Guest blog from Phil
The following note from Phil was published for the opening celebration of the Visibility: Lesbian and Gay People We Love photo exhibit. The exhibit is currently up in the Sixth Avenue auditorium and hallway and will be there until Spring Break. Please feel free to drop in and visit this wonderful show.
Dear LREI Community.
Thank you for joining us for the opening of this year’s Visibility: Gay and Lesbian People We Love photo exhibit. I am sorry to miss this wonderful event. While not here in body, I am with you in spirit and as a fellow supporter of the School’s social justice mission. This mission was clearly present at the student organized opening at the high school last week.
Thank you to Keith and Kim, to the other members of the LGSA, to the many volunteers and to Chap for the time and energy and care that has gone into creating this show. Thank you, as well, to all who have contributed photos. Without your participation and, in many cases, your courage, this show would not be possible.
We host this exhibit every other year and are often asked the same two questions as we approach the opening. The first question concerns the goals for the exhibit. This is an excellent question and one that we spend a good deal of time discussing. As a school and as a community we need to support colleagues who are not afforded the same rights as others. LREI has always been active in the fight for equality and social justice. We host this exhibit to give voice and hope to those who must hide part of themselves from family, friends and colleagues. I have never had to hide who I love from anyone. As a matter of fact, society has always encouraged me to be very open about this part of my life—whether when I was in school or now as an adult. Yet many people risk rejection and injury for sharing this joy with family and friends. Often, when discussing the visibility exhibit, it is suggested that the prejudice against people who are lesbian or gay does not exist anymore. Unfortunately this is not so. Witness the tragic killing of Lawrence King in Oxnard, CA just a few weeks ago. King, a middle school student, was shot to death in school, reportedly because he was gay.
The second question often comes from parents of our youngest students. They ask about our sharing and discussing this exhibit with our youngest students. As you view the photos in the exhibit a number of themes will emerge for you–dignity, friendship, equality and courage, among others. But most of all, the theme or feeling or emotion that you will take away from viewing these beautiful photographs is love—love for family and friends and parents and children—and I can think of no reason that, of all things, we should ever question the appropriateness of love, the power of love, the importance of love and the right to love. This seems to me to be a wonderful topic for discussions with young children, and with people of all ages, for that matter.
Enjoy the show,
Phil
Please view our on-line Lower School gallery for great photo’s of recent events: http://lrei.org/photos/0708/ls.
WEEKLY ANNOUNCEMENTS
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Afterschool’s First Friday: Join us this Friday for an afternoon of Bharatanatyam, the beautiful and widely practiced style of dance from South India. Dr. Shanti Pillai will be performing and teaching us the elements of this dance form in the Physical and Performing Arts Space between 4:15-5:15. If you have any questions, please contact the Afterschool Office at 212-477-5316 ext. 239.
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“One Night for New York’s Children” – Coffee House Benefit for the High School Community Service Roundtable –
Student Action for Children – The High School Community Service Roundtable is a unique service learning program in which students work on behalf of New York City’s children, their families and their communities both through direct volunteer service and grants of financial assistance. Since 2002, Student Action for Children has devoted hundreds of hours of volunteer service and distributed grants totaling more than $60,000 dollars to over twenty-five literacy, leadership, cultural and arts programs for children from communities throughout New York City and, when special circumstances arise, beyond.
You can be part of this worthy cause by attending the March 8th Community Service Coffee House. Enjoy performances by student musicians and performers, as well as hear from special guest Stephen Shames whose foundation providing education for AIDS orphans and child soldiers in Uganda the Community Service Roundtable has supported over the past two years. Click here for a PDF flyer.
On behalf of all the members of Student Action for Children, I look forward to seeing you on March 8th!
Nick O’Han, Faculty Advisor
Alley Dumas, Class of ’08, Chair, Coffee House Committee, Student Action for Children
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Shop News: Chests built by the Fourth Graders as part of their immigrant studies are in the Sixth Avenue lobby display case. Be sure to see them!
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Third grade publishing parties: The Third graders have finished writing their Feature Articles! Stop by the class rooms on the mornings below and helps us celebrate our articles. EA3 Publishing Party on Tuesday, 3/11 from 8:00-8:30AM. AL3 Publishing Party on Wednesday, 3/12 from 8:00-8:3AM.
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Updated Info! Grandparents & Special Friends Day is May 9, 2008 and invitations will be sent home before Spring Break. For those who haven’t had a chance to forward the names and addresses of those grandparents or special friends you would like invited, sign-up sheets will be in each classroom until Wednesday, 3/12. You may also forward the information to Aeluishi Mistry via email at amistry@lrei.org or via phone 212-477-5316, ext. 232. Please click here (0306-LS gpsf info) for more information about the event.
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PARENT MEETINGS & EVENTS
- Tuesday, 3/11 – 8:45AM: LS POCOC Mtg.
- Wednesday, 3/12 – 6PM: Parent Seed Mtg.
- Thursday, 3/13 – 8:45AM: LS Parent Rep Mtg. (click here – 0306-ParentRep – for notes from the last meeting)
- Friday, 3/14 – School Closes at 12Noon for Spring Break, (Fours through First Grade 11:45) Afterschool closed
School re-opens on Monday, 3/31 - For an up-to-date, searchable all school calendar, please visit lrei.org/calendar
LOWER SCHOOL NOTES & ATTACHMENTS
- Fours: Please click here (0306-4s-march) for a letter from Beth & Caroline.
- Second grade: A letter from both second grade class teachers (0306-2nd-coop).
- Third grade: A letter for both third grade classes from Technology class (0306-3rd-ultrakey).
- All grades: Please click here for the calendar for the 2008-09 school year.