11 minute read
Outdoors at Park
BY CORNELIUS HOWLAND ’87
Park's Director of Athletics Bob Little recalls coaching a soccer clinic with former Park teacher and coach Dean Conway, back in the summer of 1999. In the middle of practice one morning, Dean suddenly brought play to a halt.
“Hey, everyone!” he said, “Look up there! That is a redtailed hawk. Now watch what happens, because in a moment, crows will come out and cooperate to drive it away. It’s invading their territory.” The players dropped down into a circle and leaned back on their elbows to stare skyward as the aviary contest unfolded.
Coaches and athletes—teachers and students—out under the open sky, spontaneously observing animal behavior and connecting it to the strategy of a soccer game. A perfect illustration of the way outdoor experiences support the “whole child” philosophy (developing one’s whole self: intellectually, socially, physically, emotionally, and creatively) that is at the core of Park’s educational mission.
Tirelessly maintained by the Facilities Department, Park’s remarkable campus provides for creative, open-ended play, competitive sport, scientific exploration, artistic inspiration, and community gathering. With its six athletics fields, old-growth woods, gardens, plantings, playgrounds, and rocky outcrops, this gorgeous parcel of South Brookline has been a defining part of the Park experience for at least two generations. During the pandemic, moving many activities outside has increased safety for all and prompted new thinking as to how Park can continue to use its outdoor resources when we return to normal.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF PARK’S LAND
The 34 acres of land comprising Park’s current campus, sitting atop millions-year-old glacial “Puddingstone” bedrock, was within the territory of the indigenous Massachusett tribal group prior to first contact with Europeans. Other tribal entities such as the Pawtucket, Nipmuc, and Wampanoag were also active locally and regionally. British settlers who displaced the indigenous population in the early 1600’s first referred to what is now known as South Brookline as “Muddy River,” considering it a hamlet of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Later, in 1712, the Goddard family established a farm here. (You can read more about the history of this land on the website: parkschool.org/about/our-campus.)
Step forward two-and-a-half centuries, and in 1967, then owners of the former Goddard farm, Dr. James and Mary Faulkner, gave the School (at that point located on Kennard Road in Brookline) an astounding gift: 14 acres of open and wooded land upon which to establish a larger, more modern school building and grounds. The new building on Goddard Avenue opened its doors in September, 1971. In subsequent years, additional generous, forwardthinking gifts of land from the Faulkner family expanded Park’s campus to its current bounds, which now include the house at 255 Goddard Ave. and its surroundings—home to Creative Arts at Park’s and Summer at Park’s offices, the Development Office, and the After-School Program—and the Head of School’s residence and surrounding land, formerly owned by Nancy and Kim Faulkner ’45 and protected by a Town of Brookline conservation easement.
KEEPING THE CAMPUS SAFE AND BEAUTIFUL
While wooded areas of the campus may more-or-less tend to themselves (besides the need to clear an occasional fallen bough or tree, and occasional health assessments by arborists Bartlett Tree Experts), Park’s fields, playgrounds, roads, paths, steps and courtyards most definitely do not.
The Park Facilities team provides this continual, comprehensive outdoor maintenance. Required throughout the school year are regular tasks such as mowing, field line painting, and irrigation; raking and leaf removal; path and road salting and snow removal; fertilization, planting, and mulching.
Director of Facilities Jennifer Mullin notes a wide range of additional outdoor work. Preparation for annual special events such as Springfest and Graduation (one of Jennifer’s favorite projects) must be planned and completed on schedule, without fail. Major projects, such as the 2017–18 renovation of the Discovery Playground, or the upcoming replacement of the main building’s roof planned for this summer, require substantial coordination and support from the facilities staff. And even as students and much of the faculty depart for well-earned vacations, the facilities team stays at it, tackling maintenance projects more easily accomplished with the campus in a less active mode. Throughout the summer camp season, regular maintenance work continues.
Of course, in a region like New England, flexibility and responsive action is essential at times. Ever wondered how the team clears overnight snow in time for morning drop-off? “We’ll start plowing at, say, 8 p.m.,” says Jennifer, “...and then the guys will keep going into the night, and then we’ll come in, go to sleep for a bit, and then get up at 5 a.m. and continue on plowing until everything’s cleared.” You heard that right. Dedicated facilities team members sleep overnight on air mattresses in order to stay on top of the snowfall.
ADAPTING IN 2020
As the pandemic unfolded, the Facilities Department remained just as flexible and committed, taking on Park’s functional response outdoors as well as indoors. Moreover, Jennifer, Facilities Manager Joel DeJesus, and the rest of their dedicated team needed to remain “in-person” consistently, given that, of course, very few of their responsibilities can be accomplished “virtually.” Changes like the installation of multiple outdoor classroom tents, new signage on exterior doors, and management of new entrance/exit and pedestrian circulation patterns were pivotal in the return to in-person learning.
Critical safety considerations aside, without Park’s outdoor classrooms and fresh air to clear minds both young and old, this annus horribilis would have been even tougher to bear. First Grade teacher Jerilyn Willig has spent many an hour this year with her students in the tent located across from the Lower Division carpool pickup area. She appreciates the “connection and community” this has fostered among the kids, observing, “For the portion of each day they are out there, they have zero ready-made toys, manufactured games, prefabbed play structures, etc. What they do have is unlimited access to nature, to conversation, to their own and each other’s curious minds, big hearts, gorgeous spirits, and collective powers of thinking, supporting, creating, problemsolving, learning, and enjoying.”
THE CURRICULUM CONNECTS WITH TIME OUTSIDE
In normal times as well as decidedly abnormal ones, Park’s outdoor resources contribute to myriad areas of the curriculum. Science teachers Melinda Huffman, Megan Armour, and Carol Buzby emphasize the value of the Outdoor Learning Garden (OLG) and adjacent Pollinator Meadow. With the assistance of Green City Growers, contracted by Park to help maintain the OLG and develop gardeningbased lesson plans, students work with their teachers to cultivate edible plants.
In the process, they explore plant life cycles, food webs, and the organisms small and large that are integral to healthy organic systems. Melinda notes added benefits of time spent out in the garden: “It often has a calming effect, as students focus on the sensory experience of digging in the dirt and planting plants and seeds. It can also have a rejuvenating effect. As we return to the indoor classrooms, students usually have relaxed bodies and smiles on their faces, with a glint of contentment and a sense of accomplishment.”
Outdoor science learning is by no means limited to the OLG. For example, notes science teacher Heather Offen, each seventh grader monitors their own individual “Change Site”—a 1m x 1m plot in the wooded area near the Pond Field. From September through May, they observe seasonal phases, measure and record meteorological, atmospheric, and other data, make drawings and photographs, and analyze their findings to compile in a year-end presentation.
As science classes take advantage of Park’s natural surroundings for an analytic type of observation, so too students exploring the intuitive process of making visual art can head outside to practice new ways of seeing and creating inspired by nature.
“The kids got really sucked into looking carefully, and so absorbed in finding the negative spaces between branches, the contour lines of the tree, and the silhouettes against the sky,” says art teacher Sophie Steck, describing a recent excursion to observe and draw trees.
But nature doesn’t always cooperate, staying put for the artist. As a breeze came up, the unpredictability of the environment offered a spontaneous opportunity to discuss different techniques. “A student asked me, ’How do I draw it if it’s moving in the wind?’ and this opened a whole new door to talking about how to capture motion in a drawing, and even the feeling of wind.” Sophie goes on, “We might be able to draw a tree from a photograph or through a window, but we wouldn’t be experiencing other sensations that can add another dimension to our work.”
Art Department Head Nancy Popper puts this in a broader context: “There is such a tradition in art-making of en plein air painting and drawing—of really immersing yourself in the outdoor environment.” Nancy also notes the wealth of organic patterns available outdoors—leaf shapes, tree bark, the repetitive, spiraling structure of a pine cone—that can inspire abstract designs as opposed to directly representational artwork. It’s not just in art classes per se that Park’s natural areas enable free expression. Take a walk through a wooded spot on campus, in pandemic times or not, and you’ll almost certainly find a lean-to made of sticks, an arrangement of balanced rocks, or other signs of young imaginations at work. Take a walk a day or two later, and entirely new creations will have emerged.
EXERCISE, TEAMWORK, AND FRESH AIR
Perhaps needless to say, the kinetic energy that goes into building a tree-limb shelter isn’t always entirely exhausted during recess. Especially for younger students, this can pose a challenge to attention spans in a regular indoor classroom—without doubt even more so outdoors, under a tent. Enter the Athletics and Physical Education Departments, responsible for activating students’ muscles as well as minds.
Twenty-two years on from that July morning when he watched a hawk getting hassled by crows (the technical term for this behavior is “mobbing”), Bob Little “has been grateful for every day on our campus...an embarrassment of riches in terms of outdoor space.” That has remained true this school year, despite its massive challenges.
As Park navigated re-opening this past fall, Bob, partnering with Physical Education Department Head Michelle Young and an expanded roster of stalwart, energetic P.E. teachers, committed to lead outdoor, in-person classes whenever possible—in all but the nastiest weather conditions. Not only was this guided by common sense, it was prescribed by Massachusetts public health authorities. Creative thinking led to a range of new activities to supplement the usual P.E. repertoire—and opened up possibilities for the future. Students played badminton, golf, and archery on the fields, practiced basketball skills practice (no passing from player to player allowed), and street hockey on parking lots and the tennis court. When snow fell, there was sledding on Larz Anderson (what matters is the exercise of climbing up the 217' hill multiple times, not so much the sliding down).
Competitive athletics, meanwhile, express the skills and fitness honed in P.E. classes within a cooperative team context. In a typical year out on Park’s six playing fields (a truly remarkable number for any PreK–8 school), soccer, field hockey, flag football, lacrosse, softball, and track & field teammates train and compete. Cross country runners circumnavigate the campus perimeter on the Park “Loop,” venture to nearby Brookline Reservoir and Jamaica Pond, and cross Goddard Avenue to host an annual meet at Larz Anderson Park. The ice hockey team, too, benefits from Park’s neighboring resources, practicing on Larz Anderson’s outdoor rink at the break of dawn. In the late spring, “Total Day” brings students in Grades 5–8 outside to compete in field events.
This school year, team sports have continued, in altered form. “We’re just trying to keep the kids’ competitive juices flowing the best we can!” says Bob. In the fall, some virtual competition against other schools was possible for the cross country team; runners’ times were recorded as they completed matching distances at their respective schools. A similar approach should be possible for track & field this spring. But most sports are currently intramural, with practices grouped by grade as opposed to skill level. Bob notes the added challenge of recruiting teachers in a given grade to step in as coaches for that grade—necessary so as to maintain pandemic clustering protocols. All hands on deck.
OUR GRATEFUL STEWARDSHIP
Throughout the seasons, in good times and bad, a wealth of play, exploration, and learning happens outdoors at Park. The trees in our woods are unaware of human tribulations—but they can console and inspire us just the same. The grass of the fields, a carpet for running feet and rolling balls, grows towards the sun, drinks in the rain, lies dormant in winter. The worms in the garden soil go about their vital regenerative work. Attended by diligent caretakers but keeping its own counsel, the acreage surrounding Park’s school buildings has nurtured students, their families, faculty, and staff, for five decades and counting. The land was here before us, it will be here after us. What a remarkable privilege to avail ourselves of all it offers.
About the author: Park School lifer Cornelius Howland ’87 grew up in the neighborhood and walked to school every day for his ten years as a student. He is now the father of August, a current second grader, and serves as the co-editor of The Park Parent newsletter. An abridged version of this story is included in the Spring 2021 Park Parent.
