Even the dogs like going to school here

This evening I had another of my strategic planning meetings at Peninsula School (the "Grateful Dead concert for toddlers" where my children go to school).

One of the interesting things about going to these is that they've revealed a secret side of the school that I never knew about: the various nocturnal goings-on that, when you're there in the mornings and afternoons with your children (and you're focused on making sure they get their lunchboxes, backpacks, etc., and you're calculating how much time you can spend saying goodbye or watching them swing on the rope swing before you have to leave to get to your first meeting of the day), you have no clue about.

I knew from John Markoff's What the Dormouse Said that the Homebrew Computer Club met there for a while. Homebrew probably had company. One night a few months ago there was a meditation class, with at least a couple people where Buddhist monks' robes. This evening there was a dog obedience class in the auditorium next to the room where we were plotting, I mean planning, the school's future.

Fifteen years ago, Dorothy Fadiman produced a documentary about Peninsula (and several other progressive schools) called Why Do These Kids Love School? I was reminded of it as I was leaving the Big Building tonight, for at the bottom of the steps, there was a woman with dog. The dog was pulling at its leash, trying to lead the woman up the stairs. She was pulling in the opposite direction, saying, "No, it's not time to go back to class, it's time to go home."

I have to regularly say such things to my children when I'm picking them up.

How many schools do kids not want to leave?

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Comments

[Demosthenes]

That school sounds great, I love the pictures. The school looks warm and inviting!