Across

4. The Hip Hop minor were dolls in this Gwen Stefani number
5. Do clones dream of these?
6. Campers organized an awareness concert regarding the issues in this country
9. A cry heard by Ceramics majors and minors
12. A very emotional play that was performed in the pavilion with a flag flying overhead
15. This decade was the theme of one of our dances
16. What the CITs made us eat for breakfast
17. The first part of a joke about the biggest dog in the world (heard over and over and over again)
18. A dance move popularized by Shaquera (and the Hill boys, and the South girls, and everyone else!)
19. In Lou’s play campers entered this secret world
20. What you had to do with Jennie Quinn in the scavenger hunt
21. What you could put your hand in at the carnival (as shouted by Josh Weisgrau)
22. In “Secretaries Day,” Alli Meyer belted out a song by this group

Down

1. During International Week we learned this with Francesca
2. In the photo scavenger hunt there was a picture entitled, “Congratulations…”
3. And the second part of the joke about the biggest dog in the world (heard over and over and over again)
4. This character (played by Jessica Rosenberg) was seen at the Fourth of July parade
7. In the photo scavenger hunt, Adam was the man with these
8. A Photography mascot of sorts
10. This play was directed by Jacob and Melissa
11. The reason we had pizza for breakfast
13. This president was the subject of Sarv’s play
14. The Dance show had a pageant number inspired by this movie

Click to check your answers!

Across

1. Where the last dance party of the summer took place
3. This song was performed at the Dance show (as Sarah Krasner’s CIT piece) as well as by a bunch of beauty queens
5. We had a workshop to celebrate the release of the last book in this series
6. Our rock-through-the-decades dance was called, “From Sock Hop to…”
9. The CITs woke us up at midnight, but gave us a fun concert and this to drink
14. The number of red balloons Hannah Ingber’s band sang about
15. The state Adam moved to when he left us
16. Many campers had fun joinin’ Wesley for this popular workshop series
17. The name of the plant played by Sophie Solomon in Jeremy’s play
18. This is always the last song and we always sing along
19. An emotional play that was performed in the pavilion and directed by Jacob
20. Sarv’s play about a bratty young girl and the rumor she started
21. How Rachel Rae died in her performance week cameo

Down

2. In “Beauty Pageant Massacre,” Sarah Wallen belted out this Kelly Clarkson song
4. The type of tales heard in Lou’s play
7. Contrary to popular belief, this holiday was never cancelled, despite the protests to “bring it back”
8. In the World Exchange our countries were fighting over these
10. We played a “geriatric” version of this game
11. Our fearless camp director! (Spelling counts)
12. Don’t hate. Liberate.
13. This decade was the theme of one of our dances
16. The Video department parodied this movie with a golf cart, some jumpsuits, and a few proton packs

Click to check your answers!

When were you at camp?
1996-2001.

What was your major and what were some of your minors?
I was a Music Major, and had Minors in Ceramics, Photography, Technical Theater...not sure of all of them...mostly Photography.

What was camp like when you were a camper and what are some (is one) of your favorite memories?
Camp was awesome! I remember the drama of reading the coded gossip in the paper. I made friends with girl next door to my bunk and we would pass notes through the wall at rest hour. Is that what it was called? I remember how sweet the new dining hall was, but how awesome the old one was. Trips to Avalon were awesome also, candy for the first time in a long time.

There were these things on Sunday where you could go learn about anything for an hour, parents visiting day...so many memories!

Where are you located and what are you doing for work and fun?
I live in New Orleans now, but I grew up in Philadelphia. I am a structural engineer, and I still play bassoon, which I started at Appel Farm, actually. No one really knew how to play, so the Head of Music (who played tuba, I think) taught me to read bass clef and some basic fingerings.

How do you think you were influenced by your Appel Farm experience?
It was such a positive experience that I will always remember and treasure. I have photos that I took at Appel Farm hanging in my house now, and my parents have some too. I love the Farm.

What advice or suggestions do you have for present day Appel Farm campers?
Leave your cell phones and internet dependencies at home, and give in to the charm of country living and fine arts for a month! It won't kill you, and you might find something so enjoyable that you will want to have it as a part of your life forever.

Light A Fire

I was listening to the radio recently. Don't remember the program. A teacher was quoting a teacher -- on teaching. "It is better," the teacher quoted, "to light a fire than it is to fill a bucket."

In the days before touch tone telephones -- way before -- you would put your coins into the slot of a payphone. There would be a click, click sound and then the dial tone told you the line was clear.

That's the way I felt when I heard that quotation. It was a click, click and the line was clear. It wasn't a fact. It was a truth. A bucket is a receptacle. It receives things. You can fill it up with things like water or dirt or ping pong balls. Doesn't matter. Just fill it up. And, usually, you empty it out so you can fill it up again.

Fire is a force. For the ancients it was one of the four elements. It creates light and heat. In fact, one of the things that makes us humans human is that we are the only animals who have conquered the fear of fire. We are the only species that can use fire.

What do fire and buckets have to do with education and teaching? Everything. Today, it seems like the model for teachers is the bucket. From the first grade through high school, teachers are expected to pour information into the minds of their students.

I don't remember taking tests in elementary school. Oh maybe I took a couple -- those standardized aptitude tests they used to give. But, from first to sixth grade I don't think I took a single test in class. Poor me? I don't think so.

Today, the whole country seems to have gone crazy with testing. There's testing for this and testing for that. Teachers are forced to teach for the tests. So they fill up their student buckets and the student buckets pour out their stuff on the tests. The student buckets with the least holes -- the ones that retain the most -- are the ones that can pour out the most.

Bucket filling has very little to do with education. Sure, we all need to know how to read and to write. And, absolutely, we need to know how to multiply, add, subtract and divide. These are basic tools that we need to learn. We need to learn them so that we can really begin to learn.

The teachers that I remember the most are the ones that lit a fire in me. My mom, who began as a teacher in a two room country schoolhouse and retired as Professor of Children's Literature and Language at Queens College, was the most notable teacher in my life. And it wasn't just because she was my mom. Her enthusiasm, curiosity and sense of exploration lit fire after fire in me. From poetry to art (in both of which she excelled) she inspired me. But whether it was flowers or the latest, greatest, kitchen sponge, it was her excitement about living that made her such a great teacher.

Inspiration is what this fire is all about. When I was an undergraduate student at Cornell there was only one teacher that lit a fire in me. He was a creative writing teacher who clearly loved what he did. I would race home to my room after class itching to write.

For a teacher to light a fire they must have a fire burning themselves. To inspire their students they must be inspired. To excite their students they must be excited. It's more difficult to be fired up, excited and inspired when you have tons of material that have to pour into your student buckets so that they can pour it out on tests.

Of course there are still teachers that excite and inspire. They just have more busy work than they used to -- much more. And, as I told my daughter Hira, when she faced a collection of very uninspiring teachers in sixth grade, you have to find ways to inspire yourself. You have to get what you can from the material -- whether it be history or algebra -- and make it your own. That, too, is part of learning.

Fortunately, for many of us, there is the summer. At Appel Farm, for example, the bucket can never be the model for learning. It is fire that lights up the creative artist. It is fire that is the source of inspiration. It can't be filled, tested or poured. It can't be forced into lesson plans or harnessed into a curriculum, although lesson plans and curricula have their function. For one or two months every summer we have the opportunity to light each other's fires and watch the flames burn so clear and in so many colors.