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I was tremendously impressed and inspired by John Elder's essay "Teaching at the Edge" from the Winter 1997/98 issue of Orion Afield. I am a poet and writer from northern California currently...
...I have recently investigated the possibility of getting certified to teach in the California public schools, but have been turned off by the bureaucratic complexity and dehumanizing compartmental-ization of the entire process—I've found it alienating and limiting...
...It's so beautiful out here...
...Scott C. Sacco Senior Communications Director Hancock Timber Resource Group boston, massachusetts We welcome your thoughts and suggestions on Orion Afield...
...We still have the rope he sent to demonstrate how big the trees are in Teal Slough...
...Although the change in attitude was not immediate, they began to understand and became less resistant to weekly outdoor class time...
...This collaborative, mutual-gains approach that we and our partners have been taking on sensitive land issues may be a model for creating common ground in the debate over how America's forests should be managed...
...I found myself struggling to remain hopeful, grasping for some way to persuade the skeptical students that the campus was a legitimate text for our English class...
...We practice forestry with a long-term...
...We manage our forests' water, wildlife, and recreational resources as well as their timber...
...Sarah Rebick Northfield Mount Hermon School northfield, massachusetts I recently read your winter issue and was surprised to see our company prominently featured in Rex Ziak's article "A Stranger in My Own Home Town: The Fight to Save Teal Slough...
...We work with community groups, conservation organizations, and public officials on matters of mutual interest...
...One day, several weeks later, we returned to the woods at the edge of our manicured campus...
...John Elder's essay "Teaching at the Edge" helped me give them a glimpse of where I was coming from...
...Absolutely...
...Two drenched girls stopped to ask, "Can we stay out a little longer...
...Elder's essay brought me back to the true essence and mission of education and how these correspond with my own visions and values as an artist and educator...
...Thanks to Orion Afield, John Elder, and The Orion Society for all the wonderful work...
...We agree with Rex's assessment that Teal Slough is a special place...
...We strive to be responsible land stewards...
...But because we act as a fiduciary for our investors, we are legally required to manage their forest assets with only their financial interests in mind...
...Unfortunately, this prevents us from donating sensitive lands, or encumbering them without compensation...
...I read my students excerpts from the essay and they listened intently, latching onto ideas like "Successful education has the power to make the world strange again...
...Our Sensitive Lands Program is one such effort, through which we collaborate with a wide variety of groups, helping them lobby for public funds so they can buy sensitive lands, or easements, from us...
...Consequently, we have to be creative with our conservation activities— we have to bring a stewardship ethic to our business, and a business ethic to our stewardship...
...Not only does he eloquently capture an educational philosophy I share, he uses as an example the Watershed Partnership seminar in which I was a student...
...I smiled...
...As a cold rain pelted us, the group began to hurry back to the dry classroom...
...We aggressively support broad-based, regionally focused conservation efforts like salmon habitat restoration in the Northwest, sensitive wildlife management in the South, and protection of the Northern Forest as a multi-use, working forest in the Northeast...
...I was faced with a class of jaded ninth graders who were convinced that the world outside our classroom in the Connecticut River valley of northern Massachusetts had nothing to teach them...
...sustainable perspective...
...Having said that, however, I wanted to flesh out the corporate profile Rex offered by providing you with some additional information on the Hancock Timber Resource Group...
...Thank you for stories that help those of us in the trenches maintain hope for the future...
...Mari L'Esperance brooklyn, new york The Winter issue of Orion Afield arrived just in time...
...We also recognize the valuable contribution he made to ensuring its protection by educating and informing us, and others, as to its environmental significance...
...In particular, I wanted you to know that there is a lot more depth and substance to our stewardship ethic than one might think after having read Rex's piece...
...I am a poet and writer from northern California currently working for a nonprofit literary service organization in New York City...
...Letters should be directed to Orion Afield, 1Q5 Main Street, Great Barrington, MA 01230 or sent via e-mail to orion@orionsociety.org...
Vol. 2 • June 1998 • No. 3
