Contra Costa anti-leaf blower group taking their message to the movies

Quiet Orinda, a well-organized group that is trying to get their city to ban leaf blowers, has created a short documentary that it will air at the California Independent Film Festival in Orinda in April.

The documentary has residents describing the reasons they moved to Orinda--its quiet, its beauty--and how they find it so disturbing when landscapers bring in blasting, shrieking leaf blowers to clean yards up.

You can view a trailer of the documentary at the Quiet Orinda website.

"Quiet Orinda was formed in 2009 by a group of Orinda residents concerned about the problems of air and noise pollution caused by the widespread use of leaf blowers in our city. Our aim is to educate the citizens of Orinda about healthier alternatives to leaf blowers, and to promote legislation to encourage these alternatives. We invite you to join with us today; please click on the “Register” button on our home page."

The Quiet Orinda folks are also gathering signatures and provide a link to a new report by Clean Air California that describes the air and noise pollution consequences of having three million leaf blowers in the state: "The majority are gasoline-powered leaf blowers. If growth trends continue, soon there will be more than 6 million leaf blowers in California, at which time, air pollution, water pollution, blown dust, and noise, will be twice as bad as today."

Readers of this blog indicate that they are not thrilled by the noise these machines make around Walnut Creek. But a 1990 Walnut Creek ordinance allows leaf blowers to operate within city limits during certain times and under certain conditions. The ordinance covering leaf blowers is in Municipal Code, under Title 4 (Public Welfare, Morals and Conduct), Chapter 6 (Nuisances), Article 2.


Under "Prohibited Noises Enumerated," and Maintenance Equipment it states: "The use and operation of any noise-creating commercial or residential landscaping or home maintenance equipment or tools including, but not limited to, hammers, blowers, trimmers, mowers, chainsaws, power fans or any engine, the operation of which causes noise due to the explosion of operating gases or fluids, other than between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. on weekdays and 9:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. on weekends and holidays. (§1, Ord. 1753, eff. November 8, 1990)."

Mothers behaving very badly to keep their kids from their fathers; sometimes resorting to kidnapping and murder

UPDATE: Since writing my initial post this morning about the arrest of Wendy Hill (left) on charges of kidnapping her 8-year-old daughter--and keeping the girl from her Walnut Creek father for 14 years--I thought more about what this story also says about how divorce and custody cases can get really nasty, and truly terrible things can happen. Angry exes use the kids as weapons, and then maneuver to deny each other access. The victims in all this are the kids; in fact, these custody battles often put the kids in serious danger.

Unfortuantely, some of the most notable recent cases in Contra Costa County involved mothers trying to keep their children from their fathers. So, I'm sure what I'm writing here will probably concern advocates for female victims of domestic violence. They will say these four cases don't reflect all the violent and controlling behavior perpetrated by men in custody battles. I'm sure that's true.

Still, women are capable of causing lots of damage themselves. Remember Kelli Nunuz?

In 2005, Nunez left prison after serving three years for abducting her own children, Anna and Emily, and keeping them from her estranged husband Danny. Kelli Nunez had been involved in a custody battle with her estranged husband Danny since 1999. During that fight she accused her ex-husband of abusing the girls. In 2002, she snatched the girls from a Lafayette daycare center, drove them to New York, flew back to San Francisco, and gave them to strangers, members of a San Jose group who was headed, it was reported by a convicted child molester. For six months, Nunez refused to tell authorities where her daughters were.

Two cases that I have personally written about involved children who wound up dead at the hands of their mothers.  

The first was the case of intelligent, outwardly devoted San Ramon mother, 38, who in 2003 killed her 3-year-old daughter and then herself.  As I learned through talking to her friends and family and reading her writings, Maegan Mundi was upset about having to share custody with her ex-husband, and became alarmed when she learned her ex-husband might block her effort to move out of state and take her daughter, Galadriel, with her.

Last summer, Judith Williams of Walnut Creek drove her 16-year-old son Adam, a Los Lomas High junior, to near the top of Mt. Diablo at dusk on a July Friday.  There, at a picnic area with its view of clear skies, the professional, seemingly happy mother, armed with a .357-caliber revolver, opened fire on her own son. She shot him first on the chest. After he fell to his knees, she put the gun to his head and fired again. Then she turned the gun on herself. Judith Williams' ex-husband described her as "angry" and suggested she was upset that he had moved back to Northern California and might want to spend more time with Adam.

Meanwhile, in the post I originally wrote this morning, I pointed to today's Contra Costa Times which has more details in a follow-up story on the case of Jessica Click-Hill, who was found by authorities this week. 

One point the story makes is that "parental and family abductions account for nearly 97 percent of child abduction reports in the state. In Contra Costa County, all 29 abductions reported in 2008 involved family, and just one of the 64 reported in Alameda County that year was committed by a nonrelative."

What is unusual in this case is the amount of time that passed --15 years--between the time of Click-Hill's disappearance and her recovery. The Times says: "According to Justice Department data culled by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, only 6 percent of children abducted by their parents are found more than six months past their reported disappearances." A Walnut Creek attorney who has specialized in family law for 36 years tells the Times that these cases usually last two or three months.

The mother, Wendy Hill, was found in Monrovia, east of Pasadena Tuesday, following a tip to a missing child center. That tip was forwarded to Walnut Creek police who, with the FBI, learned that Hill was living in Southern California under the alias Gail Jackson. 

Police arrested Hill, and brought her to Contra Costa County where she was booked in County Jail in Martinez on $350,000 bail.  Authorities found Jessica living in another state apart from her mother. In all those years, she had never had contact with her father, Dean Click, with whom she had been living with in 1995 when she was kidnapped.

Click told the Times that he divorced Wendy Hill in the early 1990s, and that he was granted primary custody of his daughter. His ex-wife and daughter disappeared when Jessica went for a visitation with her mother her Redlands.  Click talks about the "void" in his life," all the years with his daughters and milestones he missed out on: birthday parties, school events.

Walnut Creek joins with Lafayette, East Bay Park District and Muir Heritage Land Trust to purchase open space

Walnut Creek city staff will recommend that the city join with Lafayette, the East Bay Regional Parks District, and the Muir Heritage Land Trust to buy 22.6 acres of prominent hilltop land that is east of Acalanes High School and adjacent to Walnut Creek’s 170-acre Acalanes Open Space. (The beautiful photo comes from Bob Brittain who lives just below Acalanes Ridge.) 

The Haji family owns the property, which is also runs along the East Bay parks Briones-to-Mt. Diablo Regional Trail. Acquiring this land will bring to the public one of the most visible hilltops in all of central Contra Costa County—one that is visible from a dozen different cities, and all the way from the Carquinez Straits to the summit of Mount Diablo. The land will also provide a valuable corridor for people and widelife along this key ridgeline.

According to Walnut Creek’s Community Relations manager Gayle Vasser, the property owners have entered into an agreement to sell the property to the Muir Heritage Land Trust (MHLT) for $1.3 million.

The Walnut Creek City Council will consider a funding agreement on Tuesday, March 16 that would split the costs among the four parties.

Lafayette, Walnut Creek, and the EBRPD would each pay 30 percent of the purchase price, or $391,650. The Muir Heritage Land Trust would pay 10 percent of the purchase price, which is $130,550, But the trust would also be o be responsible for title, escrow and closing fees—and funding he maintenance, management, and operation of the property in perpetuity. The trust would also be responsible for other miscellaneous costs as well.

The parks district has the ability to purchase this property at an attractive price right now, thanks to the parks district’s Measure WW bond, which voters approved in 2008.

That measure provides funds that the parks district can use for capital projects, including land acquisition.  

The availability of this special parks and open space funding creates an opportunity for the district and cities to preserve valuable open space for public use even at a time when cities are struggling financially. 

Walnut Creek City Manager Gary Pokorny says this deal is remarkable for many many of the reasons stated above, but he added that in an era when some levels of government are not able to work internally to solve problems, “the voluntary cooperation of three public agencies, a private non-profit land trust, and dozens of private volunteers to make this acquisition happen is truly remarkable." 

Overheard: "Hey N-----!" A greeting between some Walnut Creek middle school boys

Picking up my son from school almost always proves to be an enlightening experience.

In the parking lot of 7-Eleven on Oak Road, one group of boys passed another, and a boy in one group said to a boy in the other, "Hey N----!" That's right, the N-word

The greeting was delivered in a friendly tone, no insult or hostility intended. The speaker was white, and so were the boy or boys he was addressing. So, it's not like this was the case of a white speaker saying something derogatory about the race of someone else. 

It was also clear that these boys didn't understood the significance of the word they were tossing around, that the N-word is pretty loaded in Western culture. As the Merriam-Webster Dictionary says, the N-word ranks as "perhaps the most offensive and inflammatory racial slur in English."

However, as the dictionary says, and as many of us know,the N-word's use "among blacks is not always intended or taken as offensive..." In the context of some segments of the African-American community, including the worlds of rap, hip-hop, and entertainment, the use of the word can be affectionite, familiar. However, it can be derisive, but acceptable to use. Example: In the HBO show The Wire, one Baltimore drug dealer would use the epithet when speaking with annoyance about another drug dealer who wasn't pulling his weight or is screwing him out of profits. The rapper Nas (pictured here at the Grammys) ignited a controversy when he announced that the name of his new 2008 album would be "Nigger." Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Fox News were not pleased, but many of Nas' entertainment colleagues came to his defense. Bottom line, the cultural acceptance for using the N-word exists--though it is controversial--and there are rules, though loosely defined, about when, how, and who can use this word. 

I don't think this cultural acceptance would extend to a  white Walnut Creek middle school student, although the kid was acting like it did. Offending someone was not his intention. Trying to look and sound cool, hip, street--that seemed to his the aim of him and his friends, at least one of whom was carrying a skateboard. 
Part of me was amused at the boy's misguided attempt to sound cool. Out of the mouths of 12-year-old white suburban boys.

But, another part of me thought, I hope some adult in his life has heard this word slip out of his mouth and given him a serious talk about why it's so massively uncool for him to use it.

I mentioned this incident to a co-worker, who, like me, grew up in Walnut Creek and attended local schools. Back when he was in middle school, he said, the massively uncool word that he and his buddies threw around at each other was "fag."

I'd say times have changed, but I think this f-word is still in play in 2010 amongst pre-adolescent and adolescent males.

Walnut Creek police, FBI find parent kidnap victim Jessica Click-Hill after 15 years, and arrest her mother

Jessica Click-Hill was 8 years old when she was reportedly last seen in Walnut Creek in August 1995. Authorities believe she was kidnapped by her non-custodial mother, Wendy Dawn Hill, then 37.

Walnut Creek police on Thursday announced that they, with the help of the FBI and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, had found Jessica, now 22 years old, and arrested her mother, now 52.

Police say that they had located Wendy Hill in Monrovia in Southern California, and arrested her on a warrant for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. This arrest follows recent information they received relating to the location of Hill and her daughter. After receiving this information, Walnut Creek police detectives immediately went to Los Angeles where they took custody of Hill.

According to Sgt. Tom Cashion, the FBI has also located and made contact with Jessica.

Early Thursday, according to Cashion, Walnut Creek detectives booked Hill into the Martinez county jail where she is being held on $250,000 bail.

Walnut Creek police have been working the case since 1995 when Jessica's father, Dean Click, reported that his wife had kidnapped their child.

Day of Action for students and teachers to protest statewide school budget cuts

The Mt. Diablo Education Association is organizating several demonstrations of students, teachers, and staff today  to protest $17 billion in state budget cuts to schools and colleges over the past two years.

These Mt. Diablo Unified efforts are part of March 4 Statewide Day of Action involving demonstrations around the state, including on college campuses such as UC Berkeley. A march and rally will take place in front of San Francisco' City Hall this evening.


These demonstrations are expected to be underway in various places around the state, starting soon.  In the Mt. Diablo Unified School District, students, staff and teachers at Clayton Valley High School were scheduled to begin their demonstration outside the school at 7 a.m. After-school demonstrations will take place at the following locations, according to the Mt. Diablo Education Association blog: Ygnacio Valley Rd and Oak Grove; Treat and Clayton Rd; and Monument and Contra Costa Boulevard.
 
Organizers note that "entire art,  music and PE programs have been eliminated, more than 16,000 educators were laid off, and large California corporations enjoyed tax breaks."

"This year, in the wake of all these cuts, our students and schools are being threatened again. We can’t let that happen."

Just this week, the Mt. Diablo school board is contemplating making $6 million in cuts every year to its $71-million-a-year special education program. Those cuts could mean that the district would eliminate the positions of 37 special education teachers and 65 special education assistants, according to the Mayor of Claycord. It could also mean that teachers in  classrooms would need to be trained to accommodate special education students in their non-special education classrooms.

Teen job fair in Walnut Creek Thursday; and the downtown library connection to my beloved summer job

I can't wait for my 11-year-old to get old enough to go out and get a job, and start bringing in some money to help keep me in living in the style to which I'd like to become accustomed! Oh, wait, a part-time, minimum-wage job won't do that for me? Especially in an expensive place like the Bay Area. Sigh. Another of my dreams dashed!

Anyway, many of us probably had our after-school or summer jobs as teen-agers, where we earned money to help buy clothes, pay for movie tickets, even to put away and save for college.

To help local teens from being bored or going broke this summer, the City of Walnut Creek is holding a Teen Job Fair Thursday from 3 to 6 p.m. There, the city will fill teens in about volunteer and summer jobs offered by the city. It is for teens 13 and up. This is a drop-in event--reservations are not required. The job fair will take place at the Civic Park Community Center.

OK, what was your after-school or summer job?

My first one was a disaster. I was hired to work as a cashier at the former Woolworth's in the Broadway Plaza. I always loved that Woolworth's, going in there to buy pet supplies, little trinkets. I thought it was cool to be able to work there. But, I was a horrible, terrible cashier. I was always mistyping the figures and causing over-rings, which would prompt the big, barrel-chested manager, who was carrying on a flirtation with a cute blond and more talented-cashier co-worker, to come barreling out to deal with my error. I lasted in the job about three weekends.

My next job was far more successful and fun. And, "Damn Library" fans, do you know what job that was? Shelving books at the old, now-torn-down library in Civic Park. Hmm. Would you call that the original "Damn Library"?

That was a great job. For one thing, it paid better than minimum-wage. I got to work with fun people--yes, those librarians are fun people. And, I got to be around books. Let's just say, I'd head out into the stacks with my cart of books, and sometime spend a little more time shelving than I needed.

The gun movement we started hearing about in our East Bay suburbs is now gaining nationwide attention

In Los Angeles! Virginia! The U.S. Supreme Court! Starbucks nationwide!

Back in January, we started hearing about members of Open Carry. Locally, this consists of a loosely organized Bay Area-based group that advocates the open display of firearms--that is, the display of unloaded firearms, as allowed by state law.

OpenCarry.org (which displays the photo shown here on its website) describes itself as "a pro-gun Internet community focused on the right to openly carry properly holstered handguns in daily American life." Open Carry demonstrations, which consist of people striding around in public places with their unloaded guns and ammunition clips strapped to their belts, have been popping up around the country for the past couple years.

There was a demonstration at a Livermore coffee shop in January. Then, Open Carry members came to Walnut Creek on February 6. They thought about meeting up at California Pizza Kitchen in Broadway Plaza, but CPK said they would prefer that these gun-toting guys go elsewhere. The Open Carry members received permission from Buckhorn Grill in Plaza Escuela, and about 100 Open Carry members, and their families, showed up...

The media, including yours truly, was there.

Buckhorn Grill later sent out an e-mail to customers, apologizing for their decision to welcome the Open Carry members.

Peet's Coffee and Tea also said no to Open Carry members--but not Starbucks. In fact, Starbucks has won many fans on the Open Carry side of the debate for its corporate policy, which effectively allows Open Carry members to wear their guns in their stores.

According to an Associated Press story, published Tuesday:

"Even in some 'open carry' states, businesses are allowed to ban guns in their stores. And some have, creating political confrontations with gun owners. But Starbucks, the largest chain targeted, has refused to take the bait, saying in a statement this month that it follows state and local laws and has its own safety measures in its stores."

This story depicts an Open Carry member walking into a Starbucks in Virginia, "handgun strapped to his waist," and ordering "a banana Frappuccino with a cinammon bun."

This story goes on to point out that the fight for retailers' support nationally heated up in January when "gun enthusiasts in Northern California began walking into Starbucks and other businesses. ... As it spread to other states, gun control groups quickly complained about the parade of firearms in local stores.

But Starbucks' choice to serve Open Carry guys is attracting fierce opposition by gun control groups. Among groups fighting the Open Cary cause is the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. According to the AP, the Brady Campaign has circulated a petition that attracted 26,000 signatures demanding that Starbucks "offer espress shots, not gunshots" and declare its coffeehouses "gun-free zones."

Walnut Creek schools district cuts proposed: Class sizes may be affected, a middle school vice principal position eliminated, teacher furloughs instituted

Walnut Creek School District Superintendent Patty Wool sent out this bulletin to parents, letting them know about recommendations made by a Budget Review Committee to cut $1 million from the 2010-11 academic year budget.  These recommended cuts will be presented to the school board on March 8.

As Wool says: "Due to dwindling state funds to school districts, the Walnut Creek School District must cut $1 million dollars from its budget for the 2010-11 school year. During February, three groups--employees, managers, and parents--met separately and created three different cost containment lists. Then on February 24, the Budget Review Committee--comprised of two school board members, two principals, the superintendent, the chief business official, two parents, three classified employees, and four teachers--met and created the 'Draft Cost Containment List' that will be presented to the Governing Board on March 8."

Here are some highlights (or lowlights, rather) of the "Draft Cost Containment List":

District Office Savings:

--Superintendent Secretary, 20 percent, $18,990
--Director of Facilities 20 percent, $24,066 as of Sept 1
--Tech Support, $73,808
--Purchasing, $29,447

--Sub Coordinator, $30,318

--No Summer School (Regular Ed), $35,000

TOTAL: Around $200,000 

Special Education Savings

--Contracted Speech Therapist, $16,000

--School Psych .10, $8,403

--Para-three hour, $8,791 (no lay off)

--Speech therapist .4, $32,323

--Guest speech program, $12,529

--Change of student placement, $33,700

TOTAL: around $100,000

Staff and teacher salary savings--Furlough, 2 days (One staff development day; one student day), $200,000

--Reduce 1 Middle School vice principal, $120,000

--Reduce one Coach, (If State budget crisis continues, cut coach program entirely for 2011-12) $80,000

--25 percent cut from SIP, $50,000

Class sizes and related issues

--Efficiently fill classes to ratios implemented in 2009-10, $260,000-$300,000

--25:1 K-3

--28:1 4-5

--Cap middle school core at 32:1

--Eliminate the Walnut Creek Intermediate chair prep period, $48,000

Savings to be Worked On:

--Medi-Cal Billing, $100,000

--Mats & amp; Uniforms $20,000

--Food Served at Events: $2,000

--Strategic Planning, $7,000

--Subbing: Managers to Sub 10-11, $3,000

--Roto Rooter: $4,000

--Facility Use/Contracts - Renegotiate. Amount TBD

--Close district office every Friday/employees work 10-hour days: $1,000

Wool concludes by saying: "We regret that any of these cuts are necessary; however, we need to make these cuts so that the Walnut Creek School District will be able to remain solvent in these difficult fiscal times."

Swirl and sip at Walnut Creek's burgeoning wine bar scene

OK, to describe it as a wine bar scene might be a bit much, but Walnut Creek has two renowned restaurants (Prima Ristorante and Va de Vi) known for their attention to wine and their ability to create fun wine tasting opportunities.

Meanwhile, establishments whose focus is on the pleasure of tasting and enjoying wine are moving in, and, apparently adding something new to the downtown cultural, entertainment, and dining scene.

I've yet to stop in at Artisan Wine Lounge on Bonanza Street, but it sounds like it's thriving, according to a co-worker who had a big girls' night out planned last Friday. Meanwhile, in its February issue, Diablo magazine celebrates the booming wine bar scene in the East Bay suburbs and describes Artisan as one highlight of this scene. "Come worship the Enomatic wine-pouring machine at this sleek little haven. Just pick a wine you want to try, insert your card, put your glass under the spigot, et voilà. Wine selections reflect the taste of co-owner Lena Chu, who lived in Spain but also loves Napa."

Just today, I received an e-mail about how Artisan's owners demonstrate their interest in enhancing local culture by showcasing the works of local artists. Through April 24, the wine lounge will display the works of Roger Sperling, a Walnut Creek artist and a former engineer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. According to a note I received, "When he retired his wife, Nancy, a watercolor student of Pat Strout, challenged him to try painting. He signed up for Pat’s acrylic class at Mount Diablo Adult Education. Roger discovered that his most popular subjects have been 'edible' still life and the slopes of Mount Diablo. "

Over on Locust Street, diagonal from the Lesher Center, Walnut Creek natives Jim and Jennifer Telford are putting finishing touches on their Residual Sugar wine bar (pictured above), hoping to open it April. Jim is a trained sommelier, and says the wine bar will offer 800 wines from around the world for taste by the glass or in flights or for sale.

Last week, I stopped in and saw the spacious, light-filled space and met Jim. One wall is lined ceiling high with a rich, dark-wood wine rack. On the opposite side runs a long marble-topped bar, where tastings will take place. Near the front, Jim said, there will be tables. The bar will serve small cheese plates and other appetizers, but Jim said that  the emphasis will be on wine, not on serving food.

While Jim says his bar will definitely feature and celebrate locallly produced wines, he added that he wants to also customers the good value now available from wines made in Europe or South America. The bar will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., with the hope that it will become a popular spot for patrons of the Lesher Center to stop in before or after performances.

Crime Monday in Walnut Creek: police looking for man who robbed Chase Bank, armed with an, uh, laptop (?)

Well, we don't know if he was carrying a laptop, but he was described as carrying a bag that might be used to carry a laptop. Sorry, that little detail jumped out at me, making me wonder if we're dealing with a new group of people deciding to rob banks in these (still) difficult economic times. ...  

Anyway, here are the basics of Monday's second robbery in Walnut Creek. Earlier Monday, as I reported, four suspects were arrested in connection with a carjacking that took place at the north end of Main Street. 

Here are the details of Monday afternoon's robbery at Chase Bank. The information comes courtesy of  Walnut Creek's Lt. Tim Barrett.

The robbery was reported at 3:05 p.m. at the bank at 1390 South Main Street. Walnut Creek police dispatch received a 911 call. When officers arrived seconds later, they learned that the robber entered the bank, said he had a weapon and demanded money. He was given an undisclosed amount of cash and left the bank.

No one was hurt, and police searched for the robber, but couldn't find him.

He was described as a white or mixed-raced man, in his late 20s. He was about 200 pounds and of average build and height. He was wearing a black a blue striped button-down shirt, a beanie-style hat, and carrying a "laptop-style" bag. The other thing that stands out is that he was also said to have "silver upper front teeth."

Anyone with information on this robbery should call the Walnut Creek Police Department at (925) 943-5844.

Four in custody on suspicion of early Monday morning carjacking

Walnut Creek police report that four Concord men are in custody Monday following an armed robbery that occurred at Second Avenue and North Main Street at about 2:15 a.m.

Police say that the victim and a friend were approached by a man, armed with a gun, who demanded money from them. A second man arrived, and a struggle broke out, and the two robbers fled in the victim’s car.

Police later found the two robbers. An investigation led to the arrest of two more suspects, who were identified as being involved in planning and executing the robbery.  All four were arrested on suspicion of robbery and carjacking and transported to the Contra Costa County Jail for booking.

The four are identified as:

Christian Hernandez, 20: Raul Valle, 21; Cruz Jacobo, 22; Javier Perez, 20.

Why are schools so enamoured of group projects?

For my son's PE/health class, he had been assigned to work in a group with about two other boys to put together a project on treating wounds. This project had been going on all week. He and his good friend worked together after school on a writing portion of the project. Another boy was to put together a visual presentation.


Well, on Friday he came home to announce that his group failed the project, and he was feeling pretty disconcerted and upset. Apparently, his good friend took home a copy of the written portion of the project, and it was his job to bring it to school on Friday to present. The boy who was to put together the visual portion of the project--well he didn't do it, or he forgot to bring it.

I'm sure there is a learning experience here--about how sometimes in life people you rely on goof up and forget, or goof off and don't pull their weight. But was this learning experience worth all the time it took? Or the stress and potential bitterness it caused? Does this particular group strategy help kids better master the subject matter they are learning?

According to Kidshealth.org, a website my son has himself used to research topics, group projects are popular in school because:

Few of us act alone in the real world. Most things are done with the help or ideas of other people. Group projects are great practice for high school, college, and real life, when you will probably have a job that requires working with others. Right now, group projects can be fun and they often allow you to do a bigger, more interesting project than you could alone. With group work, you can actually learn more in less time.


Group projects also give you a chance to get to know kids you might not otherwise know or talk with — maybe the quiet kid in the third row, the boy who lived down the street when you were in kindergarten, or the girl you're sometimes scared to say "hi" to at recess.


Group projects are also a great way to practice skills you're not so sure of. For example: working on a deadline, staying organized, or being patient. And if you're a little nervous talking in front of a group, a joint project can help you become more comfortable with it.

But as this website also points out, group projects can be stressful because someone may end up doing all the work if the rest of the team can't quite get it together.

I very much understand the value of kids learning to work together to complete a project. But I wonder if teachers are relying on the group project strategy too much, or employing it in situations that are not ideal.

I don't remember doing many group projects in school at all--way back when. I have a vague memory of doing one or two of them in a seventh grade social studies class, when we studied ancient civilizations. And, I don't remember it being stressful, though I'm pretty sure I lucked out and was seated at a table with other smart girls (yeah, I was a smart, focused student in school) who were all motivated to do well. No slackers.

I'd say my best preparation for the adult workplaces I'd eventually find myself was being involved in high school theater productions. Putting on a show, whether you were the star, the student director, or part of the back-stage crew, was very much a team effort. You had to learn to show up, be ready with your lines or your back-stage equipment, to do things on cue, to see your responsibilities as contributing to the greater whole. I'm sure kids learn similar team skills by participating in other sorts of team activities: team sports, Scouts, debate team, music.

And, maybe herein lies a key to a kid and teen enjoying a positive, educational, enriching group experience: the project involves a group of students who are all committed to its success. That's because they are interested in the subject, and because they choose to put themselves in a situation in which they engage with it.

Kids join extracurricular sports, arts, and other group activities because those activities interest them. They even become passionate about them. They get to stretch themselves physically, intellectually, creatively, socially. They want to do well at it, and they like being around other kids who share this common interest--and even passion.

So, probably, the best setting for kids to do group projects are not in classrooms, but outside of classrooms, when their participation is voluntary. Still, I can see group projects working in certain academic settings, in elective classes that the kids choose to take--or in specialized core English, math, history and science classes that kids take not just because they want to get college credit but because they are interested in the topic.

Recently, my son started an elective home ec class. He is interested in learning to cook. Yippee for me! (Actually, he and I spent yesterday with my sister, a former middle and high school foods teacher, preparing a six-course family dinner--pork tenderloin, creamy polenta, salad with pear dressing and goat cheese. My son put together a really exquisite "mile-high" chocolate cake, learning all about sifting, double-boiling chocolate, and the chemical reactions of baking soda, baking powder and salt in baking!) But, back to his home ec class and its relevance to this group project discussion: As my sister explained, and as I remember from middle school home ec, he'll end up working in groups in the kitchen. And, I can see that working out just fine.

He wants to be in that class, and putting together a meal can lend itself very well to a group effort. Yesterday's dinner was a group effort among the three of us, and maybe herein also lies another key to a successful group project. It has to be a project that naturally, organically, lends itself to a team effort.

I'm not sure a health class lesson on treating wounds was best served by a group project. For one thing, we're talking about health class. With all due respect to the teacher and even to the topic--yes, it's important for kids to learn to lead healthy lives--health class is one of those mandatory courses all students have to take but generally don't care that much about. So, you're not going to get the kind of commitment involved in making a group project pull together.

For another, we get back to whether this lesson was best suited to a group effort. Dividing up that lesson into a written and visual portion--sure, it can be done--but that structure seems artificial and contrived. It's a division of labor and structure for a presentation that I suspect was created merely for the sake of doing a group project, rather than for helping kids better grasp the subject matter.

So, those are my gripes and theories about school group projects. What has been your experience, or that of your kids? And, if any teachers want to share their thoughts, please do so.

Save the Date! For the “Damn library’s” grand opening in July and a really cool art show that will accompany it

Okay, library supporters, before you take offense at my continued use of the “damn library” reference, consider that perhaps some readers and I have adopted it as a term of endearment.


Anyway, the library will celebrate its grand opening July 17. I’ll keep you posted as I get more details on what this extravaganza entails. Sorry to library naysayers, but I like how the library is looking. I drive along Civic Drive towards Walnut Creek Intermediate every morning. I catch a glimpse of it through the branches of the trees outside City Hall and Civic Park, and I think its design fits in nicely with the setting.

Meanwhile, I’ve received word that the Bedford Gallery is putting together an exhibition whose theme ties in to the library’s opening. Unbound: A National Exhibition of Book Art (July 1-August 22) celebrates the book as an art form. The show will feature artists who make one-of-a-kind art books as well as artists who disassemble pages, covers, and spines to create three-dimensional works.

I became somewhat familiar with this art form while getting a master’s degree at Mills College in Oakland in the late 1990s. Mills, which is well known for its fine arts programs, also offers a pioneering program in book art, where students learn about the conceptual, theoretical, historical, and craft foundations of contemporary artists' bookmaking. (This photo shows a work by Julie Chen, a professor of book arts at Mills College, who is scheduled to participate in the show.)

One wonders with the introduction of the Kindle, IPads, and the whole concept of e-books, whether real books (you know with paper and bindings) will become a thing of the past--or if the whole art of bookmaking will transform into something digital.