Pamela Beere Briggs is a writer and filmmaker who never forgot her joyful time in a Japanese kindergarten. It led her to believe that every child should have the opportunity to love learning. She will be sending missives from her home and backyard. Reading, writing and creating (films, stories, food & field-trips) are her favorite pursuits.
THE SCHOOLHOUSE EXPERIMENT: Reimagining School at Home and in the Classroom
We — Pamela, Beere Briggs, Bill McDonald and Natalie McDonald (along with public school teacher Judy Feuer-Walden) – have written a short book (136 pages) that we hope reassures, inspires and as Natalie would says works as a “a call to action” for all children’s right to a fulfilling and nurturing education. We tell our
My 2020 Book “Quilts”
I decided to gather up the books I’ve read this year and lay them out on our living room rug like a quilt. How beautiful it was to see the covers again (like meeting up with friends I haven’t seen in many weeks or months) and, in glimpsing each of them, remember the time I
Q&A with Sara Paretsky, creator of V.I. Warshawski
Stream our new short documentary film DEAD LAND/Sara Paretsky: A Reflection free on Vimeo. In a Sept. 2020 panel discussion, Sara Paretsky and filmmakers Pamela Beere Briggs, William McDonald and Eric Marin shared stories about launching a new book and making a film during quarantine. Natalie, the filmmakers’ daughter & Two in the World’s “Happy Guinea
Madeline Finds a New Home
Natalie went through some of her beloved toys and found her Madeline doll with suitcase of clothes, a barn/stable with animals, and some dinosaurs. Maisie, our cat, was intrigued and wondered if there were other things to be found in our hall closet. In the meantime, Natalie had written a letter to the family we
Reading: Lifelong Learning & Coping Gift
During these COVID days, we are so glad in our house to have our books. Reading gives us a chance to dive into worlds without virus. Other times our books remind and reassure us of other difficult and scary times that were survived. Our books are like trustworthy companions. I am usually reading a few
Penn Center, one of the first schools for formerly enslaved children
In 2010, ten years ago, Bill, Natalie (age 13 then) and I took a trip to Charlottesville, Virginia; Charleston, South Carolina; and St. Helena Island, South Carolina. We were immersing ourselves in history. It was a two-hour drive from Charleston to the Penn Center, one of the places we wanted to visit. We had to
Mary Jackson Helped Make NASA
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced Wednesday the agency’s headquarters building in Washington, D.C., will be named after Mary W. Jackson, the first African American female engineer at NASA. Jackson started her NASA career in the segregated West Area Computing Unit of the agency’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Jackson, a mathematician and aerospace engineer,
Scraping Away Injustice
One person can make a difference. Each of us can make a difference. Don’t let anyone tell you that you aren’t powerful enough, wealthy enough, fancy enough, strong enough… to make a difference. The biggest differences are usually simple acts of kindness or justice. Two years ago, I read an article about Irmela Mensah-Schramm, who
Breakfast of the Birds
Gabriele Münter’s “Breakfast of the Birds” (1934) has long been one of my favorite paintings and I like it to visit it in person whenever I am in Washington DC at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Right now, I feel so much like the woman in the painting: looking out at the