My school has students who range in age from preschool to the 12th grade. The different age groups share the campus and its buildings easily; groups of students move among one another frequently. In many instances, the students I teach have been at the school for years and I've had the opportunity to watch them grow up. But it's more than that. One of the things I enjoy most about my days here is that I can be in class with my teenage students while outside, as we're in our seats considering the boundaries of order and liberty (or whatever), we can hear the laughter and enthusiasm of much smaller children going about their day. Those moments are a reminder that life is about more than exams and grades and college. I always welcome them.
On Friday, there was an assembly for the upper school. The assembly happened in the hour before lunch; the room where we met was excessively warm. By the time the students were streaming outside to head to lunch, they had some energy to expend. Outside was crisply cold and snow was falling. As the upper schoolers briskly walked across the quad headed to lunch, middle schoolers were also crossing the area, headed from the music building back into the larger school building.
The snow was really quite lovely and, in that moment, a lot of it was falling. Earlier in the week, we had hoped for a snow day on Friday, but we'd received only a dusting overnight. And this lush snow, falling at mid-day on a Friday, was not expected to last. It wasn't going to earn us a snow day either.
Nevertheless, it was beautiful outside and we were (temporarily) free from responsibilities; a little enthusiasm for life was warranted.
Upper School Student X (shouted): It's a Christmas miracle!
The response to this declaration was immediate, delivered in a perfect stoic tone by a middle schooler headed in the other direction.
Middle School Student Y: Not much of a miracle. We're still in school.
At this point, we all burst into laughter. And I was especially cheered by the thought of this middle schooler, with a funny line and perfect timing, is soon to appear in an upper school classroom near me.
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