Dear LREI Community – 
I hope that you have had a gentle return to school after Spring Break – two weeks which are either amazingly restorative, somewhat challenging with kids at home, or somewhere in between. While I enjoyed the change of pace, I am always glad to be back as the next 10 or so weeks are jam-packed with many, many gatherings, events, activities, etc. that are just so much fun. These events include:
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Many athletic events for our middle and high school athletes – track and field, tennis, baseball, softball – check out the Athletics calendar.
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The lower school and middle school art shows
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The Middle School Musical
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The High School Spring Festival of Plays
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LS, MS, HS Chorus and Band Concerts
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The Fourth Grade Play
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Afterschool shares
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Field Day
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The return of the Family camping trip
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LREI’s Alumni Reunion
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THE STREET FAIR
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Prom, Senior Banquet, and….
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Commencement ‘23
And that is not all. Of course, there are all sorts of events happening in the classrooms in the three divisions. We are in for a very busy spring. If you have yet to attend an LREI event, make a plan to do so this spring. You can find all of these events on the daily calendar.
What you won’t see on the calendar is all that is happening each day in each classroom – the ongoing skill building and intellectual growth, the challenge that teachers enter into with their students at this point in the year when the children are so far along their year’s journey. What can be harder to see on a daily basis as it is interwoven into all that we do (though you can ask your children about it) are the ways in which the program is directed out of the building and into the world, supporting your children as they grapple with the significant and complex issues that surround them. There is a lot going on in their worlds that is hard to understand, that may be overwhelming, and while there are times that the issues seem far away, it is not difficult to point to the impacts on their daily lives. We owe it to our children to make these connections and to empower them to be active citizens of their worlds.
Finally – to celebrate the beginning of National Poetry Month, I share the following poem, the title poem from Clint Smith’s new collection of poetry focused on parenting and childhood, Above Ground.
Above Ground
A poem by Clint Smith
By Clint Smith
December 25, 2022
For weeks, we can’t go outside without the cicada’s
song wrapping itself around the three of us like a quilt.
The tree in our front yard has become their sanctuary,
a place where they all seem to congregate
and sing their first and final songs.
We get closer, and see the way their exoskeletons
ornament the bark like golden ghosts,
shadows abandoned by their bodies
searching for new life.
One of you is four years old. One of you is two.
The next time the cicadas rise out of the earth
you will be twenty-one and nineteen.
I think of how much might change between these cycles.
How much of our planet will still be intact?
What sort of societies will the cicadas return to
when they next make their way up from the earth?
When they first arrive, you are both frightened
of this new noise that hangs in the air,
of these small orange-and-black-winged bodies
that fall from the sky like new rain.
They don’t bite, I say.
But neither of you believe me.
So I reach out to one of the branches
and allow one of the orange-eyed creatures to climb
onto my finger. You both watch it roam around my hand
as it becomes familiar with the flesh of my palm,
your eyes widening at the revelation that this infrequent
visitor has no interest in piercing my skin.
And maybe that is enough, because now
you both try to pick up cicadas from the ground
and collect them in buckets as if they are treasure.
And maybe they are.
Maybe treasure is in what dies almost
as quickly as it rises from the earth.
Maybe treasure is anything that reminds you
what a miracle it is to be alive.
In this moment of the convergence of Ramadan, Passover, and Easter, we wish all the best to those who will celebrate a holiday this weekend.
Enjoy the long weekend,