Israel wins her first ever gold medal!!
(see article)
Here's a
video of the medal ceremony, with everyone singing along to Hatikvah. So amazing...
I saw this great article in
Newsweek:
"Save the Elephants—Don't Buy Ivory Soap"
Burdening kids with issues they can't understand creates confusion, not future environmentalists
by Katie Johnson Slivovsky
In "Beyond Ecophobia: Reclaiming the Heart in Nature Education," educator David Sobel tells the story of an 8-year-old who learned about elephant poaching in school. At home, the girl created a poster for display in her local grocery store with the slogan "Save the Elephants: Don't Buy Ivory Soap." She wanted to help but clearly she didn't understand the issues surrounding poaching...
[There are]statistics about endangered animals and rain-forest destruction on kids' TV shows, in books and magazines, even on the backs of their animal-cracker and cereal boxes...
These include some seriously sad messages. One "Save the Earth" book lists this "amazing fact" for grade-school children: "Every day, 40,000 of the world's poorest children under age 5 die unnecessarily for lack of basic health care and medicine." An alphabet book about extinct animals tells preschoolers, "L is for Las Vegas frog ... People built the city of Las Vegas and paved over all the freshwater springs where this frog used to live. Sadly, we say goodbye to the Las Vegas frog." The very last sentence of the book is, "Let's hope human beings never become extinct."
Night-night, Jimmy.
Such good points made in the article, that apply to non-environmental issues as well. We throw so many things at kids that are way out of their grasp, then are surprised when they grow up too quickly. Wait, you mean letting 10-year-old girls walk around in tube tops and mini skirts
isn't a good idea? Who
ever would have realized that??
I watch these kids at camp (during the summer, and now during the rental groups) and compare them to myself growing up. The things they think about, the things they care about, are so vastly different than when I was growing up that it's impossible not to feel a slight "generation gap." Things need to stay "kid-appropriate," or they lose all their value.
Went wakeboarding on the long rope for the first time today.
Awesome. Totally
amazing, and WOW. I love camp :)
Pictures from P.A. & Kevin's wedding are up.
Enjoy!!
It's a quarter to one, and I'm sitting in the internet shed. Camp ends in the morning. Not quite ready for that to happen. Campers leave, staff leave, and I stay here for another 10 days. As much as I know it'll end up being cool, at this moment I would rather be going home with everyone else. Better yet, I would rather everyone stay here with me. Camp is going to be a very different place without everyone here...
On a totally different note, Paula Anne & Kevin's wedding was absolutely amazing. I had such a great time. P.A. looked ridiculously beautiful, and so grown up. Next couple days I'll try and post pictures so you can see for yourselves. I sat at a table with Danie & Anya, and Kimmie & Bryan. So odd that more of my close friends are married/engaged/almost engaged than single. Crazy how everyone around me keeps growing up, and I stay at the same place.
Shoe shopping yesterday was unsuccessful. Hour and a half in the Appleton mall, and I got nothing. SOOO frustrating. So Mom bought me a couple pairs of shoes and I'm just hoping one will somewhat fit. Awesome...
Left the mall totally fed up, and on the way back to camp we stopped at the Jansport outlet. I went in, assuming I'd look around but not find anything too cool (after all, it was one of those days). First rack of hoodies I see, first sweatshirt I see, a white sweatshirt with "North Farmington" written on it in brown and yellow.
What?!! Took me a second to realize that I was
actually looking at a sweatshirt from my high school, then obviously I bought it. Amazing. Never owned a North sweatshirt when I was
in high school, and I find one in Appleton, WI. Love it.
Last night I went out with a bunch of staff to this 24 hour diner place that's attached to a gas station. I love Waupaca... I bought a disposable camera--my digital camera's been broken all session and I can't handle not taking pictures anymore. Too many cool staff/campers...
Camp's going pretty well. Can't believe it's almost over. Surprisingly, I'm really not ready for that. And granted I'm sticking around for over a week after camp ends, so it's not that I can't believe I'm leaving, it's that I can't believe everyone
else is leaving. Met some awesome people here, and don't really want to say goodbye. Plus whose going to give me guitar lessons after camp? I only know 7 chords now--I need to learn more!
That's all for now. Time for
Mifkad Boker, flag raising. Boker tov CYJ Midwest!
So I had hoped that the new internet conncetion at camp would make me better about posting--didn't work out that way. Sorry. Camp's going well. Taking a couple hours off today to go buy shoes for P.A. & Kevin's wedding on Sunday. Nothing like waiting 'till the last minute, right? All for now--gotta run!
