Each of our families is facing pressures unimagined, or at least unexpected, just a few months ago. While we have completed nearly five weeks of At Home Learning, we all look forward to having our staff and students back on campus in the fall. However, let'snot lose sight of how much learning is taking and can take place right now.
In reading Susan Schaeffer Macaulay's wonderful text last week, I read the following quotes from her chapter, "A New Perspective":
When planning routines, priority must be given to the most important things. The person matters (be it child, husband/wife, or friend). We'll need time to talk, read, relax, and work together. Our relationship with God matters. Where is the time to be found for that? I am a part of this creation. Where will I find time to get out and enjoy nature? There is too much work to be done, and I am finite. I need to accept that reality, and plan the time and priorities carefully...
Who can hope to"arrive" or be successful? None of us is able to say, "Yes, I have." It helps us to accept our own weakness, our own needs, our own limitations. We have to operate within the limits of what is possible. It will never be perfect. But it is wonderful not to be merely swept along by feelings and circumstances....
Duty calls, and responsibility should be accepted habitually. But it should be balanced with the liberty to enjoy life. Did not our Lord enjoy the wheat kernels in the fields on the Sabbath? Surely we can say: The child is not made for education, but education is to serve the child, serve his personality, his life, his needs (pp. 81-82, For the Children's Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School) .
What a powerful reminder about our limits, our need for margin, and the real struggle to maintain one's priorities. What a relevant time to reading and sharing this with you!
Speaking of time, in some ways this greatest resource has not changed at all (we all still get 24 hours of it a day). However, in talking with a number of you, at least our perception of it has changed or is changing. How are we seeing that the moments count as much as the hours? How are we demonstrating to our children that they matter more than the 'checklist,' even while we balance new and old demands on our time? At the end of the day, how can we now more than ever remind ourselves of what we are able to accomplish in terms of relationships, and how our measurements of "success" match more closely the faithfulness that we are called to as parents, spouses, friends, and disciples--as leaders with the capacity to become "RARE?"
We are truly all in this together. Even if we can't see each other in person very often or at all,we are experiencing this together. Our community has made it a priority to reach out to each other to remind each other of this truth. If you haven't connected with a fellow parent, teacher, or staff member this week, consider doing that today, for both your sake and theirs. As I am always grateful to say, RMCA matters for us adults as much as it does for our children!
On that note, I invite you listen to the second video in the series on my read-aloud of Susan Schaeffer Macaulay's classic text on parenting and education, For the Children's Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School. In her second chapter, "Children Are Born Persons," she delves deeply into what makes our community distinctive and how we can continue to grow as a school and as individual families. I encourage you to find some time over the next week during food preparation, a workout, or a break from At Home Learning and your own work to reflect on the awesome responsibility and privilege that we have together with our children and students.
Click here to watch/listen to the video on 'Children are Born Persons.'
Click here to read the study notes for the video/chapter.
Serving together,
Mr. Byrd
