Today I sent out a message to the parents of our oldest students concerning the natural and normal talk about sexuality that children this age need to explore. This reminded me that it's a subject all parents need to consider. There is an on-going conversation that happens between you and your child, from the very early questions right the way through to adulthood. I want to encourage all of you to listen to, discuss with and guide your children as they grow.
This web site may be a good resource for you. It has a tab that goes through appropriate subject matter at different developmental stages, as well as other tabs for useful resources. (It is simply a suggestion, one of a host of web sites online.) Please remember that children develop in different ways and not everyone has reached the same stage at the same time. Be sensitive to whatever stage your own child has reached.
Even if your child is very young and you feel that this is way too early to begin to talk about such things, I encourage you to consider it. It is much, much easier to have the more intense conversations later if you've already established an open communication and a foundation with your child from an early age. It's also worth remembering that there is no way to prevent peer to peer talk from happening, or the spread of information (correct, partially correct, or totally misunderstood). It's a natural and normal part of the growing up process. What is important is that you should be part of the conversation. While I know that those of you with older children have probably been doing this at an age-appropriate level for some time, I want to encourage you to talk with your child and make sure that his or her thinking on this subject is approached in a way that you are comfortable with. It's important that you listen to your child, and help him or her to a healthy, positive, respectful start to thinking about this sensitive subject. Again, the web site has a suggested list of appropriate subject matter for different ages.
This can be a fascinating and joyful process with your child. Enjoy it.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Friday, September 2, 2011
Welcome to the New School Year!
Here we are at the beginning of September already! This is going to be a year of adventures - we have new faculty and many new families joining us (WELCOME, everyone!!), we will be moving to a gorgeous new building, and we are kicking off our new, shiny middle school programs under the expert leadership of 5th/6th grade teacher Mark Benglian (Mr. B.).
Just to remind us all what it is that makes us special, we were recently awarded a Bezonki Award by the Ann Arbor Chronicle. What is a Bezonki Award, you may ask? Read here to find out more. It was awarded to SK "in recognition of their willingness to embrace and explore the unknown with creativity and good humor. When confronted with something that can seem baffling – like the inscrutable Bezonki! – they approach it with curiosity and see its potential. This is a skill and attitude that, when applied to civic affairs, serves our community well."
What a charming encapsulation of SK students and teachers, and their attitude and approach!
See you all on Tuesday!
Just to remind us all what it is that makes us special, we were recently awarded a Bezonki Award by the Ann Arbor Chronicle. What is a Bezonki Award, you may ask? Read here to find out more. It was awarded to SK "in recognition of their willingness to embrace and explore the unknown with creativity and good humor. When confronted with something that can seem baffling – like the inscrutable Bezonki! – they approach it with curiosity and see its potential. This is a skill and attitude that, when applied to civic affairs, serves our community well."
What a charming encapsulation of SK students and teachers, and their attitude and approach!
See you all on Tuesday!
Friday, June 10, 2011
Goodbyes and Hellos
It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to some of the much-loved, much-admired and hugely appreciated teachers who have worked with us in recent years. Renata McAdams, I can't tell you how much we will miss you. I can't even bear to think about it. Jan Biliti, Ruth Marks, Jesse Metcalf-Burton, your talent and warmth has enriched us so much. You will always have a special place in our hearts. All of us at Summers-Knoll wish you all an absolutely wonderful future, whether it holds retirement, a move to a different state or a different focus of career. Stay in touch.
And simultaneously it's very exciting to be able to welcome new faculty. Again, we have been amazingly fortunate in the people who have chosen to come and work with us at our school. Mark Benglian, Chris Swinko, Val Tibbs-Wynne, George Albercook, Cara Talaska, Tracy Gallup - I feel indescribably lucky and honored to have teachers of your caliber and commitment joining our team. You are an inspiring bunch!
It's hard to say goodbye to wonderful friends and colleagues. The consolation is that next year is looking amazing.
And simultaneously it's very exciting to be able to welcome new faculty. Again, we have been amazingly fortunate in the people who have chosen to come and work with us at our school. Mark Benglian, Chris Swinko, Val Tibbs-Wynne, George Albercook, Cara Talaska, Tracy Gallup - I feel indescribably lucky and honored to have teachers of your caliber and commitment joining our team. You are an inspiring bunch!
It's hard to say goodbye to wonderful friends and colleagues. The consolation is that next year is looking amazing.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Poems for the Graduates
Today we marked the passage from elementary to middle school for our 4th and 5th graders (our new middle school starts at 5th grade this coming fall). As always, I wrote each student a poem to mark this transition in their lives. Here they are!
ERIN
Erin
Listens to a fairy tale
And hears a story of social justice,
Human rights,
A call to action.
Erin
Writes a fairy tale
With words she found one day
At the end of a rainbow.
Erin
Has a heart that catches fire
And a spirit that snatches words
Out of the wind.
ALEC
To Alec
The world is an endless place of discovery.
He wants to see it,
Be there, explore,
Taste it.
New flavors bursting on the tongue.
Capture it, keep the recipe,
Recreate it.
Share it with friends.
For Alec,
A book is an endless place of discovery,
He enters it,
Explores it, lives it,
Tastes it like a sunburst on the tongue
Of his imagination.
My wish for Alec:
May you meet all your adventures
With this same curiosity and joy.
May the flavors be exciting
And different
In ways that explode in ideas
In your amazing brain.
And then, may you write it all into a book
So that other Alecs
Can share the endless discovery
That is your path through life.
TRENT
Trent is an old style warrior.
He can be a knight in shining armor
Upon a noble steed.
Tell him the tale of the unfortunate child
Lost in the woods
Harassed by wolves
And Trent rides over there in a heartbeat.
The wolves run for cover.
The child is saved.
Trent rides on to the next adventure.
Sometimes he is a Jedi.
He solves problems from afar,
Sending the Force of his personality
To end conflict,
Calm strife.
And sometimes he’s a Visigoth,
A Vandal or a Hun,
Joining a barbarian horde
To overrun civilization
And laugh in the face of his enemies.
He is practicing for the day
When he becomes
The champion of the world
The peacemaker of the ages
The standard-bearer of justice.
ATTICUS
The world is an electrical circuit board
And the power source is
Atticus’s brain.
The world is a gigantic robot.
Atty holds the
Remote control.
The world is a computer
Busy calculating
The reasons for
Right
And Wrong.
Atticus programs the computer
And manages the data.
When Atty talks
Lights light up,
Beepers go beep
Gears whirr
And ideas connect to ideas that lead to ideas
And the electric circuitry of the world
Hums to life.
SAUL
Saul is precise.
He explores the jungle of the world
Carefully, on paths he has
Laid out
With thought
And clarity.
Step by step
He overcomes the jungle,
Laying the next length of path
Pushing further into
The tangled bewilderment of vines.
Saul comes to a thicket
He cannot see within.
But he knows there is a tiger,
He is sure there is a tiger
And maybe it’s the kind
Of tiger that
Breathes fire.
That’s pretty scary stuff. Even the tiger is scared.
Saul points out the path to the tiger.
He points out the path to the thicket.
He points out the path to the jungle.
This is the path
Of order and clarity.
This is the path
Of knowledge and understanding.
On this path
Are justice and peace.
One day Saul will make a map
Of the paths he makes,
He will step into the jungle
With his map in his pocket
Off the track
Off the trail
Into the wild places.
Knowing where the paths are, knowing where the stars are,
He will find his way
With the tiger by his side.
LYDIA
Lydia draws a horse
And it takes off at a gallop.
It has a wild mane and tail
That tangle with the wind.
Grace and power swirl from her pencil point.
Lydia holds grace and power
In her heart.
The horse that leaps from her pencil
Runs in her bloodstream
And races across the open spaces
Of her imagination.
Run with the horse, Lydia.
You are as swift.
Go where the horse goes.
She will be your guide.
Let your wildness tangle in the wind:
The horse will show you how.
MAX
Max
Lives in an origami maze
Of his own making
More complex than ordinary mortals
Could ever comprehend,
Cunning beyond belief.
It is folded in patterns
Based on mathematical principles
That have yet to be discovered
By the world at large.
Only in Jesse’s class are these concepts known.
There is
An entire city folded
Within the paper labyrinth.
A paper White House holds
The quarters of the President.
(Max.)
The Defense Secretary (Max)
Has luxurious accommodations
Nearby,
As do the Chief of Police (Max)
The Supreme Professor of Shakespeare (Max)
And the CEO of the Humane Society for the Protection of Skeletal Devils
(also Max).
These multiple Maxes are also a result
Of mathematical discoveries
In Jesse’s class.
Sometimes they all get together
And go over to Danny’s house
For a pillow fight.
And sometimes they stop and listen
To the sound of paper folding
As the origami maze
Grows
And grows
And grows
In its quest to take over the world.
DANNY
If the world were made of pillows
Danny would be free
To go swimming in the billows
Of a pillow-crested sea.
He’d have a house built snugly
Of pillow walls and floors
He’d welcome friends in smugly
Through the soft, inviting doors.
Each one would have a weapon,
An instrument of doom
Made out of silk and feathers.
They’d gather in a room
And a challenge would be given
And they’d smite with cushy blows
And their pillows would be driven
Like marshmallows at their foes.
And when they were exhausted
With laughter and with war
They’d collapse upon their pillows
And they’d all begin to snore.
And outside the pillow cloudlets
High in the gentle sky
Would tear open their covers
And feather snow would fly.
LUKAS
Lukas plays the violin.
Music comes out of his fingers like ribbons
that wind and float and weave
they get inside children’s heads and make patterns
and the children start to work.
Ink factory. Get leaves, get berries, water.
Smush. Mix. Add more berries.
Sunlight slants through the trees like the high pure sound
of a violin.
Lukas plays. Running like the rippling notes
of an arpeggio,
Calling to friends with melodic rise and fall,
organizing funerals,
all in black,
or playing wedding marches
on his violin.
Lukas plays the violin,
like he was born to do it.
His soul comes out to play
and makes magic happen.
ERIN
Erin
Listens to a fairy tale
And hears a story of social justice,
Human rights,
A call to action.
Erin
Writes a fairy tale
With words she found one day
At the end of a rainbow.
Erin
Has a heart that catches fire
And a spirit that snatches words
Out of the wind.
ALEC
To Alec
The world is an endless place of discovery.
He wants to see it,
Be there, explore,
Taste it.
New flavors bursting on the tongue.
Capture it, keep the recipe,
Recreate it.
Share it with friends.
For Alec,
A book is an endless place of discovery,
He enters it,
Explores it, lives it,
Tastes it like a sunburst on the tongue
Of his imagination.
My wish for Alec:
May you meet all your adventures
With this same curiosity and joy.
May the flavors be exciting
And different
In ways that explode in ideas
In your amazing brain.
And then, may you write it all into a book
So that other Alecs
Can share the endless discovery
That is your path through life.
TRENT
Trent is an old style warrior.
He can be a knight in shining armor
Upon a noble steed.
Tell him the tale of the unfortunate child
Lost in the woods
Harassed by wolves
And Trent rides over there in a heartbeat.
The wolves run for cover.
The child is saved.
Trent rides on to the next adventure.
Sometimes he is a Jedi.
He solves problems from afar,
Sending the Force of his personality
To end conflict,
Calm strife.
And sometimes he’s a Visigoth,
A Vandal or a Hun,
Joining a barbarian horde
To overrun civilization
And laugh in the face of his enemies.
He is practicing for the day
When he becomes
The champion of the world
The peacemaker of the ages
The standard-bearer of justice.
ATTICUS
The world is an electrical circuit board
And the power source is
Atticus’s brain.
The world is a gigantic robot.
Atty holds the
Remote control.
The world is a computer
Busy calculating
The reasons for
Right
And Wrong.
Atticus programs the computer
And manages the data.
When Atty talks
Lights light up,
Beepers go beep
Gears whirr
And ideas connect to ideas that lead to ideas
And the electric circuitry of the world
Hums to life.
SAUL
Saul is precise.
He explores the jungle of the world
Carefully, on paths he has
Laid out
With thought
And clarity.
Step by step
He overcomes the jungle,
Laying the next length of path
Pushing further into
The tangled bewilderment of vines.
Saul comes to a thicket
He cannot see within.
But he knows there is a tiger,
He is sure there is a tiger
And maybe it’s the kind
Of tiger that
Breathes fire.
That’s pretty scary stuff. Even the tiger is scared.
Saul points out the path to the tiger.
He points out the path to the thicket.
He points out the path to the jungle.
This is the path
Of order and clarity.
This is the path
Of knowledge and understanding.
On this path
Are justice and peace.
One day Saul will make a map
Of the paths he makes,
He will step into the jungle
With his map in his pocket
Off the track
Off the trail
Into the wild places.
Knowing where the paths are, knowing where the stars are,
He will find his way
With the tiger by his side.
LYDIA
Lydia draws a horse
And it takes off at a gallop.
It has a wild mane and tail
That tangle with the wind.
Grace and power swirl from her pencil point.
Lydia holds grace and power
In her heart.
The horse that leaps from her pencil
Runs in her bloodstream
And races across the open spaces
Of her imagination.
Run with the horse, Lydia.
You are as swift.
Go where the horse goes.
She will be your guide.
Let your wildness tangle in the wind:
The horse will show you how.
MAX
Max
Lives in an origami maze
Of his own making
More complex than ordinary mortals
Could ever comprehend,
Cunning beyond belief.
It is folded in patterns
Based on mathematical principles
That have yet to be discovered
By the world at large.
Only in Jesse’s class are these concepts known.
There is
An entire city folded
Within the paper labyrinth.
A paper White House holds
The quarters of the President.
(Max.)
The Defense Secretary (Max)
Has luxurious accommodations
Nearby,
As do the Chief of Police (Max)
The Supreme Professor of Shakespeare (Max)
And the CEO of the Humane Society for the Protection of Skeletal Devils
(also Max).
These multiple Maxes are also a result
Of mathematical discoveries
In Jesse’s class.
Sometimes they all get together
And go over to Danny’s house
For a pillow fight.
And sometimes they stop and listen
To the sound of paper folding
As the origami maze
Grows
And grows
And grows
In its quest to take over the world.
DANNY
If the world were made of pillows
Danny would be free
To go swimming in the billows
Of a pillow-crested sea.
He’d have a house built snugly
Of pillow walls and floors
He’d welcome friends in smugly
Through the soft, inviting doors.
Each one would have a weapon,
An instrument of doom
Made out of silk and feathers.
They’d gather in a room
And a challenge would be given
And they’d smite with cushy blows
And their pillows would be driven
Like marshmallows at their foes.
And when they were exhausted
With laughter and with war
They’d collapse upon their pillows
And they’d all begin to snore.
And outside the pillow cloudlets
High in the gentle sky
Would tear open their covers
And feather snow would fly.
LUKAS
Lukas plays the violin.
Music comes out of his fingers like ribbons
that wind and float and weave
they get inside children’s heads and make patterns
and the children start to work.
Ink factory. Get leaves, get berries, water.
Smush. Mix. Add more berries.
Sunlight slants through the trees like the high pure sound
of a violin.
Lukas plays. Running like the rippling notes
of an arpeggio,
Calling to friends with melodic rise and fall,
organizing funerals,
all in black,
or playing wedding marches
on his violin.
Lukas plays the violin,
like he was born to do it.
His soul comes out to play
and makes magic happen.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Special Exception accepted for our new building
The City Planning Commission meeting where the Special Exception permit was approved for our new school building on Platt Road has been written up by the Ann Arbor Chronicle. If you are intrigued by the behind-the-scenes details, you can read the article here.
RIght now, the building is undergoing inspections (including environmental) and we are in the process of planning the phasing of the renovations with our architects, Brad and Theresa Angelini. I'll keep you posted!
RIght now, the building is undergoing inspections (including environmental) and we are in the process of planning the phasing of the renovations with our architects, Brad and Theresa Angelini. I'll keep you posted!
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Happy Birthday, Fran!
Today is Fran Loosen's birthday. Fran is our Board President, and has played a hugely significant role in moving the school forward both in terms of its actual physical growth and move to a new building and in her support for the Summers-Knoll culture and philosophy. It's hard to imagine a more perfect person in this role at this time. Today, on her birthday, I want to celebrate Fran's presence and involvement in the school and the amazing gift that her energy and intelligence has been to us.
Thank you, Fran. May your birthday bring you blessings you have not even dared to imagine.
Thank you, Fran. May your birthday bring you blessings you have not even dared to imagine.
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