Dear Families,
Watching this year’s final boys varsity basketball game, our annual Seniors Game, I realized that three of the five starting players have been playing basketball together since they were roughly five years old, four players since they were 10, and all five since they were 11. They are now 18. (Imagine how many games their parents have watched!)
These students play so well together; they can anticipate where their teammates will be on the court and who can hit a three point shot. They know each other’s strengths and weaknesses—taking advantage of one, compensating for the other. This intimate knowledge comes from their time together on teams at LREI and elsewhere, and from the hundreds of hours shooting hoops during recess and after school. These are the closest of friends / teammates / schoolmates. To see these students move through the school together, as we do with the majority of students in each class, is fascinating and really quite touching. They will leave LREI having had an experience that most of those whom they meet in college will not have had.
As these three friends (there are other students from their early childhood days in the class, just not on the court at the time) and their classmates moved through the school their deep friendships and understanding of each other were challenged and enriched each time they were joined by new classmates—one or two in the lower school, a number more as they moved through the middle school and then 20 or 30 in ninth grade. The class redefined itself, integrating these students into the new group, long-term relationships made even deeper by the energy and talents of new peers. The best of both worlds for our high schoolers. The group quickly moves from old kids/new kids to a constellation of schoolmates as arriving students join and energize long-standing friendships and create those of their own—going away on an overnight trip on the first day of ninth grade gets this reconfiguration off to a great start.
We see the benefits of these long-term relationships in places other than the basketball court. I watched two of these boys rock a high school arts assembly yesterday—a tight band! The high school robotics team (see info on their upcoming meet below) inherited members from a very successful middle school team. Now in the 11th grade, these team leaders and close friends have developed even deeper friendships and collegial relationships with students who joined in ninth grade. At this point it is hard to tell who joined when. Of course, we see the benefits of these long-term relationships, and the new energy and talent added by the terrific students who arrive throughout middle school and high school, at work in the classrooms. The intellectual challenge and support that these strong relationships offer is essential to the students’ success and to the vibrant LREI experience.
——–
This weekend the high school robotics team will be defending their first place finish in their last tournament. You are invited to watch the tournament and to cheer on the LREI Robo-Knights — March 8, 2014 from 7am-5pm. NYU POLY (6 Metrotech Center, Brooklyn 11201). http://www.nycfirst.org/events/new-york-city-long-island-ftc-championship.
——-
Finally, please join me in saying a fond farewell to Cheryl Reid, our morning receptionist on Charlton Street and afternoon receptionist at 272 Sixth Avenue. Cheryl will be leaving at the end of next week, retiring to warmer climes with her husband, John. John began his teaching career at LREI, doing his student teaching in our third grade before going on to become a master teacher for the NYC public schools. John was also an amazing soccer coach for LREI for many years. Cheryl’s daughter Heather was a member of the graduating class of 1992 (and was in my very first sixth grade science class in 1985) and her son, Matthew, graduated in 1997.
Cheryl, we cannot thank you enough for all that you have done for the LREI community for the past 27 years. You have taken such good care of us. Thank you, Cheryl. We will miss you all. Please come back and visit soon and often.