Dear LREI Community,
Happy New Year and welcome back for LREI 2010! It was fun to greet your children on Tuesday. The students were excited to see their friends and teachers and to begin classes again, while at the same time it seemed to be a little bit of a challenge for them to leave the restful habits of Winter Break behind.
On Monday, the faculty gathered for our second colleague led professional day. Much of the day was spent in workshops that allowed teachers to engage in conversations with colleagues from all three divisions about a variety of topics—gender issues in education, learning to draw, the architecture of NYC, math in everyday life and Flash animation, for example—while examining how to have the teaching and learning of these topics, and others, meet the progressive mission of the school. It was an energizing day and a joyful celebration of the school and our talented faculty.
On Friday, January 22nd, the Parents Association’s Multicultural Committee will present Karamu!, our annual multicultural celebration. (Karamu means “joyful celebration” in Swahili.) The evening begins with a delicious potluck supper in the Charlton Street cafeteria. If past years are any indication, dinner will present a tremendous range of enticing offerings from families in all three divisions, representing a range of cultures and tastes. Following dinner, attendees will be treated to a series of performances reflecting a variety of artistic traditions. This year’s performers include a Latin alternative band, West African drummers, Irish dancers and our annual multi-culti dance party. My favorite part of Karamu is that it illustrates the importance of exploring those traditions—culinary and artistic—that are unique to specific cultures while also reinforcing those values shared by all cultures—a need to connect with each other, food as a cultural messenger and the arts as a center of celebrations. How are we the same and how do we differ—together these questions allow us to better understand others and ourselves.
Sign up sheets to help produce Karamu! will be posted in the Sixth Avenue lobby in the coming days, as will sheets to sign up to contribute to the potluck. If you would like to sign up and do not visit the buildings often, you can email Juliet Burrows at julietburrows@mac.com or Holly Glass at hcritch@earthlink.net. Tickets will go on sale on Tuesday, January 19th. I hope to see you at Karamu!
Best,
Phil
P.S. If your contact information—address, phone numbers, email addresses—has changed since we distributed the directory in September, please contact Mary Shea, mshea@lrei.org, as she is preparing an updated directory for distribution in the coming weeks. Thanks.