seen, appreciated, empowered
why choose one school over another?
my wife and I chose C.F.S.
because of our experience
that here staff work hard to see each student,
to appreciate each student,
to appreciate all that they are now
and to appreciate all that they can be
with the right effort and support,
each student is unique in who they are
and in how they learn,
yet each craves to be within groups
and to connect with commonality,
tonight, at Carolina Friends middle school's Arts Eve,
many of our students were able
to let their Light within shine forth
in drawings, sculptures, paintings:
constructions from the heart and the soul,
each creation craves to be noticed, appreciated,
just as do their makers,
the chorus sings, each voice in harmony with the melody
and in harmony with the other voices,
the whole profoundly greater than the sum of its parts,
and the audience is transported to a higher realm,
the dancers dance within their skills
and within the vision of their student choreographers,
the body leaping, acting, reacting,
as the spirit lives the kinesthetic,
and the audience is transported to a higher realm,
then Shakespeare meets middle school
as students learn the story and rewrite the telling,
they find how to tell it well
with words, within costumes and props and special effects,
living the classic story within the humor and magic of their own take,
tonight many middle school students found how to excel and to be seen,
the audience wildly appreciative of the virtuosity of the gifts shared,
a school is challenged to truly see and know its students,
tonight the middle school did well
accepting and rising to that challenge,
the students' Lights were able to shine brightly.
by Henry H. Walker
May 11, ‘23
