This morning I watched a group of middle school students fly kites with our art teacher, Ms. Slonaker, on our field. The kites, built by the students during their art class, had beautiful colors and designs and filled our campus with joy. The kindergarten students, usually immersed in play during this time of the morning, looked on with awe as the kites soared through the sky. There is something amazing about kites. By darting and gliding through the sky, they make visible what is typically invisible, the amazing power of the wind. It’s inspiring to know that if something is constructed in a certain way with certain dimensions and with specific materials, it can show us the power of something that is typically invisible.

I love thinking about things that are always there but are invisible to us, it makes me see reality in a different way. The wind is always there, the potential to fly is always. Our students could not be more similar to kites. Our responsibility as educators and parents is to help them see that the potential for them to fly is always there, even if it doesn’t seem visible.

We are finishing a year of incredible learning, relationship building, and success as a school. Today, I entered a few classrooms and the energy was palpable. Smiles on students faces, enthusiasm for learning, Challah baking in 2nd grade. A number of classes were taking end of year tests or exams, and even those students were completing their answer sheets with vigor and eagerness. Our students have found their wind and they are soaring toward the end of the year.

As we end this year I want to offer our students and families a blessing for the summer so that they might continue to soar to great heights and come back in the fall stronger, brighter, and healthier than when they left.

May it be your will, G-d master of the universe, that our students soar to great heights this summer. May they uncover what was previously unknown or invisible to them, and reveal their great powers and strengths, sometimes hidden deep inside themselves. May their parents who hold strings tying them to the ground, find the wisdom to know when to give them slack and when to tighten them up. Amen,

Adam