Five For Friday, 1/20/23!
Welcome back to 5 For Friday, our…occasional update of things we’ve been doing, thinking about, listening to, working on, and mulling over here at the Stone Independent School:
We’re thinking about our climate footprint. We have set an aspirational goal to be “climate positive” by the end of the 2024 school year – that means a lot of redesigning “How Stone Works”, that means a lot of offsets, that means a lot more trees. A few weeks ago we surveyed our entire community to better understand the impact our varied transportation systems create, next up we will look at our food and waste systems, afterward we will look closely at our facility usage and utilities so that we can develop a reasonable picture of what we do, where we create harm, and where we can improve. We know we can't fulfill our Mission without working institutionally to combat climate change – if you have thoughts about this urgent work, be sure to email us here!
Speaking of climate, we’re thinking about Edinburgh. Edinburgh just became the first European capital to take meat “off the menu” in schools – and they are doing it because “...overall: the science is clear: meat and dairy consumption must reduce to achieve climate targets”. Super cool!
And, we’re feeling profoundly conflicted about fonts. Our entire school has been embroiled in a running “serif vs. non-serif font” debate for +/- 6 years – it’s tearing us apart! – and today we’ve come to learn that The State Department is embroiled in it too: the State department has decided to retire the use of Times New Roman (that’s a big win for the anti-serif community) for…Calibri.
Long, loud sigh.
And, we’re thinking about The Problem With Pizza Boxes. It turns out that pizza delivery boxes are…maybe the worst tool for delivering pizza? Maybe next year we will add “the pizza box problem” to our design-thinking curriculum…!
And lastly, we can’t stop laughing about this actual calendar created by The US Army Corps of Engineers (Portland District). Just click the link – we promise it’s worth it (#cats).
And, of course, we’re thinking about a whole lot of other things too – like systems thinking, and Spring travel, and living more analog, and how any miles we can run as a faculty in January (#milestones), and designing for next year. We’d love to tell you everything we’re up to here at Stone (it’s…a lot!). If you are interested in learning more, be sure to email us at admissions@stoneindependent.org to schedule your private tour or shadow day!
See also: The Return of Five For Friday; What Andrew Hermeling Can’t Work Without;
Ready to learn more about all the things we’re thinking about? Click right here to schedule your private tour