Bringing Your Full Self to School
To all of our families celebrating the Lunar New Year, we wish you health and happiness. It was lovely to celebrate with so many of you on Thursday at the event organized by the students in the East Asian Student Association (EASA) and their families. I extend warm wishes to our Muslim families who mark the start of Ramadan this week and am grateful to the students in our Middle Eastern and North African Student Association (MENASA) for decorating the lobby and greeting their classmates there this morning with dates and other sweet treats. For some of our families, this time marks the start of the Lent, with Ash Wednesday falling just a few days ago. I was glad to see students in the halls having received ashes on their foreheads earlier in the day.
The way our students marked this confluence of cultural and religious moments – and many others throughout the year – says a lot about the community. I’m so grateful to be at a school where students are not only comfortable bringing their full selves but also proud to share their identities with their friends. Part of the reason for that is the way those friends respond. They show up for each other, as evidenced by the throng of students who packed the Black Box Theater yesterday for the Lunar New Year celebration or the Tu Bishvat seder earlier in the month. They are curious – like the students who lingered to talk with their peers from MENASA or others who paused at the video screen in the lobby offering information about Ramadan. Those habits create an environment where folks want to share and feel like they belong. And we are a better school as a result.