Edison Elementary School

EDISON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is located in a neighborhood that is middle class to upper middle class. The school is located in between the main thoroughfares of Park Street and High Street. Although the architecture of the buildings at Edison School is on the humble side, in that it resembles army barracks, the walls on the outside of the buildings are noted for the presence of large colorful murals. The schoolyard has a basketball court, poles for playing tetherball, and walls for playing «wall ball.» The northwest corner of the schoolyard has a garden, where Edison School parents can busy themselves in maintaining a tiny farm. Parents of Edison School kids will likely be most familiar with an auditorium called the «multi-​cultural room.» In this room, Edison kids engage in performances with voice or musical instruments, or display their paintings and drawings in art exhibits. During my term as an Edison School parent, I was asked by Edison School management to be the «photographer» during school events, and I took photos during the annual carnival and during the annual Halloween parade, and also of some of the singing performances in the «multi-​cultural room.» A few of my photographs are posted here on Unilocal. During my Edison School years, it was frequently the case that my photographs were displayed on large posters on walls in the indoor hallways of Edison School. During my three years as an Edison School parent, I briefly met a few of the teachers, but had actual conversations with only two of the teachers. One of the teachers was the well-​loved Mr. Meader. Mr. Meader was kind enough to give me a compact disc, that he had made, with songs by The Who. From the point of view of a parent, the truly great thing about Edison School is the lasting relationships that my family has made with other Edison School parents and their offspring. My own elementary school was Coe Elementary School, located in Seattle, Washington, and I have posted a review of Coe School on Unilocal.
At the time I was an active Edison School parent, the schoolyard had a huge mural taking the form of a large hand, multi-​colored painted map of the United States of America. The painting on the asphalt was a bit on the funky side, and the funkiness of the painted mural made it more charming and more emotionally engaging. Unfortunately, I noticed that this mural-​map has been removed, and replaced with a much smaller map of the United States. The new map is NOT multi-​colored. The new map is very neat and appears to be the result of a stencil (in other words, the new map does not appear to be the result of the brushwork of schoolchildren). To view the big picture, what I consider to be an evil curse upon the American public, is people in management who order the destruction of beautiful murals. It is too bad that management at Edison School has been inflicted by this curse. Too bad. This is about my photo posters of school events (see above). Each of my posters had 30 photographic prints, and each poster cost me $ 100. I donated these to Edison School, and they put them into long-​term storage in the main office. I was hoping that future generations of Edison kids would be able to view my photos. Unfortunately, after a couple of years, management ordered that my poster boards of photos be discarded. What is it with the art-​hating management at Edison School???
Here are a few thoughts on Alameda Island, in general. Alameda Island is distinguished by the fact that it is the site of a dramatic naval museum, taking the form of the USS Hornet. Alameda Island is also distinguished by the fact that it has the only sandy beach in the entire San Francisco Bay area, aside from the small sandy beach at Point Pinole. Also, Alameda is distinguished by Speisekammer, a German restaurant, which is one of the great cultural treasures of the San Francisco Bay area (that’s how good it is). Finally, it should be added that on High Street, one finds the venerable Altarena Playhouse which is a theater with a vigorous and dynamic program of plays. In the summer, Edison School kids can participate in acting programs at Altarena Playhouse.