Schools driven by standardized tests take all joy out of learning
I was in the third grade when Indiana’s standardized math and reading test, the ISTEP, was introduced in public schools. I remember parents expressing fears that these tests would be used to drive what...
View ArticleThe Arch at Crooked Creek School
Thanks to John Roberts – a long-dead one, not the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court – the school around the corner from my house has been there since 1837. Not in its original building, of course....
View ArticleThe incredibly sticky sense of place
If you’ve lived in one place for a long time, think back on how much the area has changed. Think especially of farmland that now boasts subdivisions or office parks. Don’t we marvel at the sprawl?...
View ArticleBalloon Day
The balloons filled the air, hundreds and hundreds of them squirming around each other in the wind. The sky turned red, yellow, blue, and green as they raced away. A cross current soon caught them,...
View ArticleCaptured: School arch
This arch, of which I’ve written before, once admitted students to one of the oldest schools in Indianapolis. Students have been educated at this site on the Michigan Road in northwest Marion County,...
View ArticleCaptured: On the schoolhouse steps
I’ve been looking through old photographs as I’ve thought about a subject for the photo book I’d like to produce. Reviewing photos from my Pentax KM, I found this 2013 photo of my dad. I used a 55mm...
View ArticleHistorical structures on the Michigan Road in northwest Indianapolis
On my recent bike ride up the Michigan Road pedestrian trail in northwest Indianapolis, I passed a number of historical structures that I photographed when I surveyed the Michigan Road in 2008....
View ArticleThe incredibly sticky sense of place
The land on which my home stands was farmland not 20 years ago. It’s typical: thanks to sprawl, many American neighborhoods occupy land that produced crops sometime within the last hundred years. In my...
View Articlesingle frame: James Monroe School
James Monroe School Canon Canonet QL17 G-III Fujifilm Neopan 100 Acros 2010 Banking off yesterday’s post, with the photo of me in my second-grade classroom, I thought I’d share this photo of the...
View ArticleAbandoned school near Middlefork, Indiana on the Michigan Road
When I surveyed the Michigan Road from end to end in 2008, I stopped to photograph this abandoned schoolhouse near Middlefork, where State Road 26 intersects. The building faces SR 26; it’s actually...
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