January 2011

 

During the past month we have been discussing with our students many topics during our town meetings, Fun Fridays, and in the classrooms.  We often spend this time talking about character education, and how we all could "Learn and Live with Honor".  We stress to the students that it is our hope that we all try to represent ourselves and the school with integrity here on the campus, but also in our neighborhoods. 

 

These discussions in our community time together are important, but the daily interaction between the students and their teachers provide an important foundation.  And of course, the lessons taught at home support these important lessons covered at school.  During the month of January our virtue has been Justice, which can simply be defined as "helping everyone to get what they need and deserve."   

 

Within our school curriculum, we intentionally work to help students become aware of the rights of all people and all living things.  If you walk the hallways of The Swain School, you can see that the classrooms have been creating justice projects, have written about justice, discussed justice, and actually have done community service projects that represent justice to benefit others. 

 

These curriculum objectives are purposeful, and we strive to create an environment that allows our students to think and reason with open-mindedness and develop practical skills and behavior to treat people fairly and impartially.  One goal is to help give the foundation to our students so that when they leave us after 8th grade they have the interest to protect the basic rights of all people and all living things.  We work very hard at doing this throughout our students' educational journey at Swain. 

 

The objective of being intentional with this effort can be easy to see. We can witness these acts of kindness in the daily life at school, in the hallways, on the basketball court, or welcoming visitors into the classrooms.  Our students understand how to follow norms and guidelines.  This will benefit them in their future and encourage them to seek ways to help others who are in need, or simply be individuals who have a moral compass that helps form a strong bond in a community.  This is an important piece of our curriculum.

We are not perfect, so mistakes are made at our school, both by the adults and by the children.  But, I am always amazed to see how much time, effort, and care our wonderful faculty puts into creating classrooms to be safe, comfortable, and a symbol of justice.  The faculty work hard to help every one of our students get what they need and deserve, whether it is academically, emotionally, or socially.  They are truly delivering justice.  This is occurring throughout the year and is visible each day in the classroom. 

 

Your children deserve this justice, as all children in the world do.  It is true that justice in our country and  in the world needs to continue to be worked on and should be the foundation for our country's future and the global society.   You have made a choice, and you have provided your children the opportunity to experience this one aspect of our curriculum on a daily basis.

 

The support provided by you helps the partnership between home and school become tangible and that is what independent schools are all about.  We should be proud that justice is prevailing at The Swain School.  It is because of our strong interconnected community, and the understanding that our differences are something to celebrate, not fear.  Furthermore, it is our hope that we recognize that these differences should not divide, because we are members of the human race and it should unite us.  That is justice and we need to stay intentional with our school efforts.

 

During some of our community lessons going over this concept of Justice, we focused on the teaching of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  One of his main themes about "loving one another" is rich in message; as we know, Dr. King's messages during the 1960's are still very relevant today. 

 

Our internal and external community outreach was highlighted by our meaningful time together on January 17, during our first annual "Day of Remembrance, Celebration, and Service:  I Make a Difference".  This gave us an opportunity to spend time with some of our Swain School community members, but we also welcomed many new faces onto the campus to discuss
Dr. King's legacy.
 
 Close to 100 people gathered on that day to do activities (special thank you to faculty members Kelley Stout, Karin Reger, and Krista Kelly), discuss topics of non-violence, sing in a community sing-along (thank you Bonnie Cohen), do community service projects, and simply recognize that we should encourage this type of dialogue in the Lehigh Valley.  

 

I would also like to thank three board members, Rebecca Binder, Ethel Drayton-Craig, and JoAnn Spencer for their leadership on this committee.  We also had one of our third grade parents, Jessica Nichols, volunteer on this committee, and several of us who are in the administration.  I encourage all of you to mark this day on your calendar for our second annual day of observance on January 16, 2012. 

 

As we plan for the remaining part of the year, please celebrate your place in the community, and continue to create strong bonds with our faculty and one another.  This will help ensure our students get the tools they need for this year, and for the rest of their lives. 

 

Enjoy the upcoming grade-level parent coffees.  Please attend these important gatherings to learn about next year and meet some of the faculty.  We hope to see you and to continue to hear from you as we develop the plans for the rest of this year and for next. We will continue to work diligently to give your children what they need and deserve.  Let justice prevail for all.

 

Warmly,

 

Todd

 

                               Click here for more photos from the Dr. King celebration