Kiddos: I hope that you get wonderful teachers. I hope that you feel the way about school that I felt on my first day of kindergarten -- Wonderful wonderful, (from the song Wonderful, Wonderful, Copenhagan -- and for so, so, so, so, SO many years after that!! I hope that learning is exciting and fun for you, and that on bad days people care enough to listen to you and help you figure out what you need. Parents: I hope that your children get teachers that they soon come to adore, and that you feel are your best friends and partners in raising your kids, because they see aspects of your babies that you dont see, and because teachers actually know quite a bit! Teachers including librarians and teachers aides who are also teachers: I hope you get the respect and support that you deserve. Cafeteria workers, janitors, secretaries: I hope everyone recognizes how important you are to the well-being of the school and community, and that they give you all the respect and care that they want for themselves. I wish you strong solidarity and strong unions. Everyone: I hope that in this too-often violent, terrifying, and horribly unjust world, that school is a place where people recognize the brilliance and beauty in one another, that you encourage and nudge and help each other to grow grow grow grow and bloom, that you surprise yourselves and each other with the things you learn, and with what you can do this year that you couldnt do last year, and maybe that you didnt even believe you could ever do. I hope you are kind and have fun. I wish that you will all have bunnies and guinea pigs, and that you used shredded standardized tests and worksheets for bedding and animal toiletng. I hope that you expect great things of each other, and that everyone rises to those high high high expectations. I hope that schools are places where people dont ignore racism or other forms of cruelty, where people are curious and pleased by differences rather than scared by them, where people are so cherished that they feel no need to pretend that they are better than anyone else. I wish the peaceful transformation of bullies into their better selves. I hope that everyone remembers that knowledge, kindness, and critical thinking are ALL indispensable, and that we shouldnt abandon one for the sake of another. I wish you music and art and time to jump and stretch and whisper secrets and giggle. I wish you crushes. I wish you good friends who will ride the waves with you. I wish you teachers as great as those who taught my kids (talking to YOU, Open Door and Maplewood and McCallum and UT and Smith and TAMU Commerce) and that I had at Thomas Jefferson, Copper Beech, and Lakeland High School! I wish you people who will stand up for you as you stand up for them. https://youtube/watch?v=a5nfQvtcsDY
Posted on: Sun, 24 Aug 2014 00:49:33 +0000
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