Earth Day and Good Manners

The daffodils have bloomed in the bird garden, the magnolia tree by the Activities Building is in its full glory, and Jeremiah the Bullfrog has made his presence known in the pond. Spring has definitely arrived here on campus!

This past Monday was Earth Day, which is both a celebration of spring and a reminder of our responsibility to be good stewards of the environment. In recognition of the day, our entire school enjoyed lunch and play time together on the lawn. Then we split into our mulit-age worship sharing groups to participate in four activities: a recycling relay;

an “Earth Toss” game; creating a work of art from recycled materials; and decorating a globe with paper doll versions of ourselves that included “what I value about the Earth” statements. In addition to being a lot of fun on a beautiful afternoon, the activities were opportunities to practice stewardship (which is the Quaker testimony we have been focusing on this month), and encourage the children to take these skills and behavior with them into their homes and into the wider world.

At Gathering that morning, we focused on another category of “skills and behaviors” that we hope our children will take with them out into the world: good manners. WCFS students are generally polite young people, but there's always room for improvement when it comes to exhibiting our best behavior at all times. Teacher Caroline and I performed a brief skit that emphasized the importance of a proper greeting. Our students are well practiced at greeting each other properly during morning meetings. They shake hands, make eye contact, and use each others' names. We don't need to stop and shake hands every time we see someone during the day, but I encouraged everyone to try during the week to make every greeting more than just a half-hearted hello. We will highlight a different manner at each Gathering through the end of the year. Next week's topic: table manners!