Work and the Environment

On May 16th, it will be Bike to Work Day. So I thought that it would be great to think about biking to work. After all, I have a pretty short commute, don't I?

Well, I looked into it, and I have a little shorter than an average commute. At least for the nation. According to the source referenced above, commuters usually spend 87 minutes - round trip - for a distance of 16 miles each way.

That makes biking to work pretty much impossible for your average commuter.

What can I do?

So what are my options to try and make it better? Or reduce my environmental impact?

Well, the most obvious is that I could get a car that is better on gas. But its still a car. What about a motorcycle? Or a scooter? Well, considering that I'm in the northeast - that would (at best) give me 6 months of the year for commuting. And people drive crazy around here - even on backroads. Not only that but people driving motorcyles are 5.5 times more likely to die in a given year than someone driving a car. That doesn't seem like great odds.

The Train!

Ok, how about Mass transit? Unfortunately there's almost nothing at all in the area I'm in. If I wanted to head into Boston I could take the commuter rail - that would mean a :30 drive to the train, and then an hour on the train, and then a walk - instead of a :45 minute drive (during non-peak hours). Its frustrating. I have friends in the Bay area - they have a better Mass transit system, but I think that they are fairly unique in the US. Lots of older cities have mass transit systems that don't reach much of the suburbs at all - never mind trying to get people between suburbs.

Relocation

I could move closer to work! But wait, the average tenure of someone in a particular job in the USA is only 4 years. That doesn't make sense. Moving every 4 years? I just want to mention that the next country up the list is Great Brittan, and they have an average Tenure of 10 years. More than double the USA.

I've watched too many friends and family get laid off, or have to change jobs for reasons outside their control to run my life around where I work.

So what's left?

It seems to me that if we (in the USA) want to break our addiction to commuting a couple of things have to happen.

1. We have to start looking to replace/supplement our highways with mass transit. Either a bus or train going along large beltways (such as I495) in MA would open up a world of opportunities.


2. We have to come up with some way of giving workers more confidence that they can stay at a single company for their entire (or a good portion of their) career.

Or we can keep going down the path of trying to make cars cleaner. I just worry that cars aren't the right answer.

Megan's Essay for Connor's Admission to Cornerstone

My Wife is amazing.

Given this almost impossible task:

Write an essay that describes your child and why they are a good fit for Cornerstone Academy. Please describe both his or her strengths or weaknesses.

She was able to create an amazing essay. Now it might not seem that impossible, but think about it; you have to create an essay that talks about how great a fit your child is for the school, but also talk about his weaknesses are, and still balance the two.

So, here it is, my Wife's amazing essay:

I see my son as a very bright child who is not just interested in why things work, but how as well. We have always felt that the best way to answer the endless "why" questions that he has posed since he learned to talk was to give him the answers in a way he could understand, but not too dumbed down. This is why we wound up one day standing around my truck with the hood up, 2 1/2 year old Connor in my husband's arms, explaining to him how an internal combustion engine works.

Connor had asked how a car goes and when he was told that "stepping on the gas pedal put gas into the engine and made the car go", insisted on knowing exactly why and how! The best way for us to do that was with a visual aid - my engine block. We were sure he wouldn't digest it all - let alone retain it - which is why I was stunned to hear the next day at school that he was telling his playmates how an engine worked with the hood up on his play car. This, is feel, is my son in a nutshell. He will ask why until he feels he understands. Our primary goal for him is to find him a place where his curiosity will be encouraged and answered - not replied to with "just because", and then directed to sit down and stop asking.

I feel a love of learning is something that needs to be nurtured and encouraged. It's one of my favorite traits in Connor; that and his sense of humor. With both parents possessing a rather dry sense of humor, it is no surprise to us that Connor has it as well. He also loves to cook and can be found on a chair next to whomever is in the kitchen cooking. He will then turn around and later be heard repeating his cooking knowledge to any pet in the house who will listen, or failing that, many of his stuffed animals from his bedroom.

We also have encouraged a love and respect for animals that I find a joy to see in him. We share our home with two dogs and seven cats and he loves and is loved by them all. He shows great gentleness and care with all of them - especially our deaf cat, blind cat and very nervous 17 year old cat.

Not to say Connor is perfect - he is not. He can be short on patience and it shows sometimes, especially when he feels he is not being heard or understood. He is also posessed of a great knack for selective hearing which he can turn on especially at bedtime, or if he is being told to turn off Alton Brown (FoodTV's Good Eats Show). He can be shy in new situations and can be clingy to familiar faces in these situations. He also can be prone to tuning out adults if he feels bored.

This is one of the big reasons we are trying to change his school now. He is the oldest in the room and he is not being as challenged, learning-wise, as he could be. At home, he is beginning to spell and read, and do rudimentary addition and subtraction. In his class, however, the students are learning the ABC's and how to spell their names. Since this is something he can do already, he has been talking in class and generally not paying as much attention. I can't encourage this, yet I understand he isn't as challenged as he needs and wants to be and that this lack of challenge is causing his frustration. This is the most driving reason for why we want Connor to attend Cornerstone.

All in all, we have a very bright, articulate 4 1/2 year old who can be found at home cooking Alton Brown recipes for his dogs, his stuffed animals and anyone else he can find. He loves fishing and is looking forward to his first outdoor camping trip this summer. He can also be stubborn, snippy and sometimes sarcastic. But I am confident that he will do fabulously in the school environment provided by Cornerstone.

Cornerstone Academy

A couple of months ago, Megan and I realized that Connor was getting awfuly close to being ready for Kindergarten, and we had no idea where he was going.

He will turn 5 on 9/8/2008, just missing the cutoff for public school. Our original plan was that if we didn't find anywhere else, we'd send him to his current school - Our Future Learning Center for their K program. Unfortunately they just changed their program to only offer Pre-K instead of full Kindergarten.

We started looking around, looking at all sorts of schools. We looked into Fay School, a great school in Southboro, but it was very expensive, and out of the way. We looked into some Montessori schools, but they weren't quite right.

Then we found a school that was perfect! Cornerstone Academy in Northboro. A small, academically oriented school - only 1 class of 10 students per grade, a focus on well-rounded children, located on a wooded area with nature trails. Exactly what we were looking for.

We then had to go through the admissions process. This was not something that I anticipated having to do until Connor was much older (like ready for College). Here's how the process worked:

• We filled out an application, including a picture and an essay describing Connor (more on this later)
• We had to get teacher recommendations from his current teachers
• He had to go for a 1/2 day interview, where the teachers observe him to figure out if he's a good fit
• Megan and I then had to go to an interview to find out if they like us
• We get accepted

As far as we know this process could stop at any point, and he could be rejected. So each part was nerve wracking and kept up nervous.

We found out today (April 2, 2008) that Connor has gotten into Cornerstone! This has been a long, but great process. I will be posting another entry with the essay that Megan wrote that got us past the first step, because I thought it was an amazing essay, and I would have been at a loss to figure out how to write an essay about my son.