Fourth Grade - Radios and Freedom

Fourth Grade Closing Exercises

May 27, 2011

I enjoy the news. On my drive to work, I like getting caught up with the latest local, national and global events and being generally aware of what’s happening in politics, the weather, and so on. I specifically like listening to NPR. It’s generally been the only station I’ve tuned into on my short commutes to school for the past decade or so. But something changed this year and my radio horizons have been broadened, despite my best efforts to resist such broadening.

Over the course of this year, as I’ve taken turns driving my 4^th grader to school, guitar lessons, baseball practice, and various other places around the city, he has slowly gained control over the tuner, and, as a result, I’ve, once again, 35 years later, become fluent in top-40 radio - specifically “KJ103-ese”.

In my life, I have had many goals, one of the most important is that I will be a life-long learner, be curious about the world and try to make a difference. What is absent from my long list of goals, however, is to learn, by heart, most of the Bruno Mars, Keisha, and Black-Eyed Peas songs, including instrumental breaks. Also absent is the desire to have those songs constantly in my head, all day long.

That probably wasn’t the case when I was in 4^th grade in 1976. Back then, I did want to know all the words to “Afternoon Delight” by the Starland Vocal Band, “Don’t Go Breakin’ my Heart” by Elton John and Kiki Dee, and “Play that Funky Music” by Wild Cherry. I’m fairly sure my parents fought the impulse to hum those tunes during quiet times in their days back then, but I’m also certain that they were just as powerless over them as I am today. As a ten-year-old, it was one of the first times I realized that I had my own music, separate from my parents - it was empowering to know that those songs were mine. Independence was just over the horizon…

Fourth Graders: Whether you know it or not, you are educating your parents not only in the language of top-40 music, Ryan Seacrest and the cultural realities of pre-adolescence in the year 2011, you’re also teaching them (and your teachers) about patience, compassion, and humility.

We adults sometimes think we have all the answers, but we don’t. Lucky for us, you’ve been teaching us for a long time. And while we may not always enjoy the lessons, believe me, we’re learning them because of the amazing and wonderful things you do and are interested in. Because of who you are, how you live your lives, and what you want to become, you remind us every day how important it is to be curious, to work hard, to be kind to one another, and to try our best.

In school, while we have a set curriculum and a well-planned sequence of what gets taught when, we also know that there are countless other problems that need solutions that are outside the walls of the school. We hope that your musical tastes evolve appropriately, but it’s inevitable that you’ll like what you like despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise. You need to become your own person with your own peculiarities – those are the things that make you who you are and will become. We need to understand that and guide you with an open and flexible heart and the belief that you will, in the end, do something to make your world a better place.

This beginning has ended. Next year you’ll take on more responsibilities and you’ll have more freedom. You’ve shown us that you’re ready for those changes and we know you’ll rise to the challenge. As your taste in music evolves I hope you’ll never waver from your work to become the best person you can become and to make a difference. We know you can do it… 

Congratulations!

My Garden

I am an enthusiastic gardener. I have high hopes for my flowers and vegetables each and every year, and yet I know that with each success I must endure disappointment. Some of my plants will flourish and others won’t. But, despite gardening’s inevitable pitfalls, it reminds me that taking time and energy to do the difficult work in the cold of winter and early spring leads to at least some success in the Spring and Summer.

In gardening, as with all things, we need to be humble. I have a chance to tend to my garden only temporarily and to try my best to guide it toward healthy development and hopefully to provide some beauty along the way. Sometimes ice storms and hail rain down and divert the plan and sometimes drought and wind make the work that much more difficult. But, despite the obstacles and diversions, life has a way of continuing on and if I’ve planned well and prepared well, enough of my labors will bring the results that make things a bit better.

Thinking about this in terms of the Episcopal tradition, it’s much like the season of Lent in preparation for Easter. We send time preparing ourselves for the coming hopefulness that is characterized with the Easter season. And now, with the passing of Easter and the appearance of the first blooms of Spring, we look with optimism toward the conclusion of the current year and the opportunity to put things in place for the coming year. We’ve reflected comprehensively throughout our ISAS accreditation process and having been evaluated, we’ve now begun to put in place those things that our reflective work has identified as important and necessary.

Putting a plan in place involves making choices – we choose to do some things and we choose to ignore others. We make thousands of choices each and every day, some minor, some major. Thankfully, we tend to try to make choices that improve things. This year, once again, the School has made choices that are designed to make our school better. This has been the case at Casady for nearly 65 years and it will be the case as long as our School continues to exist. To be specific: we’ve chosen to improve our schedule for next year, we’ve begun to transition to a new way of approaching our lunch program, while keeping the family style dining firmly in place and offering additional healthy options, and we’ve analyzed and evaluated the way we assess student work and the kind of work we ask our students to produce.  

The kind of analysis and implementation necessary to make those kinds of initiatives work doesn’t happen in a vacuum; it involves many minds and being disposed to listen to many, and sometimes, competing perspectives. Understanding that each person who has helped to prepare the foundations for next year and the years to come has done so knowing that the benefits of the many hours in committee meetings and in finding compromises won’t be immediately apparent. We prepare the ground, cultivate seedlings, and make sure each plant has the opportunity to benefit to the fullest of its potential, but we have to be patient, thoughtful and diligent to ensure we’ve done all we can to ensure success.

Preparing the ground is tough and the rewards are usually not apparent until much later, but it’s the day-to-day attention to the plan, and everything that’s necessary to provide the proper conditions for future growth that makes the difference. This important work isn’t nearly as rewarding as watering a newly effulgent flowerbed and picking the first ripe tomato, but without it, our plants wither and struggle to survive.

Excellent gardens have a thoughtful mix of perennials and annuals; anchors and pillars that frame and provide stability, and those that are temporary and provide needed color and texture that change depending on current conditions or necessities. We rely on the perennials to keep our framework strong and our ability to plant annuals is linked directly to our understanding about whether they are appropriately placed and actually fit appropriately within the structure established over many years of cultivation.

Perennials in our school are things like our commitment to daily chapel and the importance of a strong academic program. Our Episcopal identity is anchored in the promotion of faith and reason. Here, in this chapel, we pause to reflect and think about those things that bind us together; in here, we are inspired to do things that make our world better and make our community stronger; in class, we strive to understand complexity, learn to become responsible for our own work, and we think creatively in order to understand our world and to make a difference. Annuals, on the other hand, are the kinds of courses we offer and our daily schedules. We make changes to these, year in and year out to meet the needs of our ever-changing society. We adjust our program and the way we divide our day to make sure the skills and knowledge we promote are those that colleges, universities, and our communities demand from our graduates.

Our perennial mission is to educate, each of our students, in mind, body, and spirit so that they are prepared to and have the desire to make a difference in their world. As we tend to our mission, we’ll evaluate what kinds of annuals will highlight and promote that mission to the best of our ability. Not all of the annuals we’ll plant will survive – we’ll remember not to choose those again as we make plans for the next year. But some will, and we’ll remember those as well. Obviously, the choices we’ll make won’t please everyone, but we’ll make these choices with the very best intentions: to ensure that our mission remains strong and dedicated to the most important work there is.