Sure to Change
The turn of the year—whether marked by gatherings that honor family and community, rituals of light and remembrance, the making of resolutions and intentions, or festivals that celebrate renewal and new beginnings—reminds us that change is a fundamental part of our human reality and our human rituals. School also serves this purpose every day: setting the context and conditions that drive individual and collective change by establishing rituals and routines that ensure each child's growth is supported, expected, celebrated, and visible. The changes inherent in childhood cannot be rushed nor squelched, but they can be–they are ripe and ready to be–guided toward purpose and toward each child’s potential and promise.
At school, children live in change: every month, every day, and every hour! A reading lesson unlocks access to adventure. A quiet curiosity becomes the start of a bold idea. A playground conflict resolves to strengthen a friendship. While there is power in planned change, when milestones and traditions give us opportunities to celebrate growth, there is also an abundance of learning opportunities in supporting children in facing the unexpected. Disappointing outcomes, surprise setbacks, and unfamiliar obstacles teach resilience, resourcefulness, and curiosity. Children learn flexibility, adaptability, and creativity when life shifts around them, when human reality most calls out for human ritual.
As you engage in the rituals and routines that you’ve planned for Winter Break, I hope that the changes you’ve seen in your child this school year take center stage for celebration and amplification. Our Live Oak students have met all the moments of the year, those planned and unplanned, those joyful and disorienting, in ways that set us in awe of the risks they took, the empathy they showed, the persistence they practiced, and the progress they have made.
I wish you a very Happy New Year, full of hopeful anticipation for the change that is sure to come!
Virginia
Live Oak School welcomes and admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin, citizenship status, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, and faith to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities of Live Oak School. Live Oak School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin, citizenship status, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, and faith in administration of its educational policies and programs, admissions policies, Adjusted Tuition program, and athletic and other school-administered programs.