‘The Baron of Trees’
Aug. 13, Cover Story
To the Editor:
Nice bully pulpit for Sandoval! I could almost hear the breathlessness in his fear-mongering!
Joan Conrow, Santa Fe
‘Eddington filmmaker Aris Aster refers to his time at long-closed College of Santa Fe as “Finger-Painting School” in New York Times profile’
Aug. 6, 7 Days
To the Editor:
Read your comment on page 6 in the the Best of Santa Fe 2025 issue concerning Ari Aster. His statement to the New York Times was interesting.
I am also a College of Santa Fe graduate, 1994. The work I made in Lynda Bengelis’ class during summer school of 1994 is now included in the permanent collection at Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas in Austin. They were a class assignment for summer school at the College of Santa Fe. David Schienbaum ordered me to take that class with Lynda Bengelis, or I’d never made any of those prints.
You get what you made at the College of Santa Fe. Guess Ari Aster only made his “finger-paintings” while a student at the College of Santa Fe. He did not do the work, so he got “finger-painting” school.”
What I received for my hard work as a student in photography placed with the Best Company. My are are included beside Edward Weston, Alfred Stiglitz, Walker Evans and Nicéphore Niépce.
Poor, poor Ari Aster. What a loser.
Elizabeth Grant, Santa Fe
To the Editor:
Dewey Wins!
“Democracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife.”
John Dewey reminds us of education’s role; not just training workers in a capitalist society, but its function in fostering a democratic citizenry. If we don’t learn democratic dispositions in school, where do we learn how to become active participants in a democracy?
With the growing threat of fascism in 1939 Dewey also warned, “for a long period we acted as if our democracy were something that perpetuated itself automatically; as if our ancestors had succeeded in setting up a machine that solved the problem of perpetual motion in politics.”
Our democracy is in peril, and as Dewey’s quote suggests, our schools are partly to blame—for their devotion to capitalistic aims at the expense of democratic ones. As the trend to give more educational powers to the state grows, what do New Mexicans want from their schools? Surely not just to have good test takers that translate into obedient worker bees. How about good neighbors and democratic citizens? Let us rethink the purposes of our public schools to include the dispositions of a democratic character.
Robert Karaba, Santa Fe
