The Tide Pool of Life

As we have been reading John Steinbeck's Cannery Row in Literature of California this past week, I've been thinking a lot about the idea of community and, specifically, how there seems to be a natural human impulse for each of us to take on certain roles within the different micro-communities we find ourselves in on a day-to-day basis. With my friends from college, for example, I'm often considered "the connector" because I tend to be the one who keeps us all in touch with one another and organizes events to get us all together from time to time. I've also been called "the diplomat" by others because I'm the person who usually tries to mitigate conflicts between friends by having them communicate in better, more thoughtful ways with one another. In high school, my senior class voted me "Most Socially Aware", but I think people were confused by this category and some people put my name down because I was pretty vocal about politics and world affairs, while others figured I always knew where the parties were that upcoming weekend. Needless to say, I've played different roles in different communities that I have found myself in over the course of my life.

In Cannery Row, Steinbeck uses the tide pools of Monterey as a symbol for the symbiotic relationships we see developing between the residents of the neighborhood. For this week's blog post, I want students to consider the Sage Hill School community in a similar way. Every high school community has groups, cliques, and stereotypes. For this week, you can take one of two approaches to your post:

1. Apply the tide pool metaphor to Sage Hill School. Who are the hermit crabs? Who are the barnacles? Are there predators and prey? Which groups work together, which are trying to gain power and who is just trying to stay afloat? Write 1-2 paragraphs where you analyze the social organizations that exist within our community.
2. Identify one of the social organizations in our community of which you are a member. This could be a friendship group, a sports team, an arts ensemble, an extracurricular club, etc. Who are the "players" in this organization and what is your social role in the group? Write 1-2 paragraphs where you describe the social structure of this organization and your role in it.