May you live in interesting times . . .
Dear Families,
It has been an amazing week, which started for many with the call to service in honor of the MLK holiday on Monday. On Tuesday, we came together as a community to watch the historic inauguration of President Barack Obama. As the swearing in ceremonies were about to get underway, we spoke with math teacher Margaret Andrews who was at the event; the palpable excitement in her voice as she described what she was seeing and feeling helped to bring us one step closer to the stage on which this historic event was playing out. We listened, we cheered, some cried and we all understood that these were indeed “interesting times.” Phil made the astute observation that amid all the excitement surrounding our new president, the image of Barack Obama standing next to George Bush on the capital steps was for him a profound one. Without the violence or disruption that is often all too common in other parts of the world, we bore witness to the smooth transition of government and saw in it a clear manifestation of the democratic principles on which our nation was founded.
With President Obama’s words still fresh in our minds, we reconvened in the auditorium on Wednesday for our annual Martin Luther King assembly. In song, poem and prose, we honored Dr. King and sought to connect his life’s work to our on-going obligation to fight for freedom, equality and justice. The assembly was led by the eighth graders who in the spirit of James Taylor’s “Shed a Little Light,” which served as frame for the assembly, also”shed a little light” on the connection between King’s call for social justice and the multi-month service project “Choosing to Participate” that they are about to undertake in their core class. This project will culminate in April with a “Teach In” during which the eighth graders will lead workshops for the rest of the Middle School on a range of social justice and sustainability topics connected to their work. As a prelude to this event, the eighth graders shared original poems focused on some of the tasks that stand before us if we are to make children, families, communities, cultures, animals, and/or the planet free and strong. The eighth graders will also lead workshops tomorrow in advisory during which every middle schoolers will explore these tasks and write their own poems.
As a way to connect Tuesday’s events with our MLK assembly, we also listened to an excerpt from the speech given by Barack Obama last year on the MLK holiday. This moving speech echoed the call expressed in James Taylor’s lyrics that:
… there are ties between us
All men and women
Living on the earth
Ties of hope and love
Sister and brotherhood
That we are bound together
In our desire to see the world become
A place in which our children
Can grow free and strong
We are bound together
By the task that stands before us
And the road that lies ahead
We are bound and we are bound
As we continue to navigate through these interesting times within and beyond the LREI community, we will be mindful of the words of inaugural poet Elizabeth Alexander who observed that:
Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each others’ eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is noise.
We encounter each other in words, words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; words to consider, reconsider.
We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, “I need to see what’s on the other side; I know there’s something better down the road.”
We need to find a place where we are safe; We walk into that which we cannot yet see.
In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp — praise song for walking forward in that light.
Be well,
Mark