it.”
Very happy indeed, if his more than 300 published books are any indication. Like all the best children’s book illustrators, Richard Scarry was particularly adept at stuffing his drawings with tantalizing details that stuck in the minds of young kids. His pièce de résistance was 1963’s Best Word Book Ever, which included illustrations of more than 1,400 objects.
Herewith, an Introduction to the Busy World of Richard Scarry:
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