On Friday morning some of the youngest children in our K-8 school gathered for one of our most beautiful school traditions: the annual Christmas pageant. We are a non-denominational school with a diverse student body and we gather every Friday to celebrate one another's traditions; this is one of the hallmarks of our small and inclusive community. Our Kindergartners were angels upon the stage, singing
Silent Night, the audience in awe of their youthful voices working together to harmonize. Two of our very talented seventh graders sang a duet of
O Holy Night that left many in tears. When I juxtapose my Friday reverie with the horrors taking place at the exact same time in Connecticut, it is quite maddening. I am humbled by the courage and dedication of the teachers who went to work on Friday, just as I did, and reacted with valor to the most unprecedented of situations, some of them sacrificing their own life for that of their beloved students. As we move forward toward what for many schools is the final week before winter recess, it is important that we are there to listen, and to love, and to support all of those with whom we work and teach. This week will no doubt be the most difficult in a series of days and weeks and months and years where we try to assess how to maintain the safety of our school community in unspeakable times.
When teaching Eli Wiesel's Night, we often ruminate on the questions that Wiesel spoke during his 1986 Nobel Prize acceptance speech: Who would allow such crimes to be committed? How could the world remain silent? In the forward to Marion Wiesel's recent translation of Night, Eli Wiesel reveals that the original title of his memoir was to be And the World Did Nothing, but publishers were concerned it would be too harsh, that readers would be reluctant to approach the text; the memoir would be more influential with the more symbolic and literary title, Night. The figurative qualities of the title have perhaps allowed Wiesel's masterful text to become required reading in schools around the world, but these figurative qualities indeed obscure the fact that genocide continues to occur and the world often remains silent for far too long before intervention.
Part of the care and concern that we administer to our students and colleagues needs to be a resolved commitment to not remain silent on issues of safety in our schools and communities. Remember, the children are watching. They look to us to be the helpers, to be the ones who speak for those who cannot yet speak for themselves, and to be the ones who lead a nation united in its goals to curtail gun violence and to allocate adequate resources for the mentally ill. There is no doubt that we are headed toward a difficult week, and as Monday approaches, may you remain as brave and as strong as your colleagues in Sandy Hook and extend your love and support to all those in need.