A Day with the School Kids by Henry P. Kramer July 8, 1997

        I got a call. "Hey, Grandpa, we need a ride, Mom is working, and she can't take us. We need a ride to the Planetarium at the Natural History Museum." Well, OK.
        I showed up at Monte Vista School at 10:30, checked in at the office, went to the class room, and took four ten-year old girls to the Natural History Museum to assemble there with the rest of the class. Mr. Regan, the young teacher, had all the kids sit on the low wall near the big, bleached whale skeleton to calm them down and tell them to behave themselves. And they did.
        We all went in the Planetarium and the show began. Day turned into star-speckled night. Cathy Closson, the wonderful museum docent, gave us a lecture on the night sky in Santa Barbara at this time of year. There were few questions that some kid didn't know the answer to. They knew about Betelgeuse, the left shoulder of Orion. The knew about the seven sisters, the Pleiades, in Taurus. The knew about the North star and how to locate it by extending the side of the cup of the big dipper, whose handle hangs below our mountains at this time of year. They knew about Venus and Mars and Pluto and Jupiter and the rings of Jupiter and the Asteroid Belt. Shooting stars were discussed. The kids learned that Mercury, being closest to the sun and having the shortest orbit, runs around the Sun, like the swift messenger of the gods, the fastest of all the planets. The kids marveled at the fact that the Milky Way is just one branch of the giant spiral of our Galaxy containing billions of stars and that this galaxy is just one of billions. We all speculated about the likelihood that among this huge number of stars there must be some with planetary systems that have also engendered life.
        After the Planetarium show and a brief visit to some exhibits demonstrating astrophysical principles, the kids assembled and walked over to Rocky Nook park to have their lunch. Girls ate at the tables. Boys sat on rocks and logs. Boys engaged in mock battles. After a while boys and girls played hide and seek together and teacher joined the fan. Soon it was time to call a halt. Boys and girls cajoled just one more turn. Teacher complied. But after that turn, everyone got into the assigned cars and started back to school.
        I was driving and refused to turn the radio to the rap station. So the girls sang their own rap song. I had never heard it before. It began with Washington, went to Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and so on through every American President, ending with President Clinton. It was charming, and a great way to memorize the list of Presidents that most adults, certainly this one, are incapable of reciting.
        The horror stories about schools that don't teach and children that don't learn must be true because the people who tell them seem honorable and upright and claim to know all about various kinds of values. They wouldn't lie. But they must be talking about schools that I am not acquainted with.
        What I have seen is that most teachers are knowledgeable, enthusiastic and empathetic about teaching children and educating them to be good citizens. We, in Santa Barbara, should be thankful to be blessed with a good public school system that teaches all of our children the wonders and knowledge of the world. Let's support it, help it to improve even more, and not undermine the wonderful job that is being done to educate and shape our future citizens.