I am not sure where my renewed appreciation for the importance of the little things has come from recently. Perhaps it is island living as winter ends, or perhaps, it is another year on the wrong side of 50, but in the last few weeks, the simplest school related moments have brought me a renewed sense of overwhelming joy.

Birthday cupcakes, seeing children happily playing on the sports court, and a student's pride in their STEM-X project will literally make me glow. This morning a 1st grader came into my office and said his loose tooth retreated into his gums and he couldn’t find it. Standing in front of me he bravely dug deeply into his mouth and ripped the hidden tooth out with a giant smile. He pinched the somewhat bloody little tooth in front of me and smiled even wider. We both laughed until tears rolled down our cheeks. I will admit, I was a bit sad when he went back to class.

At morning meeting, we all watched the 2nd grade present their winter haikus, and at times I laughed so hard in the back hallway people thought I was choking. There were also some amazingly vivid lines in one of the poems about the “swaying of a frost covered tree” and it was an incredible description for a second grader to produce. I could have listened to those poems all day long.

Earlier this week, a PK student greeted me with an “hola” instead of good morning, and I almost dropped my computer. 

Last week, a student with a history of tardiness needed a “talking to” about getting to school on time. This week that same little guy has been on time every day, and he gives me a proud glance and a smile every morning as he arrives on time.  I had to fight the urge to carry him into school to celebrate.

This afternoon, a student arrived in the office with stomach pains and a headache. A minute later, her teacher arrived and said that the ailments developed right as the weekly math test was handed out. I listened closely as the teacher built the student’s confidence and courage with examples of her past successes, and suddenly she was feeling better and ready to take on the test. I could not have been prouder to have that teacher working with these students.

Finally, just an hour ago, a large group of 2nd graders knocked on the backdoor of my office. They produced a petition and survey results to support building a pool on campus.  I was not shocked to learn that there is absolutely unanimous support in the Lower School student body for the addition of a pool at the New School. Minutes later a larger group arrived with some ideas about where to locate the pool and how big the diving board should be. Once I heard their final arguments, I could not say yes to them fast enough, but I did manage to say it would take a couple years to get this wrapped up. A few of those students should clearly consider studying law.

I have always appreciated those simple moments, but the impact of them now just seems stronger and more connected. We see these moments constantly around the New School Campus, but as I get older, and the news in our world seems to get dimmer, these moments with New School children become even more special. I hope you all get to see similar things at home. We have some really great kids- thank you.

Have a great long weekend.