The final episode of 30 Rock included a message that, in many ways, was quite profound. Basically, both Liz and Jack find themselves in roles that they had spent their whole lives working to achieve and - you guessed it - they’re actually quite miserable.
It turns out that it is the journey and not the destination that matters. Which is why I love school spirit.
For most of us at Sandy Spring Friends School, we are quite transient. In fact, the whole point is that out students pass through this place to get to some other place. Yes, our students are hoping to get as much as possible from their time here, but, hey, they’re kids and this is just one stage of the growing up process. Going to Sandy Spring is the beginning, not the end.
True. But it is also true that no matter whether we are a teacher, a parent, a student, or a staff member, we are on a journey; we are on our own unique path. We all want our kids to be happy, content, useful, contributing community members. So when should we expect them to be all those things? In college? After college? When they’re settled down, perhaps married raising their own kids? When they are financially secure or retired?
One thing that I have learned from Jen Cort, our Head of Middle School, is that our Middle School students are leaders and doers; able to connect with family, friends, teachers, and random people; and, definitely, able to distinguish between right and wrong. In fact, even our littlest kids, the unbelievably adorable Pre-Kindergarteners, can be and are expected to be happy, content, useful, contributing community members (“HCUC community members”).
Quakers have long believed that being an “HCUC community member” requires serious academic focus, skepticism, an enthusiasm for learning, and a passion for seeking the truth. That’s why Quakers started so many schools some hundreds of years ago and insisted, against the norms of the time, that they be co-ed. It makes sense; after all, we can never prepare the path for the child, but we can prepare the child for the path.
Which is why I love the idea of school spirit. We want to walk in the Light every step of the way, even the first few steps, even when we feel clueless, even when we line up and hold hands to go to lunch, even when we have to buy a new size shoe every six months or even if we are trying to whittle our college list from 25 to 20 colleges (don’t tell J!). We can be there for each other (school spirit), we can feel connected (school spirit), we can share in Meeting (school spirit), we can hit behind the runner (school spirit), we can dye our hair green and yellow (school spirit), we can pick vegetables with Josie (school spirit), and we can do countless other things that illuminate the path to being HCUC community members. Now, before we grow up.