Published in the Current
This year, freshmen at Cape Elizabeth High School have started their science learning with physics rather than earth and physical science – a new trend in education that says the way science has traditionally been taught is backward.
The science faculty have had to work hard to restructure the physics curriculum to depend less on math and more on the concepts of physics itself, but so far the project seems to be a success. The idea is that physics offers a big picture look at how the universe works and is therefore the most logical starting point in science education.
Department head and physics teacher, Michael Efron, said some tweaking has been required. The year started with four sections of honors and five sections of college prep classes. Three of the college prep sections had stronger students and two sections were of what Efron called students with a “weaker background,” not only in science but also in math and English.
“We struggled with how best to handle that,” Efron said. In the end, two sub-levels of college prep were set up, and some students, with the permission of their parents and other teachers, were rearranged to make the classes of more equal abilities.
“Then we could teach everybody at a better pace,” Efron said.
It has presaged a change in the science curriculum across the grades.
“We really want to offer three levels in all the base courses,” Efron said. That way, the department will be able to meet more students’ needs.
Other changes have been as significant and with good educational payoff.
Physics teacher Michael O’Brien said teaching physics to ninth-graders rather than seniors doesn’t mean teaching any different subject matter, though it does mean using less math. “It’s not the physics that people think of, with all the formulas and equations,” O’Brien said.
Instead, students learn the concepts relating to the way the world works. “Physics explains the natural world,” O’Brien said.
In the honors classes, students do use more math than in the college prep level, but while most of the students have finished the Algebra I course, none have had calculus or other advanced mathematics.
Next year, there may be a requirement for students in the honors level to have completed Algebra I, Efron said, but that remains under discussion.
But this year’s honors freshmen are doing just fine.
“They’re stepping up to the plate,” said teacher Courtney Ferrell, who was hired this year specifically with the transition in mind. She can teach both physics and chemistry.
The book the students use doesn’t involve much math. On a recent test supplied with the class’s textbook, Ferrell said, the average score was a 92, indicating, she said, that they can handle the work just fine.
Physics teacher Kerry Kertes teaches freshman honors classes, too. “The math we give them is the same math I give my seniors,” he said. “The bar’s pretty high, but I’d rather have kids reach up.”
During class time, Kertes meets with students who are taking the Algebra I class this year, to make sure they are keeping up.
The class includes as many as three or four demonstrations each week, plus two lab classes. There is also group work in small and large groups.
“The world of physics is a natural, everyday thing,” Kertes said. But not everything is as easy to explain to a freshman as to a senior. Examples using cars were common for senior physics students. That has to change for freshmen, who haven’t yet gotten their licenses.
Also changing is the level of independence students have. Where seniors taking physics would be able to read the text on their own as homework, Efron now reads the text along with some of his classes, discussing the questions that come up along the way.
Looking to next year, Kertes, who also teaches chemistry, sees that physics will lay a strong foundation for chemistry, which will be followed by biology junior year.
Doug Worthley, who teaches chemistry, said there will be new concepts next year, but the same process.
Having the ideas on a larger scale is better to do first. With the students’ experience in physics, he will be able to show that the same thing that happens between two balls hitting each other happens to two atoms hitting each other.
“The biology teachers just finished chemistry,” Worthley said, setting up the cellular basis for this year’s biology. When the freshmen get to biology in two years, that won’t be necessary.
“The sciences aren’t really separate,” Worthley said.
The opportunities don’t stop there. The new order of science classes allows for new electives in science for seniors. Not only will the marine biology and anatomy and genetics classes be available, but others are under development as well.
Efron said he may have found one class idea, looking at the philosophical implications of physics in terms of where humans fit in the scheme of things.
“If the world really works this way, where does that leave us,” Efron asked. Most of the freshmen, he said, seem uninterested, while his seniors are fascinated by it.
The students, too, are enjoying it, though they are not in a position to see the overall picture just yet. Freshmen Casey Pearson and Caroline Etnier said they are enjoying the class. Both had been wary of not knowing enough math, but it hasn’t been a problem so far, they said.
Thursday, December 19, 2002
Teen host of underage party tells her side
Published in the Current
Cape High School Principal Jeff Shedd has taken his campaign against teen drinking, drugging and partying to a new level, now having scofflaws tell
their stories publicly or face more conventional punishment.
A Nov. 29 party in town prompted Shedd to begin enforcing a long-ignored school rule preventing students from hosting or attending parties where alcohol and drugs are being consumed.
Allie Stevens, a junior at CEHS and a member of the chool’s state champion swim team, told the Current she unwittingly became the host of a party the day after Thanksgiving, while her father was away from home. She said she was given the opportunity to lessen her punishment by talking to the press.
Though he could not comment on specifics, Shedd said no other students were disciplined.
He did say the incidents at Stevens’s home contributed to his decision to tighten restrictions on teen partiers.
According to swim coach Kerry Kertes, Stevens is missing three swim meets for a combination of infractions, including the party and another unrelated violation of team rules. The last meet was Thursday against Cheverus.
Stevens ended up as the host of the party, but says she neither instigated it or consumed alcohol or drugs once it began.
She said she doesn’t understand why the party is the school’s business. “It happened outside of school,” she said.
Student-athletes are required to sign a contract in which they pledge not to drink or do drugs during sports seasons, regardless of the hour or location.
Depending on the type and number of violations, as well as how the school finds out about them, breaches of the contract are punishable by suspensions from games or meets, or from teams entirely.
Stevens said the contract doesn’t apply to her, in this case, because she was not drinking or doing drugs.
Shedd said he is now enforcing a “long-standing” rule relating to “substance abuse by (students) off school grounds and outside of school hours,” which he warned parents about in a Dec. 12 letter.
Students who find themselves hosting parties should call parents or police to end the party or face disciplinary action at school, Shedd advised in the letter. Students attending parties with drugs or alcohol present should leave or face investigation for possible violations of school rules.
At the party
The party in question began the evening of Nov. 29, as a group of friends got together at Stevens’ Shore Road home intending to go see a movie, Stevens said.
The teens never made it to the movie, because other teens – including some kids from other towns – had heard that the adults in the home were away, and arrived uninvited, with alcohol and drugs.
“People just started showing up at my house,” Stevens said. About 60 people were at the party. Some were high school students, others recent graduates and still others were people from other towns. They were drinking and smoking, though nothing in the house was damaged, Stevens said.
Around 10:30 p.m., the police showed up, responding to an anonymous tip. They called Allie’s father, Dan Stevens, who owns the home, and got permission to go inside, police said.
Officers broke the party up without issuing any summonses or arresting anyone. Police Chief Neil Williams said, “it was so out of control and overwhelming” that they wanted to end it quickly.
Allie’s mother, Karen Stevens, lives nearby and went over to see what was going on. She saw a lot of kids and a lot of alcohol – as many as three cases of beer, she said.
All of the kids denied to police and to Karen that they had been drinking.
A mother’s reaction
“It was a real eye-opener for me,” Karen said.
When she got home, she called parents of kids she had seen at the party and told them what she had seen. Some of the parents told her they knew their kids were there, and their kids had said they weren’t drinking.
After the weekend, she called the school and told Assistant Principal Mark Tinkham what had happened.
“I know that my daughter was concerned that kids wouldn’t be her friends anymore because of me talking with Mark Tinkham about it,” Karen said. But that didn’t stop her. "I feel like I had to say something. I feel that as parents we are responsible for our own children.”
She said she has heard that kids feel like they have to drink to have fun. “I just don’t understand that mentality, ” Karen said. And further, “I don’t agree with it – it’s illegal.”
She agreed with kids’ concerns that there is not a lot to do, socially, in Cape Elizabeth.
“There’s a nice community center now, and if they made it more attractive to kids” it could help the social situation in Cape, Karen said.
“I just think basically the kids just want to hang out with their friends,” Karen said.
Kids who don’t drink will spend time with drinking friends, just for the social interaction, she said.
“I don’t think these kids understand” the consequences of drinking, she said. One way to help them understand would be “if more parents would speak up.”
She felt obligated to do something as a parent, but also because it isn’t just athletes who sign a contract to avoid alcohol and drugs. “I signed that contract also.”
She is grateful the school administration is making an effort to address the problem.
“I’m just glad that the school is taking the stand that they have, and I hope more parents will come forward,” Karen said.
Many parents, she said, don’t want their kids to have to miss sporting events, but that’s not the worst that could happen.
“I thought, ‘This is crazy. ’ I don’t want to end up going to some kid’s funeral,” Karen said.
Allie’s father, Dan Stevens, told the Current he did not have time to talk about the incident until after the holidays.
Not just one incident
Police Chief Williams said partying hasn’t increased or decreased since he was a young man growing up in town, but he welcomed the help from the schools to cut down on a problem that won’t go away. He said the renewed enforcement has already prevented one party, originally planned for Dec. 13.
The mother of a 14-year-old student was out of town for nearly a week, and the student was supposed to be staying with a family member elsewhere in town. The student’s peers found out about the empty house and decided to have a party, despite the student’s own desire not to, Williams said.
“Here’s another example of parents leaving 14- or 15-year-old kids home alone,” Williams said. “You’re asking for disaster. ”
The new enforcement at the school, Williams said, was the deterring factor for the teen, who Williams said is an athlete and worried about being kicked off a team.
Allie Stevens doesn’t face that, because her party happened before Shedd announced the rule enforcement.
Allie said she had gone to similar parties at other people’s homes when parents weren’t present and would go in the future.
“You’re not supposed to do it, but kids do it anyway,” Allie said. “Our parents did it when they were growing up,” she said.
“Kids know how to handle it responsibly,” Allie said, adding after a moment’s thought that the phrase “drinking responsibly” may not make much sense for teenagers.
Today’s teens are careful to have designated drivers, she said. And breaking up the party is difficult. As the teen supposedly in charge of the house, “there’s nothing you can do,” Allie said, when people just keep coming in. She said Shedd had told her that she should call the police if such an incident happens again.
But, she said, that’s unreasonable. “I’d be the laughingstock of the school if I called the cops on my own party,” Allie said.
Williams said some teens have called the police on parties at their own houses, when things get too big or out of hand, though such instances are “very rare.”
Teens need to gather, Allie said, and if it’s not going to happen in someone’s home, it will be elsewhere.
Cape needs “a place to hang out where everyone can go,” she said.
Otherwise, they’ll end up in somebody’s home, when the parents aren’t there.
“Unfortunately, nowadays you have to cover all your bases if you’re not going to take your son or daughter on your trip,” Williams said.
Parents can also give police a letter allowing officers to enter their homes and property if there is a party occurring, Williams said. Without that, it can be hard for police to get access to a house to stop a party.
Parents, whether home or not, can be held civilly liable for damages if teens get injured or killed following a party on their property, Williams said.
“It’s a parental issue,” Williams said. “Know where your kids are, and check on them.” Call houses where your kids say they will be, and trust parental instincts. “If it feels wrong, it probably is wrong,” he said. He also encouraged parents to impose “real punishments” on kids who violate laws and family rules.
Cape High School Principal Jeff Shedd has taken his campaign against teen drinking, drugging and partying to a new level, now having scofflaws tell
their stories publicly or face more conventional punishment.
A Nov. 29 party in town prompted Shedd to begin enforcing a long-ignored school rule preventing students from hosting or attending parties where alcohol and drugs are being consumed.
Allie Stevens, a junior at CEHS and a member of the chool’s state champion swim team, told the Current she unwittingly became the host of a party the day after Thanksgiving, while her father was away from home. She said she was given the opportunity to lessen her punishment by talking to the press.
Though he could not comment on specifics, Shedd said no other students were disciplined.
He did say the incidents at Stevens’s home contributed to his decision to tighten restrictions on teen partiers.
According to swim coach Kerry Kertes, Stevens is missing three swim meets for a combination of infractions, including the party and another unrelated violation of team rules. The last meet was Thursday against Cheverus.
Stevens ended up as the host of the party, but says she neither instigated it or consumed alcohol or drugs once it began.
She said she doesn’t understand why the party is the school’s business. “It happened outside of school,” she said.
Student-athletes are required to sign a contract in which they pledge not to drink or do drugs during sports seasons, regardless of the hour or location.
Depending on the type and number of violations, as well as how the school finds out about them, breaches of the contract are punishable by suspensions from games or meets, or from teams entirely.
Stevens said the contract doesn’t apply to her, in this case, because she was not drinking or doing drugs.
Shedd said he is now enforcing a “long-standing” rule relating to “substance abuse by (students) off school grounds and outside of school hours,” which he warned parents about in a Dec. 12 letter.
Students who find themselves hosting parties should call parents or police to end the party or face disciplinary action at school, Shedd advised in the letter. Students attending parties with drugs or alcohol present should leave or face investigation for possible violations of school rules.
At the party
The party in question began the evening of Nov. 29, as a group of friends got together at Stevens’ Shore Road home intending to go see a movie, Stevens said.
The teens never made it to the movie, because other teens – including some kids from other towns – had heard that the adults in the home were away, and arrived uninvited, with alcohol and drugs.
“People just started showing up at my house,” Stevens said. About 60 people were at the party. Some were high school students, others recent graduates and still others were people from other towns. They were drinking and smoking, though nothing in the house was damaged, Stevens said.
Around 10:30 p.m., the police showed up, responding to an anonymous tip. They called Allie’s father, Dan Stevens, who owns the home, and got permission to go inside, police said.
Officers broke the party up without issuing any summonses or arresting anyone. Police Chief Neil Williams said, “it was so out of control and overwhelming” that they wanted to end it quickly.
Allie’s mother, Karen Stevens, lives nearby and went over to see what was going on. She saw a lot of kids and a lot of alcohol – as many as three cases of beer, she said.
All of the kids denied to police and to Karen that they had been drinking.
A mother’s reaction
“It was a real eye-opener for me,” Karen said.
When she got home, she called parents of kids she had seen at the party and told them what she had seen. Some of the parents told her they knew their kids were there, and their kids had said they weren’t drinking.
After the weekend, she called the school and told Assistant Principal Mark Tinkham what had happened.
“I know that my daughter was concerned that kids wouldn’t be her friends anymore because of me talking with Mark Tinkham about it,” Karen said. But that didn’t stop her. "I feel like I had to say something. I feel that as parents we are responsible for our own children.”
She said she has heard that kids feel like they have to drink to have fun. “I just don’t understand that mentality, ” Karen said. And further, “I don’t agree with it – it’s illegal.”
She agreed with kids’ concerns that there is not a lot to do, socially, in Cape Elizabeth.
“There’s a nice community center now, and if they made it more attractive to kids” it could help the social situation in Cape, Karen said.
“I just think basically the kids just want to hang out with their friends,” Karen said.
Kids who don’t drink will spend time with drinking friends, just for the social interaction, she said.
“I don’t think these kids understand” the consequences of drinking, she said. One way to help them understand would be “if more parents would speak up.”
She felt obligated to do something as a parent, but also because it isn’t just athletes who sign a contract to avoid alcohol and drugs. “I signed that contract also.”
She is grateful the school administration is making an effort to address the problem.
“I’m just glad that the school is taking the stand that they have, and I hope more parents will come forward,” Karen said.
Many parents, she said, don’t want their kids to have to miss sporting events, but that’s not the worst that could happen.
“I thought, ‘This is crazy. ’ I don’t want to end up going to some kid’s funeral,” Karen said.
Allie’s father, Dan Stevens, told the Current he did not have time to talk about the incident until after the holidays.
Not just one incident
Police Chief Williams said partying hasn’t increased or decreased since he was a young man growing up in town, but he welcomed the help from the schools to cut down on a problem that won’t go away. He said the renewed enforcement has already prevented one party, originally planned for Dec. 13.
The mother of a 14-year-old student was out of town for nearly a week, and the student was supposed to be staying with a family member elsewhere in town. The student’s peers found out about the empty house and decided to have a party, despite the student’s own desire not to, Williams said.
“Here’s another example of parents leaving 14- or 15-year-old kids home alone,” Williams said. “You’re asking for disaster. ”
The new enforcement at the school, Williams said, was the deterring factor for the teen, who Williams said is an athlete and worried about being kicked off a team.
Allie Stevens doesn’t face that, because her party happened before Shedd announced the rule enforcement.
Allie said she had gone to similar parties at other people’s homes when parents weren’t present and would go in the future.
“You’re not supposed to do it, but kids do it anyway,” Allie said. “Our parents did it when they were growing up,” she said.
“Kids know how to handle it responsibly,” Allie said, adding after a moment’s thought that the phrase “drinking responsibly” may not make much sense for teenagers.
Today’s teens are careful to have designated drivers, she said. And breaking up the party is difficult. As the teen supposedly in charge of the house, “there’s nothing you can do,” Allie said, when people just keep coming in. She said Shedd had told her that she should call the police if such an incident happens again.
But, she said, that’s unreasonable. “I’d be the laughingstock of the school if I called the cops on my own party,” Allie said.
Williams said some teens have called the police on parties at their own houses, when things get too big or out of hand, though such instances are “very rare.”
Teens need to gather, Allie said, and if it’s not going to happen in someone’s home, it will be elsewhere.
Cape needs “a place to hang out where everyone can go,” she said.
Otherwise, they’ll end up in somebody’s home, when the parents aren’t there.
“Unfortunately, nowadays you have to cover all your bases if you’re not going to take your son or daughter on your trip,” Williams said.
Parents can also give police a letter allowing officers to enter their homes and property if there is a party occurring, Williams said. Without that, it can be hard for police to get access to a house to stop a party.
Parents, whether home or not, can be held civilly liable for damages if teens get injured or killed following a party on their property, Williams said.
“It’s a parental issue,” Williams said. “Know where your kids are, and check on them.” Call houses where your kids say they will be, and trust parental instincts. “If it feels wrong, it probably is wrong,” he said. He also encouraged parents to impose “real punishments” on kids who violate laws and family rules.
Preschoolers play at Children’s Museum
Published in the Current
Anne Belden of Cape Elizabeth is pioneering a new set of programs at the Children’s Museum of Maine in Portland and wants parents of preschoolers throughout the area to come play and learn.
She started working there in the summer and the new activities are taking off. They rotate between “KinderCooks,” “KinderTravel, ” “Silly Science” and “Famous Birthdays,” each with its own theme and activity, as well as chances to learn and play.
“I try to do a wide variety of things,” Belden said, including multicultural events and ones related to holidays or seasons when appropriate.
For example, a recent event involved exploring German traditions for Christmas, with gifts given in shoes.
Another had Florence Olebe of Portland’s Ezo African Restaurant come in to show the kids how to make traditional African foods. The kids were able to help roll out dough and fill pastries with a mixture of vegetables and spices, and got to sample the goods after Olebe cooked them.
The kids who attended enjoyed it, smiling and laughing throughout the program. They were eager to participate, and the parents enjoyed it too, learning about African food as well.
“It’s really wonderful,” said one mother, who was there with her daughter and a friend. They come just about every week, the woman said, and really like the variety of the programs.
Two other women brought their children, and though it was their first time, said they really enjoyed it too.
“It’s a different kind of program each week,” Belden said.
For Neil Armstrong’s birthday Aug. 5, the kids learned about walking on the moon, and for Mickey Mouse’s birthday Nov. 18 they got to make art relating to Mickey Mouse and then learned about the d i fferences between rats and mice.
The Children’s Museum of Maine also has members-only programs for toddlers on Monday, and toddlers and preschoolers on Thursdays, as well as other activities less regularly, Belden said.
Anne Belden of Cape Elizabeth is pioneering a new set of programs at the Children’s Museum of Maine in Portland and wants parents of preschoolers throughout the area to come play and learn.
She started working there in the summer and the new activities are taking off. They rotate between “KinderCooks,” “KinderTravel, ” “Silly Science” and “Famous Birthdays,” each with its own theme and activity, as well as chances to learn and play.
“I try to do a wide variety of things,” Belden said, including multicultural events and ones related to holidays or seasons when appropriate.
For example, a recent event involved exploring German traditions for Christmas, with gifts given in shoes.
Another had Florence Olebe of Portland’s Ezo African Restaurant come in to show the kids how to make traditional African foods. The kids were able to help roll out dough and fill pastries with a mixture of vegetables and spices, and got to sample the goods after Olebe cooked them.
The kids who attended enjoyed it, smiling and laughing throughout the program. They were eager to participate, and the parents enjoyed it too, learning about African food as well.
“It’s really wonderful,” said one mother, who was there with her daughter and a friend. They come just about every week, the woman said, and really like the variety of the programs.
Two other women brought their children, and though it was their first time, said they really enjoyed it too.
“It’s a different kind of program each week,” Belden said.
For Neil Armstrong’s birthday Aug. 5, the kids learned about walking on the moon, and for Mickey Mouse’s birthday Nov. 18 they got to make art relating to Mickey Mouse and then learned about the d i fferences between rats and mice.
The Children’s Museum of Maine also has members-only programs for toddlers on Monday, and toddlers and preschoolers on Thursdays, as well as other activities less regularly, Belden said.
Thursday, December 12, 2002
It’s the script, stupid: Some flat performances can’t ruin A Christmas Carol
Published in the Portland Phoenix
I have a confession. Even after years in the news business that should teach me to know better, I’ve come to expect Christmas Day off. Though, as Ebenezer Scrooge asks Bob Cratchit to do, I will usually have to come in “all the earlier the next day to make up for it.” Deadlines and publications never relent, even for the most special and wondrous of holidays.
I have a confession. Even after years in the news business that should teach me to know better, I’ve come to expect Christmas Day off. Though, as Ebenezer Scrooge asks Bob Cratchit to do, I will usually have to come in “all the earlier the next day to make up for it.” Deadlines and publications never relent, even for the most special and wondrous of holidays.
Yet my boss is no Scrooge: She has a business to run and the readers must have their newspapers, but she finds time to remind us, her employees, that she has learned the lesson Dickens teaches — every year since its first publication, six days before Christmas, 1843 — through A Christmas Carol.
Time to relax, to be with families and friends, and to have fun, make merry, and laugh: These are the goals for which everyone, rich or poor, young or old, banker or beggar, is really working. But they are easily forgotten amid the daily grind. Portland Stage Company — along with a number of other local theater companies — annually takes a couple of hours to remind us, with A Christmas Carol, of all the love and joy in the world, and the true bliss that sharing can bring to our mortal existences.
The power of this play comes primarily from the writing itself, the mastery of Dickens’s painting of a world and a man remade by memory, reflection, and fear. In this production, however, Anita Stewart’s directing fails to serve the writing, instead becoming a competing force on stage.
It means this play’s role as a holiday-spirit reminder falls flat, failing to paint with power either the agonizing picture of desperation before Scrooge’s enlightenment or the true nature of his transformation. It does, however, retain its strength as a classic of Christmas storytelling and a heartwarming reminder of the importance of joy.
The show begins with a performance by the audience of “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” in which my section’s leader, a young-teenage girl with braids and braces, was in earnest for us to perform well. It was as if by the power of her will alone, she could turn our motley crew of spectators into the “three French hens” we were singing about.
As the play itself begins — with a powerful Scrooge (Tom Ford) in his countinghouse, glowering at his nephew Fred’s (James Hoban) holiday cheer, and berating Bob Cratchit (Mark Honan), who departs late of a Christmas Eve with a much-begrudged Christmas bonus in hand — I felt myself cowering alongside Cratchit, picturing, instead of Scrooge, past supervisors concerned not about how I would spend my holiday or whether I would even celebrate. Instead, they, like Scrooge, worried about looming project deadlines, upcoming events needing preparation and, most of all, themselves.
I count myself lucky that this year, I do not have such a boss. But I am not sure the world has come far from the 1840s England of Charles Dickens, with its waifs and poor grown-ups huddled round braziers, being scattered by the vicious charge of a cruel and irritated wealthy man wielding a cane and a sense of his own self-righteousness.
Dickens (who appears in the production as a narrator played by Edward Reichert) himself suffered poverty and despair, toiling in a debtors’ prison workshop for several months as a boy, while his father paid off creditors. In this story and others, he rails against people like the bosses many still have today. Rather than concerning themselves with the humanity of their employees, Dickens’s wealthy — Scrooge among them — are the utilitarian exploiters feared in today’s world as much as they were 150 years ago.
Portland Stage Company’s weaknesses are in the subtleties, where Dickens excelled. While the fear on Scrooge’s face is very real when he speaks to the Ghost of Christmas Past (Natalie Rose Liberace, who plays all the Christmas ghosts), the sense of doom and dread Dickens writes into that darkly shrouded spectre is missing. So, too, are the senses of urgency on the faces of Ignorance and Want, the urchins who emerge from the robes of the Ghost of Christmas Present.
Scrooge’s delivery, perhaps made desperate after seven years of annual shows at PSC (though this is Ford’s first year in the role), is more preachy than revelatory, more exhortation than exultation. Even his “Bah! Humbug!” is without real feeling. Scrooge pleads with the audience to come with him in the spiritual journey, though we need rather to be forced along, as he is by the spirits.
The lighting and ingenious set design, as well as the sound, overlaying multiple effects and voices, are in combination more enthralling than the performance itself. The story does, however, strongly keep its main point, a reminder that lines at the local shopping centers are neither as bad — nor as necessary — as they might be perceived to be.
The children, too, are strong and energetic reminders that youth and hope spring eternal. Maybe — just maybe — your boss will see this show and remember Dickens’s lesson: We who work for our living are worthy of, deserve, and are entitled to our leisure time and our family lives, holiday or not.
A Christmas Carol
Written by Charles Dickens, adapted by Portland Stage Company. Directed by Anita Stewart. With Elizabeth Chambers, James Hoban, Mark Honan, Tom Ford, Natalie Rose Liberace, Daniel Noel, Kelli Putnam, and Edward Reichert. At Portland Stage Company through Dec. 24. Call (207) 774-0465.
Coming home after taking time out on the Ice
Published in the Current
If you thought this week’s cold temperatures were uncomfortable, talk to Ben Morin.
Morin of Cape Elizabeth just got home from a trip to the planet’s southern continent and can’t wait to go back.
He spent seven months, from March through early October, at\ Palmer Station, a U.S. research base on Anvers Island on the Antarctic Peninsula, the section of Antarctica stretching toward the very bottom of South America.
The company Morin worked for, Raytheon Polar Services Company of Englewood, Colo., flew Morin to Punta Arenas, Chile, where he boarded the research vessel Laurence M. Gould for a four-day trip across the Drake Passage to Antarctica.
“On our crossing, it was just as smooth as could be,” he said, calling one of the world’s worst stretches of ocean “the Drake Lake.”
Passing through the Straits of Magellan, at Tierra del Fuego, he said he felt like he was in “the loneliest place on Earth.” A nine-mile wide mouth of water separates Chile and Argentina, and the ship had to make its way between derricks in the offshore oil fields.
All Morin could see, he said, was empty land and flares of fire from the oil rigs.
He was heading south, though, to lonelier climes. As if to ease the way, dolphins began to chase the boat. Morin also saw seals and minke whales along the way.
After peering hard at the land ahead, someone pointed out the station to him. “All you could see was this little radio antenna,” he said.
After breakfast, the ship was close enough that he could see a big oil tank with a message painted on it: “Welcome to Palmer Station.”
Morin decided to go on the trip after looking at the Lonely Planet travel guide to Antarctica, and reading the chapter about working on the continent.
He wanted to go for the adventure, and because, he said, “no one goes there.”
“I’d always loved traveling,” Morin said. He had been interested in the stories of the heroic Antarctic explorers like Scott and Shackleton.
Arriving on the continent, he said, was a rush. “It’s pretty overwhelming when you first get there.” He was heading for winter at the smallest U.S. station on the continent. “You’re on this huge continent and there’s only 50 people there,” he said.
Palmer normally has about 15 or 20 people for the winter months, but a large construction project meant there were 35 people there.
“You really become family,” Morin said. The farthest away he could get from the station was a quarter-mile.
Morin was a general assistant, charged with taking care of a wide variety of tasks. Right when he got off the ship, he was told to head up a nearby hill and tie a tarp over a pile of machinery stored there. The tarp was blowing around, and Morin didn’t know any of the knots people suggested he use. But the effort was successful.
“I guess I did OK, because it stayed there all winter,” he said.
Life at Palmer was good. He saw wildlife all over the place, including Weddell, elephant, fur and leopard seals, Gentoo and Adelie penguins and even a humpback whale. He saw dozens of birds, mostly sheathbills, cormorants, sea gulls and skua gulls, though he also saw storm and giant petrels.
Work wasn’t exciting, but was interesting. With a faraway look in his eyes, Morin remembered the biggest part of his duties.
Known to him as the job code he had to put on his timesheet, “PC 9028” was what took up most of his time: snow shoveling.
With a major reconstruction of the biology lab in progress, Morin also helped with plumbing, electrical work and welding, all “stuff I’d never done before,” Morin said.
He also had to work in a boiler room, connecting pipes and equipment for heating as well as a water desalination unit to make drinking water. He was so pleased with how things went that he issued a continental challenge: “It
was the best-looking boiler room in Antarctica,” Morin said.
He made some close friends there, and wants to go back as soon as he can get another job on the Ice.
“The people down there are just so great,” Morin said. “The people were the best part.”
Some did complain about being there, but Morin thinks they have it wrong. “They should feel privileged to be in a place no one will ever go,” he said.
Morin said it was a good job for him, though he is studying for his master’s degree in English and wants to teach college.
After seven months with the same 30 people, he said adjustment to being back in the world was a bit of a challenge, though less so than he had thought. When new people began arriving at the station for the new season, some of them had personalities that grated on the winter staff’s carefully constructed social structure.
As far back as July, Morin said, “small talk had just been thrown out the window.”
As he left Antarctica, he went up onto the deck of the ship to watch the station slip into the distance.
“The sunsets at Palmer were amazing,” Morin said.
Some parts of being back are weird, like seeing lots of trees and bright colors. During the time he was away, he and others dreamed of what they’d do when they got home, like go to McDonald’s. But now that he is home, those things don’t seem all that special, he said.
What is special now, in fact, is Antarctica. “There is no other place on Earth like it,” Morin said.
If you thought this week’s cold temperatures were uncomfortable, talk to Ben Morin.
Morin of Cape Elizabeth just got home from a trip to the planet’s southern continent and can’t wait to go back.
He spent seven months, from March through early October, at\ Palmer Station, a U.S. research base on Anvers Island on the Antarctic Peninsula, the section of Antarctica stretching toward the very bottom of South America.
The company Morin worked for, Raytheon Polar Services Company of Englewood, Colo., flew Morin to Punta Arenas, Chile, where he boarded the research vessel Laurence M. Gould for a four-day trip across the Drake Passage to Antarctica.
“On our crossing, it was just as smooth as could be,” he said, calling one of the world’s worst stretches of ocean “the Drake Lake.”
Passing through the Straits of Magellan, at Tierra del Fuego, he said he felt like he was in “the loneliest place on Earth.” A nine-mile wide mouth of water separates Chile and Argentina, and the ship had to make its way between derricks in the offshore oil fields.
All Morin could see, he said, was empty land and flares of fire from the oil rigs.
He was heading south, though, to lonelier climes. As if to ease the way, dolphins began to chase the boat. Morin also saw seals and minke whales along the way.
After peering hard at the land ahead, someone pointed out the station to him. “All you could see was this little radio antenna,” he said.
After breakfast, the ship was close enough that he could see a big oil tank with a message painted on it: “Welcome to Palmer Station.”
Morin decided to go on the trip after looking at the Lonely Planet travel guide to Antarctica, and reading the chapter about working on the continent.
He wanted to go for the adventure, and because, he said, “no one goes there.”
“I’d always loved traveling,” Morin said. He had been interested in the stories of the heroic Antarctic explorers like Scott and Shackleton.
Arriving on the continent, he said, was a rush. “It’s pretty overwhelming when you first get there.” He was heading for winter at the smallest U.S. station on the continent. “You’re on this huge continent and there’s only 50 people there,” he said.
Palmer normally has about 15 or 20 people for the winter months, but a large construction project meant there were 35 people there.
“You really become family,” Morin said. The farthest away he could get from the station was a quarter-mile.
Morin was a general assistant, charged with taking care of a wide variety of tasks. Right when he got off the ship, he was told to head up a nearby hill and tie a tarp over a pile of machinery stored there. The tarp was blowing around, and Morin didn’t know any of the knots people suggested he use. But the effort was successful.
“I guess I did OK, because it stayed there all winter,” he said.
Life at Palmer was good. He saw wildlife all over the place, including Weddell, elephant, fur and leopard seals, Gentoo and Adelie penguins and even a humpback whale. He saw dozens of birds, mostly sheathbills, cormorants, sea gulls and skua gulls, though he also saw storm and giant petrels.
Work wasn’t exciting, but was interesting. With a faraway look in his eyes, Morin remembered the biggest part of his duties.
Known to him as the job code he had to put on his timesheet, “PC 9028” was what took up most of his time: snow shoveling.
With a major reconstruction of the biology lab in progress, Morin also helped with plumbing, electrical work and welding, all “stuff I’d never done before,” Morin said.
He also had to work in a boiler room, connecting pipes and equipment for heating as well as a water desalination unit to make drinking water. He was so pleased with how things went that he issued a continental challenge: “It
was the best-looking boiler room in Antarctica,” Morin said.
He made some close friends there, and wants to go back as soon as he can get another job on the Ice.
“The people down there are just so great,” Morin said. “The people were the best part.”
Some did complain about being there, but Morin thinks they have it wrong. “They should feel privileged to be in a place no one will ever go,” he said.
Morin said it was a good job for him, though he is studying for his master’s degree in English and wants to teach college.
After seven months with the same 30 people, he said adjustment to being back in the world was a bit of a challenge, though less so than he had thought. When new people began arriving at the station for the new season, some of them had personalities that grated on the winter staff’s carefully constructed social structure.
As far back as July, Morin said, “small talk had just been thrown out the window.”
As he left Antarctica, he went up onto the deck of the ship to watch the station slip into the distance.
“The sunsets at Palmer were amazing,” Morin said.
Some parts of being back are weird, like seeing lots of trees and bright colors. During the time he was away, he and others dreamed of what they’d do when they got home, like go to McDonald’s. But now that he is home, those things don’t seem all that special, he said.
What is special now, in fact, is Antarctica. “There is no other place on Earth like it,” Morin said.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)