Greetings
GreenMount Community,
This morning, at our meeting with the students, we celebrated
the first day of the Chinese New Year.
Thanks to Ms. Jen and her trip to China in the fall, each child received
a red envelope with some real Chinese money in it. Ms. Laura’s kindergartners recited the
Chinese wish for a “healthy and prosperous new year,” which they spoke as “Gung
Hay Fat Choy.” I also found that the
first day of Chinese New Year is the day set aside for showing respect to one’s
elders. Being the oldest person in this
building…well, we’ll see.
Also, as part of this morning’s meeting we talked a
little about the Ravens and their loss yesterday. I found it interesting that everyone is upset
with Billy Cundiff and his missed field goal attempt, which ended the Raven’s
season. I talked to the students about
his courage to come before the press after the game and assume responsibility
for missing that kick and the result it had on the chances for a Super Bowl
appearance. I was also impressed with
his statement about how he was going to use this experience to model for his
children how to deal with failure, learn from it and move on. I thought what he said was even more powerful
then he imagined. It certainly fit
nicely into the conversation I had with the students the week before about
failing forward. Perhaps this is another
opportunity for you to talk to your kids about team play, failures as a team
and the support a team member gets even when he lets the team down.
If you visit the gym any time soon, you will see that the
climbing wall project is under way. We
had a great crew here on Saturday for workday, and not only was the climbing
wall nearly completed, but the building looked great for the Open House on
Sunday, which was very successful considering the weather and the playoff
game. I think it is safe to say that we
are now on the map. Thanks to you and
our marketing and development initiatives, GreenMount is no longer the school
no one has heard of. Twenty-six families
visited yesterday, and all seemed very pleased with what they saw and
heard. As usual, our student guides
impressed the visitors with their poise and understanding about their
school. We also had parents here to help
with the tours, including several board members. It is days like yesterday that remind me of
what a great school community we have here – parents helping with tedious jobs
or big construction projects, students who are proud of their school leading
families around, and a general sense of this as a happy place where children
are growing into interesting, confident, creative people. Who wouldn’t love the
atmosphere and the feeling we all share at GreenMount?
This is one of those moments
of reflection during which I realize how fortunate I am personally to have
landed here. Life has some interesting
twist and turns, but when you are my age and this is the result of whatever
choices you have made, you have to be content and feel that everything that
happened did so for a reason.
“Maybe Fate isn't the pond you swim in but
the fisherman floating on top of it, letting you run the line wild until you
are weary enough to be reeled back in.” – Jodi Picoult
Cheers,
Steve
