The Cycle of (School) Life

Working in a school is unlike working anywhere else; not just because of the joy and excitement of helping children grow, but also because of the unique academic calendar that creates a rhythm to our years. Historically, the school year was structured to ensure that young men (and sometimes women) were available to help on the farm during the high-activity periods of planting in the spring, and especially harvesting in the fall. And since air conditioning is a fairly recent development in schools, packing children together at the height of summer was somewhere between uncomfortable and dangerous.

Every spring and early summer here at Community School, I am reminded of this “cycle of life” that we have in schools. It begins with greeting newlyadmitted families in April; excitement and joy fill the room as new Community School parents mingle and meet, chat with current parents and teachers, and start to have their many questions answered about the upcoming school year. This year was even more interesting, as many of our families were either already parents in the school (with a new younger sibling joining), or were themselves alumni of Community School, eagerly showing off the school to their children. To put some numbers to this: In our Nursery class of 21, for instance, 17 were from families with current or former Community students as siblings, two were children of alumni, one is the daughter of a current employee, and only one child was from a family brand-new to Community.

This turning of the cycle of the school year continued in May, as we said goodbye to our sixth graders. Sixth grade is always an especially exciting year since it is the culmination of so many things they have worked on in their time at Community School. Our sixth graders are leaders of the school, and the Class of 2022 are a model class; they raised and lowered the flag every day, ran lunch tables when a teacher couldn’t be there, served as big buddies and family group leaders to younger students, ran every assembly, and generally served as wonderful role models for everyone else in the school. The most important and poignant times with our sixth graders are their last days here. Our Recognition Assembly, where I talk about each student’s growth over the years, is a wonderful celebration of each student, but the best moments are at graduation. This May, each of our graduates prepared a speech that talked about how they had grown over the years, their favorite memories of Community School, or their newfound passions. We heard about their amazing shop projects; for instance, Ford and Jackson each made their own baseball bat by shaving a blank of ashwood each day for nearly four months until it took on a nice bat shape, sanded it smooth, and wood burned their names on one end. We also heard about the class’s commitment to helping others through service learning projects, and how they worked hard to model genuine words of affirmation to others around the school, making helping hands gratitude cards before Thanksgiving, friendship notes during Valentine’s Day, and regular fan mail after grade level plays. Additionally, we heard about the confidence they had discovered on stage during productions like “The Mystery of the Nile: Friendship Not Included.” What was most wonderful was that they were clearly each a unique young man or woman, with individual interests and challenges, united by their shared Community School experience.

Our final turn of the cycle – and one that was especially meaningful to me – was the return to campus of our alumni who were new high school graduates. The Class of 2016 is near and dear to my heart, as they were sixth graders in my first year here at Community. They warmly welcomed me to the school as eleven and twelve year olds, made sure that I felt like a part of the Community family, and haven’t lost touch in the intervening six years since their Community School graduation. And now here they were back on campus – watching their sixth grade graduation video, playing on the Communisaurus, touring their classrooms, and swapping stories about their time here at Community.

And we are so proud of them – while we haven’t heard from all of them yet, among their colleges (in alphabetical order) are Cornell University, Duke University, Tulane University, University of California in Los Angeles, and Washington University in St. Louis. We know that they will take with them not only their memories of Community School, but also their commitment to care for others, to work hard, to value friends over things, and to make their colleges – and the world – a better place.

And now, as we head into the summer, we are thinking about the next stages of our life cycle. Soon we will welcome back teachers (both new and veteran), bring new families in to join our current ones, and begin another year of growth. Schools are inherently optimistic places, and it’s this constant renewal that makes it so.

Warmly, Bob