Commencement Crescendo!

Moving up, moving on, beginning, ending - however one wants to define it, there were many commencements the last week of school, and there was a Montessori thread of "responsible independence" that ran through all of them.

It started with a smile-producing kindergarten ceremony. There were mobiles hanging above each child's head with pictures/words of favorite activities. There were songs. There were personal statements from each child proudly read off to the assembled smiling parents. There were songs and there was the candle walk. And then there was...CAKE! The kindergarteners are moving on.

The next commencement was centered around Jessica's farewell, and also the thirds becoming fourths. The Lower El had a private, quiet farewell with the students reflecting on their experiences in Jessica's classroom. This was followed by a celebratory party hosted by Lower El parents.

As with Lower El, the sixth grade graduation was a classroom ceremony. And it was astonishing. There were individual personal statements read to the class. Their sense of self-reflection about who they were when they started in Upper El and what they learned during their years with Dan and Tom were full of humor and honesty. There were gifts to and from the sixths, there was a song, there was poetry, there was a candle walk.

The crescendo came with Middle School graduation held in the pouring, POURING rain on Friday night (though once the event started no one even noticed the rain). In all my years of Hilltop graduations, this reached phenomenal heights. Memorizing a very personal speech and giving it in front of a large assembled crowd of parents, grandparents, friends and teachers is no easy task, and yet this year's eighths delivered their very personal words with grace, aplomb, humor and wonderful timing. They left the tent with black umbrellas sheltering them, stood in a line by their pond with backs turned and then in a crescendo of music, turned around, waving proudly, umbrellas and hands twirling. They are ready to commence their new lives.

Responsible independence: at each age level the students reflected on what they liked, how they had grown, what community meant, how grateful they were to their families and teachers. They spoke in front of their families, their friends, their classmates. They were responsible and they were independent. Those moving on, moving up, commencing and graduating - CONGRATULATIONS!