Today a gull with a broken wing struggles along the salty iced edge of the bay. It will not see dawn.
The sap will start rising up through the trees in a few weeks--I may tap a local maple to show the kids that it's true.
In our urge to push the abstract on our digital native, 21st century learning constructivist wired generation, we forgot along the way that they are no more, or less, human than those of us who preceded them.
If you do not know of the sap, you cannot truly know the syrup. If nothing else, we will take a trip outside our building and peer into a bucket stuck onto a tree. And while I hardly expect most to be excited about the specifics, most will be excited by the general.
The natural world is real, it's open, and it's theirs.
***
I have never tapped a maple tree, nor have any of my students. I may try it next month.
We will, together, find a tree.
We will, together, collect the sap.
We will, together, simmer the sap under the fume hood.
We will, together, taste the syrup that results.
We do not need a Maker Faire, we do not need a creative "streak," we do not need an algorithm nor a rubric, we do not need to differentiate, we do not need to rewrite the curriculum.
Most of all we do not need an excuse. We're just going to do it.
And no, it will not be on the test.