Lise's Lens: February 16, 2023

Lise reads a Globe article on the short-lived Sidetrack educational integration program (look for the CSW connection!), considers the history behind the YUM Lab, and listens to a firsthand account of a Panamanian growing up through the construction of the Panama Canal.

WHAT I’M READING
 
  • I was captivated by a recent front page article in the Idea section of The Boston Globe about Sidetrack, a short-lived educational integration experiment between the towns of Lincoln and Roxbury in 1971. While there were pros and cons to the program, it is clear that the experience made a lasting and mostly positive impact on its participants, including Peter Thomson, the article’s author. In reading the article, I quickly got the sense that one of the key traits of the Sidetrack program, compared with other integration programs, was this: “Being an outsider here cut both ways,” Thomson explains. In Sidetrack, the Black students from Roxbury and the white students from Lincoln had the experience of standing out, of feeling “othered.” The piece provided much food for thought as we continue to develop our PACE program, an endeavor whose mission involves getting our students out of the CSW “bubble” and immersed into proximate communities very different from those many of our students hail from. 

    Fun Fact: CSW alum Nat Priest ’77 participated in the Sidetrack program before finding his way to CSW!

WHAT I’M THINKING/TALKING ABOUT
 
  • What is the YUM Lab?
    I wonder how often we stop to consider how some of the offerings and programs we have at CSW got started. What inspired them? Who led the initiative? When we take the time to remember the beginnings of such programs, we likely find ourselves learning about an inspiring individual and a group of philanthropists who believed in supporting their idea. 

    This week at assembly, we learned about former CSW art faculty member Karl Fisher, who passed away ten years ago on February 20 (which also happened to be his 53rd birthday). It was Karl and current art faculty member Tom Evans who conceptualized the idea for the YUM (Youth Understanding Media) Lab, which has grown from one donated computer to an impressive array of high-tech equipment used for digital photography, video, and design. We celebrated Karl as a community during lunch yesterday afternoon, illustrating how even when people leave us, their legacies and memories live on.

WHAT I'M LISTENING TO

  • This came up recently in my Radio Ambulante feed on the Panama Canal. It was really interesting. It is a first person narrative about a Panamanian who grew up wondering about the Canal and who also describes well how the gringos lived versus others. He interviews folks who were there in the early years of the canal as well. Y en Español, ¡por supuesto!
WHAT CAUGHT MY EYE
 
At assembly this week, Deniz Dikici '23, Jonas Orlov '26, Can Tezel '25 led  a presentation illustrating the great devastation inflicted upon the people of Turkey and Syria following this month's powerful earthquake. I am proud of their efforts to raise money in support of those directly affected. 
 
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The Cambridge School of Weston is a progressive high school for day and boarding students in grades 9–12 and PG. CSW's mission is to provide a progressive education that emphasizes deep learning, meaningful relationships, and a dynamic program that inspires students to discover who they are and what their contribution is to their school, their community and the world.