Editorial
Diversity in Public Ed. Works A
(yes; they offered photography to nine year olds). So our freedom was curtailed after perhaps the first week, so that we had to take a science, English and social studies class on some schedule, but otherwise we were free. Eventually, they imposed a couple of more rules, but in the end we were far more free to roam than other fourth-graders. WOTS expanded as children progressed through grade levels until included fourth through eighth grade. It existed until 1985, when the building became the School for Communication and Learning Development, for autistic and learning disabled children. Your erstwhile editor pretty much hated school before his WOTS experience. He was oppositional toward the teachers, inconsistent about when to study what subject, and generally uncooperative. WOTS helped to turn him around when the mainstream public school was, let us say, not a good fit. This sort of history can leave a person with sympathy for alternative experiments within the public school system. In 1974 parents and teachers in Ithaca went before the school board to lobby for what became the Alternative Community School. At first it was a junior high school, grades seven through nine, and housed in the recently demolished Markles Flats building on West Court and Plain streets. According to its Wikipedia entry the school was designed to be “an educational experience that would be empowering, relevant, and
fter a recent meeting of the Ithaca City School District Board of Education, board members Rob Ainslie and Brad Grainger expressed displeasure with the New Roots Charter School. No staff members had shown up to hear the comments from the public regarding a requested change in the New Roots charter. New Roots would like to officially set their maximum enrollment at 160 students rather than 200. The hearing was not actually meant for community members to address New Roots; it is a formal means for the public to address the SUNY Institute of Charter Schools, which will make the decision about the charter alteration. Tina Nilsen-Hodges, superintendent and principal of New Roots, said she saw no reason to attend, predicting that she would hear the same complaints regarding the charter school from the same people. Her prediction was borne out by events. In the fourth grade the editor of the Ithaca Times went to a specially designed public school in Glen Cove, New York called “The World of Tomorrow School,” or WOTS. It gathered children from throughout the school district (Glen Cove is about the same size as Ithaca), and it was an “open school” in a couple of senses. Ideologically, this initially meant that the students could go to whichever class they wished through the day. The only thing we had to respect was the length of the period. Of course, some kids immediately began spending the entire day in the gym, others in art class, and yet others in the dark room
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A Scenic Tour By C h a r l ey G i t h l e r
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ood afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Ithaca Is Boxes tour. My name is Kelly Cornstarch, and I’ll be your guide today. Now that the bus is moving, I’ll ask that you remain seated until the end of the tour. As we begin, I would like to point out that we’re traveling north on Ithaca’s fabled Elmira Road, which is home to exciting shopping and dining venues that are unique to any city anywhere in America. If you look out the window immediately on our right you’ll see the ruins of the Tim Hortons Café, where earlier in the second decade of this century for nearly 48 months folks could buy as many cheeseburger donuts as they wanted. Oh my yes, those were a real thing. Legend has it that there’s a treasure chest of ancient Timbits buried somewhere in the parking lot. Across the street you can see one of the three Dunkin Donuts coffeehouses on Route 13 in the City of Ithaca. This one shares space with a Metro Mattress store, symbolically honoring the historic link between caffeinated beverages and sleep technology. Over there across the parking lot … see that big store? It’s Kohl’s Department Store, one of only 1,162 Kohl’s Department Stores nationwide. Here’s a little piece of trivia. I’ll bet you folks didn’t know this parking lot and all its stores are in a FEMA-designated AE flood hazard zone. As if shopping wasn’t already exciting enough! OK, back over on the right side of the bus, all those bulldozers and cranes are preparing the site for the old world charm of a brand new Holiday Inn Express. Now, just take a look at the maps I gave you and just check out all the dining choices in just the next quarter of a mile! McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Arby’s, Moe’s Southwest Grill, Taco Bell, Five Guys. It’s amazing to think that you can order food imported from hundreds of miles away at any one of these restaurants. We’ve designated, for your convenience, which restaurants serve Pepsi beverages and which serve Coca Cola products. All right, I don’t know if it’s true, but I’ll tell you anyway. There’s an old Ithaca story that a person could walk for a mile on this stretch of road and not be able to tell what city it is from the stores and restaurants. We’ll be coming up on a Denny’s
Restaurant on your right. Some of the oldtimers around these parts can remember back when there used to be a Friendly’s Restaurant this very spot. If I could toot my own family’s horn for a moment, my cousin Kyle worked at that Friendly’s and his red polo shirt was retired to the Assistant Manager’s Hall of Fame in Wilbraham, Massachusetts to honor his strict adherence to corporate policy. Of course, those days are gone and there’s no going back. Yes, feel free to take pictures of the car dealerships on both sides of the road. It’s all part of the tour. As we’re making this slight turn, Elmira Road turns into Meadow Street. Don’t worry, we’re still on Ithaca’s ‘Miracle Mile’. There’s the Panera Bakery. Fast food casual! Did you know there are only 1,800 Panera Bakeries in North America? And can you believe that before this location opened, people had to travel hundreds of yards down this same road to buy locally produced baked goods at the Ithaca Bakery? Way in the back on the left side you can just see the Ithaca Wal-Mart, undisputed victor of the local Wal-Mart culture war of the 1990s. And there’s our Chipotle Mexican Grill on your left. I’m sure you all know that all 1,900 Chipotle restaurants will be closing for one day on Feb. 8 to give its customers a break from Food With Integrity, scrub its kitchens super clean and resuscitate its stock price. I bet you didn’t know, though, that Chipotle’s shredded Monterey Jack cheese is cave-ripened in their 18-wheeled portable cheese caves as they wend their way to Ithaca from far, far away. Out your right window is the Vitamin Shoppe, steeped in weeks of history, where we’ll be dropping you all off. See all that heavy machinery next door? That promises to be the future crown jewel of Ithaca dining, the brand new Texas Steakhouse, opening sometime this spring. I don’t have to tell you that Ithaca, New York has an almost spiritual connection to all things Texas. You might be interested to know that most of the construction workers are out-of-town visitors, just like you! OK, please watch your step on the way out. Thank you for taking the tour and enjoy your stay in Ithaca! •
ourCorrections
Titus Galley Still Very Much Open
In our recent (Dec. 23) article “Painting the Light,” Warren Greenwood suggested that Brian Keeler show was indeed the last show for Titus Gallery and that it would close in “early 2016.” In fact, the gallery will remain open until the end of May 2016 and will 6
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continue to display original pieces by Susan Titus as well as fine art and antiques from the gallery’s collection. Owners Susan Booth Titus and Matt Peterson want to make sure that customers were not discouraged off from visiting the gallery through the winter and spring.