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EXPERT INTERIOR
DESIGN HELP
IN YOUR
NEIGHBORHOOD
MARJORIE DURST DESIGN CONSULTANT I CAN HELP YOU BRING YOUR THOUGHTS TOGETHER, CREATE A COHESIVE PLAN AND HOLD YOUR HAND THROUGH THOSE DARK HOURS OF DECISION MAKING
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A
dozen teenagers are huddled around a picnic bench in the
middle of Hyde Park. They are a mixed and motley crew
running the gamut of adolescent styles. Smartly dressed kids
lean their all-American hair cuts over the crowded bench
bumping heads with Mohawks and dreadlocks, pink spikes and
blue spirals. Backpacks and lunch boxes litter the ground
around them. There is no room on the bench, which is covered
with elbows and coffee mugs from nearby QuackÕs and has
suddenly erupted in a flurry of intense but hushed debate.
Tensions are clearly rising and the punctuated outbursts
have begun to attract concerned looks from passers by. An
explosive situation is brewing and it is evident that an
adult must be consulted and consulted quickly.
There is an adult nearby. Unlike the shoppers coming out of Fresh Plus, he is taking great pains to ignore the heated exchange taking place across the street, but for Kelly Hutchinson, a teacher at the near by Griffin School, there is no rest for the weary. He will not eat his Quack's bran muffin in peace today. An emissary from the bench has crossed the street to plead her party's case, spelling out the exact nature and cause of the conflict. "Gladiorum", says Kelly. "Cicero is speaking to his fellow Senators here, so it's the second declension, genitive case, masculine plural."
One year of Latin is required at the Griffin School. Most students then move on to a foreign language but many stay on for Latin II or even III. If so, they will have Kelly as a teacher for three years running. "That level of teacher continuity is a critical component of the Griffin School," says the school's founder, Adam Wilson. The school was founded in 1996 when Wilson and cofounder Jane Lozano perceived a gap in the area's public schools. Certain students, many of them particularly bright, were not being enriched in traditional public school settings. Many students were "coasting", lost in the crowd, their talents uncultivated. Boredom often led to behavioral problems that could take some of Austin's most promising students off of the track to higher education. "We wanted to create a college preparatory school that would promote and nurture these kids individual talents", said Wilson, "a place where unique kids with unique strengths could be challenged successfully."
