Avanti Salon

I’m not a big Reality TV fan. I’ve never much cared what the Tribe speaks or what the Real Housewives of anywhere have to say to one another.  But flipping channels the other day I came upon Tabitha’s Salon Make-Over.  Tabitha goes to failing beauty salons all over America and makes them live.  OK, I probably know less about Beauty Salons than I do about Reality television, but she caught my eye when she brought the staff of Avanti’s Salon to the Harvard boathouse to learn to row and, more importantly, to teach the owner to lead.

Sometimes we miss the transferable skills that rowing offers our kids.  It’s intimidating to have to stand up in the stern and take charge.  There’s nowhere to hide.  The well groomed young stylists who pulled an oar in the Harvard boathouse saw almost instantly the analogy between rowing and working, between coxing a boat and leading a business.

We talk about teaching leadership in schools across the country.  I wonder if that’s even possible without putting kids in the position of actual leadership.  I allow myself to hope that when it’s time to lead their own office or team out in the work force, or when it’s time to support their leader, my kids will remember the lessons they learned rowing a boat together in Station Maine.

Observing

I think it was DaVinci who adjured us to learn from nature.


A trick I learned years ago was to take a piece of string, maybe three foot long, and tie it in a circle.
Each child gets one circle and a pad and pencil. they put their circle down on a random piece of lawn
or forest floor and write down all the things they see within that circle, then write intelligent questions
that come from their observations.

All of the observations and questions are shared with the group at the end of ten minutes.

Adventures don't necessarily need to invoke a boat or foreign shores. Sometimes they are inches away from your nose if only you can take the time to look.

What One Emphasizes

The trick is what one emphasizes.

We either make ourselves miserable

Or we make outselves strong. 

The amount of work is the same.

                                     Carlos Castaneda

Inquiring Minds

On of the serious joys of taking kids on the water is that the lesson is different every single day.  Kids are encouraged to ask intelligent questions and are given intelligent answers, to which they genuinely listen.  In a single day we can cover world history, local history, physics, seamanship, mathematics, marine biology, natural science, and a host of other subjects.  Our lessons drift with the tide, literally and metaphorically, but in our brief 45 minutes we are able to include dozens of learning moments.  These moments excite me as much as the kids and we feed off each others’ energy.

A child’s mind is naturally inquisitive.  Given a rich environment and supportive companions the questions come naturally and learning flows.  There is so much to discover.

Courage

Congratulations Belfast

Station Maine doesn't live alone on the coast of Maine.  Our good neighbors and ardent supporters in Belfast have an amazingly strong and successful adult rowing program.  Check out the great article in the Portland Herald.

http://www.pressherald.com/news/pulling-together_2012-02-21.html#addPhotos

Lord of the Rings

We watched a Lord of the Rings marathon today.  All three films in ten hours, all of us crowded into Katie’s living room which her family kindly turned over to us for the day.

I’m not sure how I can qualify watching a movie marathon and eating junk food as education, but something in me knows that it is.  Cheering for the Hobbits,  laughing at Gimlie, collectively hating the Orks is so much fun when we’re together.  Maybe Californians are right and a movie needs to be a shared experience.  Shared with friends.  Good friends.  And doing something outrageous like a movie marathon is always a plus.

Of course I don’t recommend sitting in front of a flickering screen over hiking, rowing, creating, or doing in all of its forms,.  But occasionally on a cold winter day with friends, a movie marathon can bring a group of close friends even closer.