"A Retrospective," by Matthew Philipose

Early birds get the worms….

The loons were not the only ones making preparations for the winter. The IP (independent project) room was buzzing with preparations of a different sort.   Perhaps it was my ignorance that prompted me to assume that everything would go awry. There was a sense of the gravitas, of taking on too much to chew at once. However, none of my anxieties came true. ‘IPians’ were on the ball from the get go. In an event such as the IP program first steps are the most arduous. Finding that topic becomes an obsession, and only an obsession would suffice. A conglomeration of ‘out of the box’ thinkers collected in one place. Young minds assuming such a responsibility from the very beginning, bent double, stumbling along the path to success in an Independent Project. So there they were, all engaged, in that first firm step.

By the first two weeks an amalgamation of sorts had taken place. Nearly all of the students had discovered their project title and proceeded to open the Pandora’s Box of their commitment.  Even the student that arrived three weeks late to school had apparently reached a subject for study. This was of immense relief and interest to me, as it showed what positive processes were in play at the very onset.  There is nothing like that success to keep us teachers going.

I imagined the topic for IP to be the head of octopus with its tentacles reaching out towards the history, science, math and literature of it. The chosen subjects for study varied as much as the students themselves.  Amongst them were titles such as Drones, physical fitness, Fantasy, illusions, Dyslexia, Automobiles and combustion engines, Real Estate, Charter Boat Fishing along the eastern seaboard for Tuna and Striped Bass, Music/​Sound engineering, Photojournalism, Generation and music, and (God help us) the abyss of knowledge!

Located amongst this buzz of activity, were my first days at the school this year.  As in any school, it was fraught with confusion, anticipation, excitement, trepidation, exhilaration, and many other emotions all mixed up in a quagmire of unreality merging into reality. Almost like the prayer in the Upanishads that goes like this: From the unreal lead me to the real, from darkness lead me to light, from death lead me to immortality…..and so on.

I was overcome with pride when I knew that the students in IP - despite their own confusion - had amalgamated their opening gambits in fine time. I felt like I needed to step up to the plate myself and handle the confusion with Confucius like equanimity.  My motto for those first few weeks was and still is: ‘go with the flow.'  My inspiration was the students in IP class.