“kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn’t music.”

–from “Keepsakes,” William Stafford

Wanted to take a moment this morning and give a huge shout out to the sophomores at CHS. They endured a long week of state testing, and they did so with grit and determination, hanging in there–despite their misgivings about the real purpose or benefit of this first chapter of their standardized story this spring–with chapters still to follow in both math and science. And the first chapter is still not done! With the majority of our kids still not done after 5 days of testing, Ms. Tamura and I decided to tack on an additional day, giving up our class time on Monday, so kids can have one more day of in-class testing, without disrupting their schedules beyond our classes.

On one hand, this is a good thing. Kids are working really hard, which we hope results in good scores. But on the other hand, it is a troubling thing. Kids are slowly having the life source sucked out of them, curbing any and all enthusiasm for learning the rest of year, especially with more tests to come. Oh, they’ll bounce back; after all, kids are resilient, but that doesn’t make me feel much better for them, and as I thank them for their hard work after each session, I also apologize for making them do this, which is especially tough for me, as I feel a hypocrite, because I have been trying to instill in them that education is something that we do for them, not to them. At the moment, it feels like the latter. Sorry, kiddos. Sorry that you have to learn that not everything is music. Thank you for dancing anyway. Proud of you all.

Happy Saturday, everyone.