Pamela’s Note: Natalie and I are so lucky to have a delightful student this year, who we tutor in math (Natalie) and humanities (Pamela). Malena is being home schooled during eighth grade, so that she can delve into the pleasure of learning this year (without the stress of peer pressure). We eagerly look forward to our time with Malena each week. Last Friday, Natalie, Malena and I sat around the kitchen table and took turns reading aloud from Joy Hakim’s marvelous history book series: A History of US: From Colonies to Country, 1735-1791 Natalie read the last chapter and we all applauded after she reached the end. I said, “Let’s figure out…
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Are You Doing Too Much Homework?
“Race to Nowhere” is a powerful documentary that has brought to light the negative and frightening consequences of high-pressure schools, where numerous hours of homework, stringent (and not necessarily illuminating) AP courses, and high GPAs are the ultimate goal. The film continues to be screened around the country stirring up conversation and awareness among students, parents, teachers, and some administrators who are beginning to realize the high cost of too much pressure on both physical and mental health. The film is emboldening individuals and communities to advocate for change. An announcement I received for upcoming screenings includes the story of Elle DelGrosso. Elle was a junior in high school…
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Our Kitchen Leads to Oatmeal Cookies!
Our kitchen is yellow and orange, warm like the sunlight that streams through the windows at five o’clock on a Saturday afternoon and hits the side of my face as I sit at the table, puzzling over a quadratic equation or flourishing a green highlighter over Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. My dad sits at the table, reading BBC History Magazine, a Beethoven piano concerto or a Brahms serenade playing in the background. He taps a finger against the page in time to the music, every so often looking up to share with my mom and me an interesting fact he has just read. My…
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Mysterious Gifts
I’ve been thinking about “gifts” lately, and the different kinds of gifts we can give one another. There are of course the tangible gifts we give each other on birthdays and other holidays. It can be fun to select a present for someone special in our lives. But, I’ve also been thinking about intangible gifts that can mean so much, like these gifts I receive often from two of my favorite companions, William and Natalie: Patience (even when I am sharing a worry for the 20th time) and Time (even when they are busy) and Stories (I love hearing their stories!) This post is about some awe-inspiring gifts and our friend…
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Sherlock Holmes Meets the Amazing Mary Russell
I met mystery author Laurie R. King during the production of Mysterious California, my parents’ 2008 documentary. Now, five years later, I have discovered Ms. King’s wonderful Mary Russell series. The Beekeeper’s Apprentice begins the series with 15-year-old Mary Russell meeting the retired Sherlock Holmes in 1915. The two immediately become a team. Mary Russell is inquisitive, clever, and recently orphaned; Holmes is in desperate need of a mind equal to his in logic and deduction. Soon, they are travelling across England, first to solve the mysterious illness of a wealthy neighbor, then on the trail of a kidnapper, and finally to solve their most difficult case of all, one that…
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Peeking Inside Windows & Frames
Summer of 1990, New York — Our documentary film budget was tight and so we were staying in a budget hotel. The hotel’s one redeeming feature was a fantastic Italian restaurant on the adjoining corner. After a delicious dinner, we dreaded returning to our tiny room that demonstrated the owner’s utter lack of interest in decoration. To top it off, it was a hot and muggy night and the room had no air-conditioning. We didn’t dare turn on the overhead light. William stretched out on the bed. I took off a layer of clothing and sat in my slip, as close to the open window as possible. Across the street, no…
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LISTEN & SILENT Have the Same Letters
Seth S. Horowitz, an auditory neuroscientist at Brown University wrote an article for the NY Times titled “The Science and Art of Listening (11/11/12), which caught my eye (and ear). He says, “’You never listen’ is not just the complaint of a problematic relationship.” In fact: “Listening is a skill that we’re in danger of losing in a world of digital distraction and information overload. And yet we dare not lose it.” Why? “Listening tunes our brain to the patterns of our environment faster than any other sense… ” And, listening, he points out helpfully, can benefit our relationships: “Listen to your significant other’s voice – not only to the…
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A Surprising Witness to the End of the Civil War
After a trip to Charleston, South Carolina in the spring of my eighth grade year, I wrote about what I had learned about the Civil War both from our trip and reading non-fiction and fiction texts about the tumultuous time. One text was a storybook titled “The Silent Witness: A True Story of the Civil War” (written by Robin Friedman and illustrated by Claire A. Nivola), which is the amazing story of a rag doll, who ended up being a surprising witness to the end of the war. Here’s an excerpt from my writing: The end of the war came in a small town in Virginia called Appomattox Courthouse, in…
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Rembrandt’s Diary
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. Until recently, when I would hear somebody mention Rembrandt, only one thing came to mind, “Oh yes, the artist.” That was all I knew: Rembrandt was an artist in another place at another time. Then I took a class at The Getty Center titled, “Becoming Rembrandt: Exploring The Man, The Myth, and The Legend.” Beneath the surface of every creation, whether music, writing, or art, there are always stories. Sometimes these stories aren’t apparent, but every so often they jump out at you immediately. This is the case with Rembrandt’s paintings. Take one glance at one of his portraits and you immediately get the feel of…
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Seeing Something that Hasn’t Been Seen for 400 Years
Sometimes we only see what we’ve been told to see. What if there is something entirely different to see? During 7th grade, Natalie and I enrolled in a magnificent class on the artist Rembrandt with Zhenya Gershman, an artist-educator who was teaching at the Getty Center at the time. She warned us that we might become addicted. To Rembrandt that is. She was right. That is why I found myself, two weeks ago, snaking up the winding roads above Sunset Boulevard to her studio. I was sitting in on another Rembrandt class she was teaching (as it was a school day, I had to promise Natalie I would tell her…
