School News
Field Trip Next Week (Gr. 3-8)
March 18th, 2022REMINDER – Parent-Teacher Conferences
March 18th, 2022Don’t forget to contact your child’s teacher(s) if you want to schedule a parent-teacher conference during the week of March 28. Spring conferences are optional, so the office will not be sending a sign-up form. Please note that teachers may request a conference to address academic or behavioral concerns.
Extracurricular Opportunity (Gr. 3-8)
March 18th, 2022Is your child (3rd-8th grade) interested in historical swordsmanship? Details will be coming, but we want to make families aware of the opportunity. The class will likely be held after school on a Tuesday or Thursday in April (after break). The class costs $300 and can accommodate up to 12 students per class. We would like to fill the class to keep the cost for each student to only $25. Preference might be given to 5th-8th grade depending on the numbers of students who express interest. Please contact the office if you would like to put your name on the list or if you have questions.
CCE Corner – A Grumble or a Gratitude
March 11th, 2022
As we mentioned in our previous post, our virtue focus for the quarter is Faith. As is the case with other virtues, Faith has some “prerequisites”—certain things that are required as a condition for faith to grow. Perhaps chief among them is a sense of gratitude. A heart that is full of thanks rises to the One to whom that thanks is due and overflows with generosity toward others. It can be hard work to have full hearts. Pride is often identified as the first sin of the Fall, but ingratitude did not play a minor role. Adam and Eve were given all of the trees of the garden but one, and yet…. You know the rest of the story: discontent became part of our fallen human nature.
In C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce, an unnamed Narrator finds himself in Grey Town where he boards a bus. That bus takes the travelers to the foothills of Heaven. Grey Town, it turns out, is either Hell or Purgatory, depending on whether one chooses to remain there or not. On his journey, the Narrator meets George MacDonald,* sent from Heaven to greet him, and their conversation is “interrupted by the thin voice of a Ghost talking at an enormous speed…” If you’ve read the book or seen the play, you know what follows is a veritable flood of complaints, a self-absorbed “shrill monotonous whine.”
MacDonald notices the Narrator’s distress: “What troubles ye, son?” asked my Teacher. “I am troubled, Sir,” said I, “because that unhappy creature doesn’t seem to me to be the sort of soul that ought to be even in danger of damnation. She isn’t wicked: she’s only a silly, garrulous old woman who has got into a habit of grumbling, and one feels that a little kindness, and rest, and change would put her all right.”
Virtue Update – FAITH
March 11th, 2022In Psalm 46, we hear, “Be still, and know that I am God.” FAITH requires stillness. What habits of stillness, especially for mind and spirit, can we cultivate? Talk together as a family and start today.
Asian Feast
March 11th, 2022Thank you to our 3rd and 4th students and their parents for your contributions to the Asian Feast on February 28. Even the upstairs hallway was filled with the amazing aroma of delightful dishes.
If you want to see more photos from the Asian Feast, Book Character Day, Mardi Gras, and more, check out the bulletin board across from the school office.
Parent-Teacher Conferences – March 28-31
March 11th, 2022Please contact your child’s teacher directly if you wish to meet for a parent-teacher conference during the week of March 28. While spring semester conferences are optional, teachers will be requesting conferences to address any academic or behavioral concerns.
vēnī, vīdī, ēdī crustum! (I came, I saw, I ate pie!)
March 10th, 2022Our 7th and 8th graders will be donning togas and observing the “Pie-ds” of March (Pi Day meets Ides of March) on Monday as they continue their study of the rise and fall of Julius Caesar. They will convene for a class Senate meeting to vote for a pie to present to Mr. F. Will they choose the one he wants? While it may not provide a dramatic moment worthy of Shakespeare (et tu, discipule?), it will certainly be a fun and memorable way to learn Roman history.
Absence Policy
March 10th, 2022As a reminder from our fall orientation, if a student has five or more planned absences during a semester, e.g., vacations planned outside of school breaks, families may incur a homework preparation and/or tutoring fee to cover the time our teachers must spend to gather materials ahead of the absence, administer make-up tests upon the student’s return, or provide one-on-one instruction due to missed class time.