Middle Schoolers Lead Beautification of Little Red Square

As Robert Frost commented, “Good fences make good neighbors;” and so it is with the fences surrounding the tree pits in Little Red Square. Born of the hard work of middle schoolers during advisory period, lower and middle school students, parents and faculty who attended “It’s My Park” Day, and a dedicated group of middle schoolers who helped to build and paint before and after their Family Conferences, these fences are truly the product of a communal effort. As the fences went  up, it was as if the community suddenly rediscovered the tress that had always been there. Neighbors and passers-by commented on the much appreciated care that students were taking of this shared community space.

While seemingly simple in their appearance, the fences tell a story of students and their advisors thinking about ways to take care of our urban garden, of thoughtful planning and preparation, of physical labor and of committed work. A number of Middle Schoolers completed some of this work in the Lower School woodshop, a place they had not been for several years. As one student commented, “the saws used to seem so big,” and as Peggy commented on her former students, “it was amazing to watch them work; they worked with such energy and a sense of purpose.”  These fences also embody a core LREI value originally stated by Elisabeth Irwin, which is “to encourage children to respect the dignity of manual labor by working with our hands as well as with our heads.” And as Agnes De Lima observes in The Little Red School House:

This labor has a value of its own. The children hammer, saw, file. They lift heavy weights; they pound into wood; they enjoy their bodies. When they put their bodies to a definite task, like planning and sawing, the medium of the tool forces them to coordinated, economical, and rhythmical movement which is excellent physical education and which the children unconsciously enjoy.

So these fences are an extension of the classroom and as such they connect the work of students, families and teachers to the broader world of lived experience. Take a moment to enjoy the fruits of this labor.