Middle School
January 2012
Dear Middle School Families:
A Happy New Year to you, and welcome to March in January!
I realize that I will soon be eating those words as the mercury drops precipitously and we are frozen into dormancy. Granted, our skiers need the snow and the lakes remain iffy, at best, for skating, but these past couple of weeks have provided quite the start to our second semester.
I'm reminded of a time when I was visiting the Amazon basin and walking among the flora with a shaman. He explained to me many of the medicinal uses of plants, leaves, and trees, but I recall one type of tree that stood alone, literally. We approached the tree and he told me to take a closer look. On the tree's surface were tens of thousands of small ants going about their routines. "Now, watch," he implored. The shaman clapped his hands a couple of inches from the bark and the ants began to race along the surface, ten times as fast as before. Soon thereafter, the ants slowed to their former pace, resuming activities as normal. (For those of you wondering about the medicinal tie-in - during the frenzy, the ants secreted a substance that could be substituted for sunscreen AND, when eaten, have a lemony tang to them. Eat your heart out, Andrew Zimmern).
I share this with you because the return from our winter break has very much been like a collective clap for our students, as well as for our faculty. The pace is frenetic and we don't always know where we're going (or where we've been, at times!); yet we figure it out. The symbiotic relationship between these ants and the tree is a special one as well, for no other tree in the jungle can or is willing to support the ants (perhaps the formic acid that it injects into others plays into things...). The ants, it is found, are poisonous to other trees as a way of allowing that much more sunlight to reach their own. I take this a step further because it is important to remind you of the special roles that our teachers play in our Middle School students' lives. In essence, they provide a safe place for them to scamper through early adolescence. They absorb the craziness just as they're still there to guide them through their daily, and more tranquil, routines. In turn, I am sure, our students are providing our faculty and staff with the sunlight that they need to enjoy what they do. I have said it many a time, but it takes a unique group of adults to commit themselves to the unremitting education of the whole Middle School student, and I happily remind the faculty of just how fond our students are of them, as individuals and as a group.
The second semester is a great opportunity for us to build upon the foundations formed over the last few months, and I ask that you hold on for the ride. Across the grade levels, signature events are sprinkled throughout, whether it’s History Day, Colonial Night, or Ski Day. There is much to look forward to, yet a great deal of work to be done, and the third quarter calendar does not do us many favors. The fragmented nature of the months calls for increased organization and a need to deliberately seek a rhythm. Furthermore, as many of us have experienced firsthand, we are in the throes of “sick season”, as a fifth grader put it yesterday. Staying mindful of one’s hygiene and maintaining a healthy sleep regimen cannot be underscored enough. I thank you for your help with this.
I wish you the very best, and I hope that you are able to make it to campus soon, whether on an impromptu visit or to one of the many draws that the upcoming weeks provide. Until then, keep that down layer close by, and enjoy this "unique" time of year.
Respectfully,
Schuyler Fauver
Middle School Director
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