Our students made a small splash along Loring Avenue today with their spirited Halloween Parade. “With the public schools closed, I guess we’re the only ones doing it this Halloween,” says Mr. Danny. “It makes sense. We just can’t refuse–not too many people remember this but it was my mom who started the whole thing.” He is referring, of course, to Ms. Welch, School Founder Patricia Jennings-Welch, who taught first at Horace Mann and Carlton. “I remember in the early 1970’s. I was going to Horace Mann and she would come marching through the whole school with her little kids. My classmates laughed and embarrassed me; but now I look back on it fondly.”

Well it is almost here. That glorious date November 1 when we can all catch our breath, if only for a week before launching headfirst into “holiday season” (what has this been?)

Halloween is a special time for us. Most of these traditions were initiated by Ms. Welch, the school founder and Mr. Danny’s mom. As most of you know, she taught for years in the Salem Public Schools before founding the school. She pioneered the whole Halloween Parade tradition back around 1970, leading her charges through all the classrooms and hallways at Horace Mann singing “Who Will March Along…?” This was years before Salem became the Halloween Capital it is today; later almost every school in the district would follow suit.

The school year so far has been remarkable for an unprecedented explosion of art, even among all the other academics. Ms. Julia said recently that these kids have done more art in this season than any other class has in an entire year. The outpouring of creativity and sheer labor is impressive. And this time around, much of it is visible to the 25,000 vehicles who pass by the school on 1A every day (or in this case, night). It really is wonderful to see the school lit up like never before.

Making the spider’s nest was the highlight of the week. Kids had a blast. Still not completely content with the lighting.. but I don’t want to get caught in the web! Charlotte will have to wait–it will need fixing after all this rain anyway…

More lights, more detail. Plus the spider nest. Charlotte’s Magnum Opus. Gotta see it at night. Great welcome to Salem for those coming into Salem up 1A. Kids are doing a great job.
All lit up.. or getting there… Still a bit more detail to add, tighten up lighting etc but still cool. Kids were dying for a night time pic.

From the painted pumpkins to the sculptures involved to the posters to the aliens driving the car to the lights, the whole school has been intimately involved in every step of the process. It is hard to grasp the awe of watching it come together and seeing all work as one. Breathtaking… and exhausting, of course.

Topsfield Fair was back with a vengeance, Oct 1 –11, and so was the Greenhouse pumpkin exhibit machine. It is difficult to express adequately the level of intensity and creativity that goes into this project and others like it. What amazes me (Mr. Danny) in particular is how Ms. Julia manages to keep it fresh, new and exciting after 20+ years of entering this competition.

It is artistic masterpiece on a whole different level to juggle, weave and fine tune all the variables: making sure students at all levels are engaged and contributing in a meaningful way. This means balancing the complexity of design and implementation so that the middle schoolers are challenged, while keeping sufficiently simpler tasks for the young ones to feel important and included in the final product.

In the end, the magic of modeling, cajoling, guiding and then letting go has to be honed so that students know they have produced excellent work together and by themselves. This last is most important, and lacking in much of American art instruction, where the height of children’s “creativity” and (therefore “art”) is simply being allowed to do what they want—without instruction, guidance, mentoring, etc. The whole thing plays out as if art begins and ends with post modernism, and Picasso never had to complete anatomical studies or sketch out, plan and develop his ideas. Nonsense.

For us, this project, our approach to art, and to education in general can be seen through the same prism. This toggle leads to true lifelong learning, and produces incredible results. It also may be why our kids are still creating their own art to decorate their apartments in med school. Quite poetic.

Even though we had to skip the trip to the fair and the parade due to staffing and covid concerns, we none the less still scrambled, pouring our energy into decorating the school like never before.

Mom says, “I have to give compliments to The Green House School, they have always been the biggest supporter of Marcus.. Marcus was enrolled from the age 1 years old to the 8th grade. The Directors always have been there even after he left the school. They were so excited to watch The White Coat Ceremony with the current students, to show the students they can be anything they want to be . Thank you Danny and Julia who are dedicated educators!”

Marcus graced us briefly with his presence before scurrying back to med school. He had to come home, you see, to get a haircut, some home cooked food from his mom, and a skein of yarn from ms. julia. Yes, the knitting club he joined is making blankets for the NICU. Who is this kid, and what did he do with our boy??

This pic of Marcus at right with the sweet little cherub is a couple years old but too adorable. Not related, more like school bookends: Class of ’10 and Class of ’31. At  GHS, all our students are siblings 😉

Well, time certainly does fly. We had a fantastic ceremony and cookout Friday, June 25th, kind of breaking new ground in this environment. But the kids would never have forgiven us if we skipped another year. It was a blast, and also brought many former GHS regulars whom we haven’t seen in forever.

We got some great pics–mostly from parents who took them. We actually only managed a few ourselves, but here’s a compilation.

April 27, we celebrate the greenhouse school’s 13th founder’s day, also known as Ms Welch’s birthday. We’re sure she is especially enjoying the kids using part of the day for spring cleaning. No one worked harder than Ms Welch. But at the end of the day, there was never a party she didn’t like–or a cake, for that matter!

It is simply amazing to sit back and reflect that March 16th is a year since the great shutdown. A topsy turvy year for sure, and we’re certainly not done with it all yet.

Through it all, we keep trying to keep things as “normal” as we possibly can, which has proved a challenge. We continue to celebrate, and expose the kids as much as we can to everything we usually do.

For International Women’s Day, we learned new songs and old history. And each student went home with a rose for mom. Yes, it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses too!

St. Patrick’s Day represents the first of the holidays we had to cancel and are now bouncing back and embracing. Not quite there yet, of course… St. Pat’s at GHS has been permanently revised since the addition of the adult component—sadly still missing….for now.

We celebrated on Wednesday, March 17th; practicing songs and preparing our boiled dinner. Ms. Julia was once again keen on our Green Off… no leprechaun-y stuff, but everyone wearing as much green as they could find.

We split our usual celebration and did the Green Eggs and Ham, with Juevos Verdes con Jamon and a salute to Ms. Welch and Theodore Geissel at once.

The kids are invariably finishing up something, from Luganda lessons to painting to a comparative literature discussion on Geissel’s work (aka Dr. Seuss). Bear with us—we’re creating the future here!

We took a bit of a beating in the windstorms, as you may have noticed, and have a few unscheduled repairs. Ms. Julia is a bit fed up with Mr. Danny’s swashbuckling roof antics. It has truly been a difficult year on so many fronts.

March the wind blows down the door—as the Chicken Soup With Rice song goes. T.S. Elliot may have been wrong about April. March seems like the cruelest month, at least in New England. We are undaunted.

More pics of the kids doing cool stuff, including a joint window dressing project for kids from preK through the middle schoolers. Also proud of our Not-So-Little-Anymore-Guys… Mica and Talise pictured together at APH, Marcus conquering his MCAT ordeal and getting ready to start at UMASSMED in the fall, Max winning his first BC pitching test of the season. Bursting with pride!

I know we’re a bit late with our Thanksgiving pics but everything is a bit off this year and we are under a lot of pressure.

Despite it all we were able to keep most of our traditional holiday activities that make the Greenhouse School so special.

The banquet style setup with turkey at the head of the table were a no go of course. But with proper precautions we were able to enjoy a communally prepared meal–separately–and give our Thanksgiving speeches.

Even had alumni visit, alone, after hours for a take home plate (and to get knitting advice!). And as always we were able to expose children to the historical truth about the settlement of the Americas and treatment of indigenous peoples. All in a GHS day’s work.

We also have a passel of December birthdays – pics to come. We will likely have extra closing over the holiday week Dec 27-31 to take a bit of a break as covid continues to spike.

Dec 14th is the 25th anniversary of Mr. Frank’s passing (Mr. Danny’s dad), who used to drive the bus and fix things around school. We will have a small ceremony in his memory.

Let’s enjoy the holiday season as best we can despite everything swirling around us. Peace and joy to all. Thanks, D&J

Sincerely,

D.P. Welch and J. Nambalirwa-Lugudde, Directors