Columnist Susan Snyder: School shows its love of the land

Friday, June 8, 2001 | 8:52 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Fridays, Sundays and Tuesdays in Accent. Reach her at snyder@vegas.com or 259-4082.

While his classmates planted a tree commemorating the end of the first year of the new Alexander Dawson School, fifth-grader Trace Cabot lamented he would miss the very last day of school.

His mean old parents are taking Trace and his sister, a Dawson second-grader, on a Disney cruise.

"I wish I was going to be here for the time capsule," he said to his mom after tossing his shovelful of compost onto his class's ash sapling. "But I have to miss it."

Linda Cabot sighed a little but smile a lot.

"It really says something when the kids want to stay at school rather than go on a vacation," she said.

Well, you have to admit it's not typical. But then, few things at Dawson are. Take the school mottos, for instance: "Nothing without labor," and "Love of the land."

They're mottos for life, not just for scholars. On Thursday students in kindergarten through fifth grade joined the two credos by planting six ash trees in front of the school -- one for each grade level offered at the school this year.

Next year the school will add a sixth and seventh grade, and finally an eighth grade the year after that. Administrators at the school, where a student's tuition next year ranges from $12,175 to $12,625, say they expect enrollment to swell from 175 this year to almost 300 next year.

There's already a waiting list for first grade, school spokeswoman Anne Marie Rehm said. Kindergarten is soon to follow.

"We even had a woman this year who just had twins, and she already sent their applications in," Rehm said.

The school's curriculum includes after-school programs in music and the arts, and field trips to Valley of Fire and Mount Charleston to learn about geology and nature. And all subjects include components of the others.

"It's different than how we went to school. We didn't get English in math class or history with science," Rehm said.

They get points for bravery, marching nearly 40 clean little 5-year-olds to the edge of a hole filled with muddy compost under Thursday's blazing sun. Each one got to toss on a shovelful.

"It feels funny," one little girl giggled as she flipped hers mostly into the air.

"It stinks," a classmate who followed her added.

Pupils fondly recalled trips to see a dolphin, making new friends, learning of a teacher's new baby and even school lunch.

"My favorite part of this year was learning how to read," kindergartener Emily Clayton said.

"We work together as a team," Chase Ingrande said before his first-grade classmates began tossing dirt around their tree.

"Is that a modesto ash?" one of the other first-graders asked.

Yep, first grade.

Second-graders were more enamored by the kind of bugs their tree would attract -- ladybugs and aphids, they figured.

Yes, they said aphids.

The third graders dumped all their compost around the tree quickly, then dived in with their hands to "spread it."

"Can't we see if we can leave at 7 o'clock instead?" Trace said, still wheedling Mom about postponing Disney just one day.

"Well, I'll check," she relented.