Have a happy summer!
Dear Families,
With graduation tomorrow, I can honestly say that “time flies.” What a terrific year! Our students and faculty accomplished so much together and while we are looking forward to a summer break, we also look forward to returning to the work in the fall.
When we return, we will not have our wonderful colleagues school nurse Joanne Gouge and studio art teacher Janet Atkinson here with us as both are headed off to retirement. 
Last Thursday, we celebrated their work and impact with a surprise assembly and party. At the assembly, history teacher (and LREI legend) Mark Bledstein spoke on behalf of the faculty about Janet, who has been here for 26 years. In his remarks, he shared the following:
Janet Atkinson is in my mind the most conscientious and professional educator on the LREI staff…Each day she gives both the students and her colleagues her fullest attention and best judgment. Daily, she does her job both thoughtfully and creatively. She never asks for any special considerations, not because she is paid more for her superior service, but because, in her eyes, integrity and authenticity are the twin pillars that bind her together, hold her erect…
Now and then I donned my hiking boots and wend my way up to Janet’s art studio on the fourth floor. Year after year what impressed me most about her art studio was the riot of color and design that spread across the tables and ran up and down the walls, the free and open spirit of the students and finally, the easy instructional banter that passed non-stop between Janet the art teacher and her many students. “You might brighten this up, you might tone this down. Stand back, look at it, think about it. Maybe you could rework this.” In my presence students embraced Janet as the gentle and experienced guide, the caring and conscientious mentor, the trustworthy and astute advisor.
Thus, one might call Janet’s art studio a haven … Indeed, I believe that for many students the art studio served as a refuge, a retreat, a place where knitters could knit, sewers could sew, painters could paint, sculptors could sculpt, printers could print and anybody, absolutely anybody – including me – could hang loose, let go, vent their creative frustration. Example. On Arts Day several years ago, I was assigned to the studio where I played around initially with paint on paper. Then, when the paper didn’t seem large enough I began dribbling and dashing lattice-like streamers of water based paint – a la Jackson Pollock – over the newspaper that covered sections of the linoleum floor. If Janet was amused by my enthusiasm she was not at all pleased by the sight of her studio’s paint-splattered linoleum flooring. I spent the late afternoon and early evening scrubbing and mopping away my creative enthusiasm. Trust me. If Janet has a keen eye for quality she has an even keener nose for bullshit.
Still, Janet’s foremost achievement in her 27 year tenure at LREI was the way in which she turned the arts studio from a somewhat narrow, didactic space dedicated to still-life drawing into an open-ended, free spirited, imaginative and inventive play space dedicated to a wide range of creative arts, ideas and styles. From day one, Janet’s aim was always to widen student exposure, to broaden student sensitivities, to expand student awareness concerning all the variable and different visual and plastic mediums defined today as the World of Art.
A personal note. A conversation with Janet is not simply a superficial exchange of pleasantries. A conversation with Janet wanders invariably into a wide-ranging exploration of both the power of ideas and the comedy of the human condition.
A professional note. When I first came to E.I. art and photographic galleries were opening up for the first time in Soho. Although I loved the arts, I didn’t really have an arts background. Nevertheless, I had the bright idea of developing an art history class at E.I. and in making a central component of the class a weekly visit to a Soho gallery. Once Janet joined the staff I found myself aided, supported and guided by an arts professional who was both friends with artists in England and America and knowledgeable of the major gallery openings taking place in Soho and around the City. For many years, I and all of our engaged arts students benefited from the happy and seamless cooperation and interaction that bound together Janet’s superb studio art classes and my (pre – internet) slide-centered courses on the cultural history of the arts.
At LREI Janet has always combined in herself an uncanny blend of depth and kindness,, imagination and clarity, skill and generosity. And, just as we have all benefited from her special presence, we will all feel a palpable sense of loss due to her regretful but necessary absence. Next year Janet will not walk amiably and reliably every morning through LREI’s fresh-minted glass doors. She intends to spend more time, as she should, with her two daughters and their families and with her soon to arrive grandchildren. Still, I know that she will visit us and I know that she will respond to our e-mails. In fact, Janet already remains in contact with many of our former students. Often she tells me about one former student who just gave birth to her first child, and then another who has started her own art gallery, and still another who is working on a master’s degree in psychology, and then another who is working on a PhD.
In sum, Janet is first and foremost a people person. She loves to hear from you, to know about you, to encourage you to reach high, do your best, – sometimes even better than your best – to stake out for yourself, as she has staked out for herself, a path you enjoy, a profession in which you are challenged, a creative life in which you can join hands with those who cherish the values you cherish, and ultimately, to succeed as she has succeeded in nourishing and enriching for 27 years all those in our school who have been privileged to know, to love and to learn from Janet’s wonderful character and presence. I thank you. Our students thank you. The entire institution thanks you…
Mark A. Bledstein
Have a terrific, restful, wonderful, inspiring summer. Congratulations to the Class of 2010 and their families!
Best, Ruth
Updates and Announcements:
*Congrats to all on a terrific Trimester III! Grades and comments for Trimester III will be available online on “My Backpack” on June 25, by 3PM. Please check to make sure you can log on to the system successfully. If you have any problems logging on, please contact help_desk@lrei.org, which can assist you. If you would like your child’s grades or comments mailed, please send an email to Adria Maynor, amaynor@lrei.org. She will also be available at 212-477-5316, x301 until July 1. She will return from vacation August 2.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding a grade or comment, please contact the teacher directly, the student’s advisor, and/or class dean. Please note, teachers, advisors and class deans will be on vacation starting on Friday, June 18 at 12 noon, so a response may not come right away.
*Summer reading assignments are now online! Please take a look here. Students will receive necessary texts this week and next, and if your student has any questions, he or she should ask teachers next week.
1. From the Literary Committee: 6/8 – 6/9 Little REaD Book Swap! Are your kids’ bookshelves so full they’re about to buckle? You can start clearing them out for the first ever Little REaD Book Swap! On June 8th and 9th, bring those books that your kids loved a few years ago but will never read again to school to swap for something new. Drop off and pick up books from 8-9 AM and 2:45-3:45 PM next Tuesday and Wednesday. Please — only kids’ books in good condition. Foreign-language books are fine. Any leftover books will be given to the GO Project or other charities. Please help recirculate good books around our community! Please see the flyer for more information.
2. The cookbook committee is still taking pre-orders for our new LREI community cookbook, Downtown Potluck, to be published in the fall of this year. Look for us in the lobby, or send an email to cookbook@lrei.org if you would like to order a copy ($25 each). If you place an order by the end of the school year, you will be entered in a drawing to win a free cookbook and a dinner for two at Minetta Tavern! Thanks to everyone!
3. Pride 2010 is upon us and the LGSA committee at LREI is in full swing on planning the March again this year. As usual we will have a float, and this year The Calhoun School will be joining us again. The parade is Sunday June 27th from 12pm – end.
This week, sign up at our Pride Table on Thursday 6/10 and Friday 6/11 outside of the Sixth Avenue building. Please see the attached flyer for more details! See you at the March!