As humans, we’ve made belonging more complicated than God ever intended. With Jesus, we all belong, all the time. And if we continually seek to allow Jesus to be the driving force in our lives, when it comes to who should be allowed in our circles, we only have one rule: love one another. In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., today let us remember the justice that love demands.
What happened to all the crafts? For a long time, paper-plate cut outs and googly eyes ruled the preschool classroom, and in many places, still do. The Day School strives to balance the more crafty, product-centered art with lots of meaningful process-art experiences for our little learners. We are passionate about the value it adds to their school experience. Read more for a full explanation!
I find it's easy for humans to ignore social issues when we don't come face to face with them. Maybe we hear snippets of things about this or that, but because we don't see it in daily life, we are not too concerned. Honestly, that's how I felt about racism until the shocking day I witnessed it first hand. The family photo you see (from last Thanksgiving), represents another moment in time that altered my awareness - the day (or days, rather) that my nephews and niece became part of our family. I never thought very critically about the story of Thanksgiving until I realized these precious Native American children are (and will be) hearing this story in classrooms throughout their upbringing. Classrooms are predominantly white, where the story of Thanksgiving we all learned growing up, and often continue to teach, is typically presented from a white worldview that isn't entirely accurate.
When our former student, Bennett Williams, enrolled in the Day School, his mom, Kirsa, came to the office to speak to us about Bennett's health. When Bennett was one year old, he was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia. The brave 3-year-old Bennett joined our PreK3 class while still undergoing chemotherapy. He was in remission after three years of treatment, from 2014 until last month, when his family received the devastating news that Bennett has another form of blood cancer MDS/AML.
Read more to learn how to support this former Day School family.
I'm not. And I'm excited to tell you that today.
Last week, I had the privilege of attending Momentous Institute's Changing the Odds Conference. Those of you who have been around for years are accustomed to my "what inspired me" posts that come from this conference. This year, the topic was belonging. It was about the need we have as humans to be connected, and the importance of such connections for truly impacting our communities for the better. This made me think of the barriers we put in place to hold one other at a distance. We erect images of perfection like walls around our hearts, without any doors or windows, so that no one can come inside and see, or even take a peek at, our truths.