Following up on Paul’s post celebrating iconic architectural elements on older buildings, I thought I would drop in another couple cents. Ornate prominent elements such as towers and cupolas are common on older buildings. Often they served a specific function; the cupola on RHS almost certainly housed a school bell at one time. Old fire stations often included ornate towers in which hoses were dried, such as this one in Brooklyn:

    

     Sometimes an iconic element is used to mark a prominent crossroads. This sort of thing only works if the neighbors exercise some restraint. Imagine how the impact of this tower, at the corner of Ridgewood Avenue and Broad Street, would be diminished if there were three or four other towers on nearby buildings. 

 

      

     Likewise, a college campus wouldn't be nearly as well served if all the buildings sported fancy clock or bell towers. Better to have one that gives a specific identity, or as we fancy designers say, "a sense of place." At Clemson, it's Tillman Hall, which sports a statue, flag pole, grand stair, brick arch, and combination clock and bell tower, all on the same axis: 

       Indeed, the confusion that spreading out too many such elements can cause is demonstrated in this picture of RHS. As graduates, Paul and I both know that the main entry is under the bell tower. But I wonder how many first time visitors are drawn to the clock tower instead, only to find themselves in a stairwell? 

 

     All that being said, Ridgewood High School certainly is a beautiful building. It sits there, perched on a hill, almost majestic in its dominance, and symbolic of the value Ridgewood places on education.

New Cupola

Ridgewood High School has a new Cupola as of yesterday. It's clearly a close replica of the original. 

  

 I always thought the Cupola of Ridgewood High School provided a bit of style. I don't want to tread on Kurt's bailiwick of architecture but it does seem that these ornamental structures are usually omitted in new construction today; all in the hopes of saving money. In my perfect world I would prefer if a little more attention were paid to how things looked. I don't propose wasteful flourishes but I do like structures which make me want to pause and look at them. Like this picture of Old West at Dickinson College: 

 

This is a bit of the background to Old West and its Cupola:

West College, which became known as Old West in the early 20th century, traces its roots to February 1803, when Dickinson's nearly completed main building burned to the ground. In a bind, college trustees asked Benjamin Latrobe, recently appointed architect of the U.S. Capitol, to draw up plans for the new college hall, which he did free of charge. The 200th anniversary commemorates the date when the cornerstone for the building was laid. Old West did not host its first classes until November 1805 and housed its first undergraduates in 1810. Future U.S. President James Buchanan, class of 1809, was one of the earliest students to study within its walls.

Another Ridgewood Education Memory

      In the 8th grade I was offered a choice between Metal Shop and Cooking For Boys. It was a no-brainer for me as I hadn't any great success in either of the usual young man tracks, namely, Wood Shop and Mechanical Arts so I chose cooking. It was the first time that George Washington Junior High (GW) had offered cooking for boys and in hindsight it was a natural offering as the majority of Chefs are men. It was a decision that has ultimately proven to be one of the best I ever made! The recipes we learned were basic baking skills like bread, muffins, popovers, pizza dough, and pie crust. To my continual amazement I still use the techniques I learned and have through the years grown to be a very competent chef, with baking still being my favorite cooking skill. I also find it amazing that my first cooking teacher, Mrs. McCabe, still works at GW and my nephew who lives in Ridgewood had her as a teacher.

A Ridgewood Education

     Following up on Paul's post regarding the value of mathematics in education, I was shown just how good a job the Ridgewood school system did with this when I got to college. As an architecture major, I was required to take two semesters of mathematics my freshman year, including one of calculus. I had taken pre-calculus my junior year in Ridgewood, and probability / statistics my senior year. Imagine my surprise when, after purchasing my college-level calculus book, it became apparent that 90% of the course work would be concepts and calculations that I had already learned in high school pre-calculus. It was only the last two weeks of the course, when we got into differential equations, that the course advanced beyond what I had learned at Ridgewood High School. My second semester of my freshman year, I took probability and statistics to fulfill my college math requirement. It was a 400-level, or senior level course. Again, approximately 50% of the work had been covered by Mr. Zitelli at RHS. About halfway through the semester, a group of students, all seniors, went to the professor and complained that the course work was advancing too fast for them to keep up. He replied that he didn't think that was the case, since the highest average in the class was being maintained by a freshman. Boy, did I get some dirty looks. The RHS curriculum also allowed me to breeze through two semesters of both physics and english composition. My RHS education allowed me devote more time to my architecture studies, and continues to serve me well to this day. Now, if only I had taken some auto shop, which is no longer even offered, I would be better off maintaining my cars!

Why We Study Math

     Ridgewood has once again taken up the debate regarding what is the best type of Math curriculum to teach their children. This is a very healthy debate and one that thankfully re-surfaces every generation. 

     The irony of the debate is that kids will ask the same question no matter who has authored the books: "Why do we need to study Math?" This was as common when I went to school as I am sure it is now. It is the answers that the children are given which to me remains the most important consideration. I remember three good Math teachers during my 13 years in the Ridgewood School System: Gene Ricci, George Reck, and Kenneth Humiston. There were many other good ones but these three were memorable because they were all champions of Mathematics and had no trouble telling us why we needed to continue studying Math all our lives. 

     The best of the three was Gene Ricci. He taught advanced Math to us in the 6th grade at Willard School. One day I clearly remember he spoke about Base 2 and Base 8. For those of you who don't remember, Base 10 includes the decimal numbers 0-9. Base 2 is the binary numbering system, and Base 8 is the Octal counting system. I mention this because before he had gone too far along in his explanation he saw in his students' eyes the age old question: what were we going to use this for. His answer was quite astounding. He admitted he don't know yet but was sure it would be useful to know someday. This actually satisfied us, I believe, because it was honest and looking back on it all very true! You see, Base 2 is used internally by all modern computers. Gene Ricci may have been teaching it to us in an age of rotary phones but he was spot-on to show us this Math and all its potential. I owe my current career in Computer Networking to Binary and Octal Mathematics and am thankful we didn't discourage Gene Ricci from teaching these concepts to us. 

     It was true that nobody knew back then how computers would one day become so omnipresent, and I'm sure the same is true of Mathematical concepts yet to be authored. So why do we need to study Math? In a phrase, because it allows us to be of use. If I was in a Math teacher's shoes that is what I would tell my students. It may not be the most clever or thoughtful answer but it does come to the point. If that wasn't enough for them I would ask them to Google the question and have them look for this: "The special role of mathematics in education is a consequence of its universal applicability. The results of mathematics--theorems and theories--are both significant and useful; the best results are also elegant and deep. Through its theorems, mathematics offers science both a foundation of truth and a standard of certainty. In addition to theorems and theories, mathematics offers distinctive modes of thought which are both versatile and powerful, including modeling, abstraction, optimization, logical analysis, inference from data, and use of symbols. Mathematics, as a major intellectual tradition, is a subject appreciated as much for its beauty as for its power. The enduring qualities of such abstract concepts as symmetry, proof, and change have been developed through 3,000 years of intellectual effort. Like language, religion, and music, mathematics is a universal part of human culture."

Childhood Dreams

If you haven't seen this lecture, then do yourself a favor and Google it: Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams It will be well worth your time.