The warming days of May and June had been delightful in more ways than one. They, of course, remind us that the snows of February 2010 no longer greets us almost eye-to-eye in height! But also this is a time of when teachers and students are ending the school year while exploring all of the learning opportunities to happen this summer. I’d like to share some of my folk-academic moments with you.

In May I spent a morning at Harpers Ferry Middle School in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia talking with 8th grade students and demonstrating the hammered and mountain dulcimers as part of their West Virginia Heritage Day. In 2009, during the same event, one student told me that her grandmother played the mountain dulcimer and used to sing “Shenandoah” to her. This year some students told me about relatives who built or bought dulcimers at craft fairs. The tradition continues.