The Atlanta School is offering a summer camp to hone both expository and creative writing skills for Middle and Junior High School students from July 7 through July 18, 2008.  We will be focusing on basic grammar skills, writing essays based on summer reading assignments, and exploring approaches and techniques for creative writing projects.  During the afternoons, we will be watching movies and writing reviews, going on field trips with the goal of inspiring creative writing, and perhaps going for a swim or two.  From July 7 through July 15, the camp will run from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Those participants who have not been picked up by 3:15 p.m. will be in aftercare in the main TAS building until 5:00 p.m.  On Wednesday, July 16, we will be leaving for a two-night camping trip in the north Georgia mountains where we will read our creative writing projects around a camp-fire and play in the woods!  The cost of the Quill Camp is $450.00.  It’s not too late to register!  Call Paulette at (404)688-9550.

Whew!  We’ve done it!  The AT, baby!  Just a walk in the woods.  For six days, Doug and Jennifer led eight intrepid TAS Junior High students and alumni from Springer Mountain, the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, to Hog Pen Gap – a 40-mile trek that included the summit of no less than 10 named mountains.  There are too many tales to tell, but suffice it to say that our hikers’ collective sense of accomplishment is well-deserved and the spirit of adventure is alive and well.  We are planning on hiking from Hog Pen Gap to Unicoi Gap over a long weekend in the fall, and we are planning on hiking from Unicoi Gap into North Carolina next spring.  Newcomers are welcome!  Keep checking the TAS webpage.  For that matter, check the page in the near future for photographs. 

This past Sunday, the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s “@issue” section led off with a lengthy excerpt from a book by Jonathan Kozol entitled “Down with middle schools.” Though much of what he says is not applicable to the TAS experience, some of his comments strongly resonated with me. Kozol is opposed to the idea of separate “middle schools,” arguing that they should be incorporated into an upper level elementary school “so that we can exploit the attachments we have formed with children since they were in kindergarten or in first and second grades as barriers against [an] early loss of innocence.” Kozol goes on to point out that middle school-aged students could serve as mentors and team leaders to younger students, helping those younger students while “reinforcing their own competence . . . .” If this sounds familiar, it should. The middle school’s existence, structure, and philosophy is based in large part on these very concepts. What Kozol does not discuss is that having a middle school is an integral part of the entire TAS community, as much as is the Pre-K. Younger students form meaningful relationships with the “big kids,” the “big kids” are able to learn the importance of being role models, and teachers and parents are able to engage in dialogue on a wide variety of issues with a common base of departure. It is my belief that growing into a TAS high school is the next natural step. Community does not end with middle school, and high school students would add to the cross-age germination that currently exists. Furthermore, high school students are in need of a protective, caring, and nurturing environment that prepares them for college and independence. There has been a great deal of interest expressed over the past two years in exploring the creation of a TAS high school. Please join in the discussion, even if it is to express concerns.