Blogblast4Peace: November 4, 2011

For the past few months I've (sort of) joined the count-down to the blogblast for peace.  Even when I didn't write or post, I read and thought about peace.

• I've thought about the Peace of God that passes all understanding.
• I've thought about the peace and quiet that comes from hiding in bed in the dark eating bread and cheese.
• I've thought of the peaceful feeling that comes from walking with my darlings in the swampy woods.
• I've thought of peace and justice; peace and praise; peace and quiet.

I've thought about why we need to blog for peace.

I've blogged for peace because of the wars that have taken my family and friends away from their families and friends.  Because of the wars that cause children to grow up believing a bomb shelter is just another room in the house.  Because of the wars that poison our world and our lives, that take food from the hungry and warmth from our hearts.

I've blogged for peace because of the war on drugs; because of the war on poverty that has become a war on the poor; because of the war on our freedoms that disguises itself as a war for safety & security.

I've heard that there has always been war and injustice and there always will be.  And although that made me sad, it helped me realize something important.

We blog for peace as if war is a crisis.  Something different that is happening right now (not yesterday... not tomorrow) and must be addressed immediately but only for today ... something to which we must react.

But war and violence in all of its manifestations are not crises.  They are chronic.  And as such, Peace must be addressed as a chronic issue.

Yes, we need to blog for peace.  We need to march and wave flags for peace.  We need to stand up for peace.

And most of all, we need to live Peace.  Every day, as much as we can.  Peace to grumpy neighbor, peace to the harried mother, peace to the sad businessmen who've misplaced their souls.

Peace, even to those of you who really irritate me.  Just for today.


And because this is a world wide blogblast4peace, please check out/check in with the founder and center of this movement.

BlogBlast4Peace2011

I blog for peace because I seek to redeem (65)

I blog for peace because I seek repemption (66)

Reason to blog for peace: Coexist



I've been seeing this picture on Facebook a lot.  It seems to resonate with many of my friends.  And it's funny, because I've been thinking about this, sort of.

You know how we say, "I respect your opinion," because we know that's what we are supposed to say?  And we are thinking, "What a effing moron!  I can't believe someone could think like that!"

Well, I think that's ok too.  What we could say is, "I respect your right to have an opinion, even if it's different from mine and obviously inferior.  Today, I'll even listen to it.  Tomorrow, maybe not, cause if I have a headache or a bad day or I'm wasted, I don't want to hear it.  But..."

AND THIS IS IMPORTANT

"...but, I will not kill you for having a different belief."

I probably won't even argue.  I may ask you to leave me alone.  But I won't kill you.

You don't have to like everybody, just COEXIST.

Love, Kathy 

2011 Blogblast for Peace: Peace Globe

Like a writing spider, I forget. And like a writing spider, I write to remember. 

I blog for peace to remind myself to practice peace.

Act locally: reasons to Blog for Peace

I have been scattered lately.  Is it the change in the weather?  I do love me some cool gray days.  OK, many of you may not consider 85 F to be cool, but I'm in Columbia, South Cackalacka and we pull out our summer sweaters in late September. 

My mind is scattering like the fall leaves (left from last year, most likely) and I can't seem to blog for nuthin.  I can't really seem to do much of anything.  I have brilliant ideas on many many subjects, from developing a child centered, inquiry based middle school to taking a class on tax forms for non-profit organizations to cleaning my closets and the rooms they are in to knitting Christmas stockings for Brendon and Daniel to... well you see what I'm facing.  Myself.

High on the to-do list is: blog4peace.  It's not that I haven't thought about why I would blog for peace if I did in fact blog on a regular basis.  It's not that I haven't read other blogs that make me consider plagiarism as a way of life.  It's not that I don't have ideas.  I have lots of ideas.  No substance.

And so here it goes, Peace around me.  Randoms observations of things people are doing or should do to wage peace in their lives.

#74: basic civility.  Come on people, would you tailgate, flip the bird, & blow your horn if your mother were in the car with you?  Well, apparently yes.  One time, a girl pulled out of a church parking lot onto the road in front of me, nearly hitting me.  She was so full of the holy spirit, she flipped me off with both hands.  Her mother was right next to her.  Her mother did not flip me off.

Why do we think that we are exempt from civilized or moral behavior when we are surrounded by a ton of recycled steel and glass?  Cars are not the manners-free zone.

#73:  Feed people.  It's really hard to feel peaceful when you are hungry.  And it's really really easy to feed people.  If you don't want to go down to the soup kitchen and dish up spaghetti or sandwiches, just grab a few extra cans of food at the grocery store.  Put it in one of the MANY boxes in which organizations collect food.

My church, St. Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church (shout out!), takes part in the Second Harvest program.  People from the church pick up food from the Olive Garden and take it to the Oliver Gospel Mission.  It's a partnership between the restaurant association and various non-profits.  I remember when they first started talking about this idea in Columbia (and elsewhere).  At first the health department refused to allow it and made the restaurants throw out the food that had been prepared but not served.  Does that suck or what?

#72:  Recycle, reuse, re... something else.  If we didn't need so much stuff we wouldn't need to fight over so much stuff.  I know that's simplistic.  Sue me.

#71:  Teach the children.  If you can't volunteer in a school, and it's not that easy to do, at least buy some wrapping paper or something.  I have some World's Finest Chocolates available.

I could go on and on about teaching children.  Our education system is still using the factory model.  Train children to go to school/work on time, sit & do whatever you are told, eat & pee & talk when you are told... What do you expect?  And then the pundits get all upset about test scores and test the kids some more.  And they look and say: "China has better test scores!  They are beating us!  Let's become a dictatorship and see if our test scores improve!" 

Support authentic learning, in whatever form it takes for each and every child.

#70:  Random acts of kindness.  I have a friend who hands out candy canes around Christmas time.  She just gives them to people.  Not everyone, like someone throwing dollar bills into a crowd.  She will see someone and for whatever reason, give him a candy cane. 

We can all give proverbial candy canes, can't we? 

#69:  Smile.  OK, stop now.  That's not a smile.  That's a grimace and it's scaring the goldfish. 

Relax, think about something good, and smile.  Now keep that expression on your face as you walk through your day.  Smile at the mailman, smile at the lady at the DMV, smile at your boss.  Usually, they will smile back.  If nothing else, it will confuse the hell out of them, and that's worth a giggle, no?

#68:  Rinse, repeat.  I think I'm repeating myself.  I really sound familiar.  Oh well.  That's what we have to do.  Smile, repeat.  Teach, repeat.  Feed, repeat. 

Peace.  Repeat.

Peace within me: Blogbast4peace 75 - 84

As Gandhi is very very often quoted as saying, "be the change you want to see in the world." 

In order to have peace in the world, we need peace within ourselves.  Some days, like those in the past month, that is very hard for me.  It is hard to be a calming, loving, merciful being when I see injustice, arrogance (other than my own), and plain old fashioned stupidity.  I find myself thinking, "If I'da killed him when I met him, I'd be out by now."  And this really isn't productive.

Today, I am going to write ten reasons I blog for peace that have to do with strengthening myself.  "Let there be peace on Earth, and let it begin with me."

84:
I blog for peace so that I can strengthen my tolerance of differences, because peace cannot exist without tolerance and mercy.  An efficient dictatorship may look peaceful --- low crime, trains running on time --- but that isn't peace.  I'm not saying that I tolerate everything, but I would like to recognize and avoid the canonization of my culture.  Cultural norms are not necessarily holy. 

83:
I blog for peace so that I can find the sameness in humanity.  We have sought the safety of our tribes since time began.  We need "us" and "them" to help us define ourselves.  That's way film makers have the Earth attacked by aliens in order to unite the Earth.  But there is always a "them."  A "not us."  I want to define myself without seeking a "not me."

82:
I blog for peace so that I can find the courage to stand up in the face of wrong, even if it's uncomfortable.  I'm not likely to be in a life-threatening situation, but I'd like to be brave enough stand up even in the face of death. 

81:
I blog for peace so that I can develop the wisdom to know when to stand and when to be still. 

80:
I blog for peace because I know that peace is strength, violence is weakness.  Remember the song, "Coward of the county?"  OK, he ends up seeking revenge and killing the guy, but his father's words are the important part.  It takes a Man to ignore taunting in order to do the right thing.   Or a Woman.  Not a saint.  I could go on all day about how the Romans militarized Christianity, but I won't.  You're welcome.

79:
I blog for peace to help me be peaceful.  I want to be the person who calms the waters, not the one who stirs up drama.  This is a very personal thing, but a key to the peace within me.  I am attracted (or attract) people who live life as one crisis after another, and everyone demands my immediate attention.  Calm down people!  The world is not ending.  And if it is, I'm sure as hell not spending any more time on this stuff.

78:
I blog for peace because:
"Fear is a disease that eats away at logic and makes man inhuman."  Marian Anderson.
I blog for peace because I am angry and frustrated and fearful. And those things don't help my blood pressure, my family, or the world in which we live

77:
I blog for peace because I can only be the best person I can be right now. 

76:
I blog for peace because I am a better person than I was before.

75:
I blog for peace because I want to be a better person tomorrow.

We Remember

Reason 85: I blog for peace because it's my way of making a joyful noise

I blog for peace because it's my way of making a joyful noise. 

Randall, somewhere in here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/peacebloggers/ mentioned music, which was cool, because I've been trying to find a way to hook the blog for peace to music.

I love music.  It is probably not true that I married my husband because of his incredible music, but it sure didn't hurt.  I love to hear my children sing, even if their idea of beautiful music is rap or metal and mine... isn't.

On the other hand, I don't make music.  Until recently--- when Mark and I joined the hand bell choir at St Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church.  Now, Laura, the infinitely patient and talented music director, said that we would be fine.  We would have fun.  We would sound wonderful.

And we are having fun.  And Mark sounds wonderful.  And I sound... well, not horrible.  And I'm getting better.

I haven't tried to perform music since Mrs. Bailey kicked me out of the 6th grade choir.  That was after I got kicked out of the 6th grade band. 

I REALLY wanted to play the flute, and Mr. Sistrunk, bless his heart, tried to teach me.  But it seems that being able to make the flute make a sound is an essential part of playing the flute.  Not being able to make a sound with the flute was bad, but not as bad as the various frightening sounds I made when I attempted the clarinet and the saxophone.  And so I went back to home ec, where I didn't hurt anyone.

And what does this have to do with peace?  Well, I don't know.  Oh wait, how about: we all have a part to play, no matter how small or how large.  And we all can find a way to make a joyful noise, sing out for peace, ring out for justice, hammer for love between our brothers and our sisters, all over this land.

Amen.

Reason 86 to blog for peace: Education not War

My son has spent his first week in a conventional middle school.  It is a new experience for him, since he spent 6th grade at Carolina School for Inquiry, a K thru 6th grade child-centered, multi-age, inquiry based public school & last year at a virtual school.  Now he is caring a 20 lb book bag, changing classes, eating school lunch, spending time with people he didn't know before Monday.  For an introvert and a thirteen year old, this is hard.  But he's a trooper, and I'm cautiously optimistic.

What does this have to do with peace?  Well, middle school isn't really a peaceful place, is it?  The theory is great.  Take kids whose hormones are exploding like popped pimples, whose intellectual development is leapfrogging over the factory-model teaching formula of traditional public schools, and whose social awareness is limited to their hair and their latest crushes; throw them together with a bunch of other kids like them and feed them junk food. 

Oh, no, wait, that's not Best Practices...

Middle school has a great deal of potential.  Kids ARE developing quickly, but they are still kids and haven't lost their enthusiasm and joy (unless it was already beaten out of them in third grade.)  There are lessons in social responsibility, personal responsibility, and personal development.  There are lessons in meta-cognition --- how do I learn best?  what do I want to learn?  how can I organize myself to be the best I can be?

But we don't want to "throw money at the problem" of inadequate education.  We want to continue to do the same thing over and over again, to see if the same things get different results.  (Which is the definition of insanity.)  Then we test and test and test.  As someone once said, that's like "treating" an illness by taking the patient's temperature over and over again without any change in treatment.  (Which is the definition of malpractice.)

But we are willing to throw money and people at war machines.  I mean, look at Afghanistan.  Again, we are doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.  (See definitions above.)

So, let's quit throwing money and good  people at war machines & toss some money and good people toward authentic education of EVERYONE.

Just a thought....

Reason 87 to blog4peace: stop the name calling!

Let me start with a disclaimer, or a confession, or whatever this is:  I am a Democrat.  I live in South Carolina and I'm old enough to remember when there was (for all practical purposes) ONLY a Democratic Party in SC.  I am a "yellow dog" Democrat, which means, I'd vote for a yellow dog if he ran as a Democrat.  My mother told me that if I voted for a Republican, hair would grow on my palms.  I have since found that that isn't necessarily true, but I've had very few temptations to test the threat.  One time someone said to Mom, "I'd bet you'd vote for Satan if he ran as a Democrat."  She thought a minute and said, "Well, yeah, but not in the primary."  This is where I come from. 

Now, let me say that I am very tired of name calling and bad rhetoric on ALL sides of what passes for political debate.  Governor Perry calls a respected economist and member of the Obama administration a "traitor" and laughs when people get upset.  But what does that mean, dude?  Don't you know that treason is a federal crime punishable by death?  You are accusing a man of a federal crime simply because you disagree with him.

And "Nazi."  Can we quit calling each other Nazis?  Do we have no idea what that word means?  Do we have no idea of the eerily efficient bureaucracy of death associated with that party?  We trivialize horror when we speak of "food Nazis" (who are really offensive, but not eerily efficient bureaucrats of death.)  Someone disagrees with us and we compare them to mass murderers.

The same thing applies to all of the words: communist, fascist, traitor, insane, criminally stupid.  Perfectly fine words that are trivialized while the rhetoric of CIVIL POLITICAL DEBATE is twisted into ever escalating words of hatred and separation.

Pull back people.  I'm not saying don't disagree.  I'm not saying don't articulate your points of disagreement.  I'm saying... I'm PLEADING:  Don't use angry emotion-laden key words as symbols for what pass as ideas.  ARTICULATE.  I know you can.  Please.

And Thank you.

Reason 88 to Blog for Peace: Stubborn acceptance of gladness

I am behind again, which is not a problem for me.  The problem has been the intrusion of life on my meditations on peace.   The intrusions of the wars, the riots, the famines; but also the intrusions of changes at work, my son starting a new school, and a high school reunion.  The World has been overwhelming me for the past week or so.

Then my O magazine came in the mail, and I finally sat down and turned to Martha Beck, my favorite columnist, and guess what she is writing about this month?  Stubborn acceptance of gladness.  She writes about how our storms of negativity coming from our fear incite storms of negativity in others.  When we are scared, we are scary. 

While reading this, I realized that I have been both a victim and a source of these storms of negativity.  I am feeling overwhelmed and helpless in so many areas.  And thinking about World Peace in these times can bring impotent rage.

But that's not the point of this exercise.  The point is Peace --- internal & external.  Peace with justice, peace with quiet, peace with joyful noises.

And so, for now and for the next few "days" (or however long it takes me to catch up and keep going), I will blog about peace to glorify the oasises of peace, love, kindness, and hope in this world.

As Pablo Neruda wrote (and I'm borrowing from Martha Beck's column):

Take bread away from me, if you wish,
take air away, but
do not take from me your laughter.
...it opens for me all
the doors of life.

Peace be with you.

Reason 89: Never again

Reason 90 that I blog for peace: I hope therefor I am

Reason 91: Because if we say it enough we might start acting it

When I was a child attending St. Peter's Catholic Church, my favorite part of the Mass was The Peace.  It made me really really happy to stand up and turn to people I knew or didn't know, shake their hands, and say "Peace be with you," or to respond "and also with you."  I visited friends' churches but none of them included The Peace.  "What was that about?" I'd wonder, feeling incomplete.

I now attend St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church and my favorite part of the service is The Peace.  Now we say "God's Peace," or simply "Peace."  If my husband is with the choir, we wave peace signs at each other.  Every Sunday, all of us stop and say Peace.

A long time ago I read a letter in which the writer said, "we say 'Peace be with you' in the Mass, then run over each other in the parking lot trying to get home.  What's the point?" 

Hmmm... good question.  I think the point is that if we keep saying it, we will begin to be it.  Eventually we'll stop running over each other in the parking lot.  Maybe.

So, once more, with feeling:

PEACE BE WITH YOU!

And also with you.

Reason #92 to blog for peace:

"The principle of an eye for an eye will some day make the whole world blind."



Ghandi

Reasons 97 - 93 to blog for peace

#97:  There is so much going on in our lives, sometimes we forget to pray for peace.  Maybe this will help.

#96:  What is peace?  My peace, your peace?  A piece of your country, a piece of his?  What do we mean by this?  Why do people keep saying it's impossible.  Let's talk about it.

#95:  Talking about things is a step on the road to fixing things.  (This is NOT the same as #96.)

#94:  I choose butter.  (Remember?  "Guns or Butter.")

#93:  Peace is a learned not inherited.

I celebrated my 51st birthday on Saturday.  I celebrated with friends on Friday and spent Saturday reading and sleeping, which is my idea of a peaceful, perfect day.  It was made more perfect by the presence of two of my grandchildren, Gabe (almost 4) and Brendon (almost 3).  Brendon decided to cover me with French chocolate while I napped, which is a little frightening, but interesting.  Gabe and Brendon both had me and others read them books.  And Gabe talked a whole lot.

Gabe is a very intense and logical little man.  He wants to understand things and people.  He needs to see why things are as they are.  He is a very empathetic child.

I don't know why it would surprise me.  My three sons are all empathetic and caring and have been since they were very young.  Gabe reminds me a lot of his father.  The intensity and ease with which Gabe and Robert embrace empathy has to do with their souls, their personalities, their THEM. 

However, it was my husband and me, along with other friends and family members (my mother in particular), who nurtured and valued those traits.  For children who are not as naturally empathetic, empathy can be taught and nurtured as well.

Empathy, I believe, is the beginning of peace.  And no, it isn't necessarily natural. 

Yes, there have been wars and oppression always and everywhere, from battle grounds to board rooms to school yards.  And yes, it is hard to overcome human nature, which often needs groups of "us" and "them" in order to feel safe and secure.  Our separation from god, our excessive knowledge of the differences among us, and our sparse knowledge of the sameness; all this makes it hard to be at peace. 

And so, we must learn peace.  We must teach peace.  We must act in ways that are not "natural."  And no one said it would be easy. 

98th reason that I blog for peace: Because I can

Only two or three days in and I miss a day.  Oh well.  I'm not going to sweat it.  Because blogging for peace, like searching for peace is a journey.  It's not really how well you do it, it's that you do it.

Like many people, I feel overwhelmed when I look at the world, whether in my neighborhood or in my universe or in my soul.  How in the world can we have peace?  What can I do?

Right now, I can't remove landmines from playgrounds.  I can't feed more than a few of the starving children in the world.  I can't teach more than a couple of people that strength comes from diversity.  Right now, I can't sink into a meditative state to find my own peace.  I can't usually withhold judgement when the issue is personality or taste and not TRUTH.  I can't always hold my tongue when faced with irritating people.
Right now, all I know is that I am trying.  I am on my journey through peace.

And what I can do is blog.  I BLOG FOR PEACE BECAUSE I CAN.

99th reason to blog for peace: War is not normal

I'm not sure, but I think I was late getting started, so I'm going to go ahead and give my 99th reason to blog for peace.

This morning while glancing at the Morning Joe between dressing, eating, blogging, and brushing my teeth; I heard Marvin Kalb say that President Obama has no reason to be internally affected by the Vietnam conflict since he was 13 when it ended. Kalb had taken part in a symposium Haunting Legacy: Vietnam and the American Presidency from Ford to Obama and had a lot more to say, but I want to talk about that one statement.

I was about 14 when the Vietnam conflict "ended." My friends were not drafted and did not serve. I was 'too young' to care, right?

But I did. It was an integral part of my life from my earliest memories until the end of the war. If my friends didn't serve, the boyfriends of my babysitters did. I heard songs against the conflict and songs in favor of it. Everyone thought about it, more than we do now.

When I was in kindergarten, we sang, "God Bless America" and my teacher said, "Let's sing loud enough so that our boys in Vietnam will hear us and know what they are fighting for." I sang really loud, and I think I truly believed they could hear me. And that I was what they were fighting for.

My uncle served in the Navy in Vietnam. I don't remember being afraid for him. I remember that he wrote really great letters to me. He also wrote letters to my aunt, his fiance. I didn't understand why she read my letters but I couldn't read hers. I never said I was a bright kid.

Every night at around supper time, we'd watch the news. There was only one television (which did not appear to have an 'off' button) and there were three or four channels. And on every one (except PBS which showed the June Bug show) there was the nightly news. Walter Concrite (as I called him --- see note about brightness above) or Hunkley-Brinkley (ditto on the note) told us the same thing every night. Over film of soldiers & sailors & airmen fighting & marching & flying, they would announce the death toll. This many Americans died today. This many Vietnamese. Day in and day out.

In 1968, I was eight years old, watching television with my father. There was "Breaking News." Back then, breaking news meant something important had happened and not that, for instance, Michael Jackson is still dead. WC or H-B or whoever announced that the Soviet Union had invaded Czechoslovakia. My dad dropped his teeth (really, he did that).

I looked at him and said, "what's wrong?" 

He said, "the last time anyone invaded Czechoslovakia, we had WWII".

I said, "so what?" 

"SO WHAT?" he said, picking up his teeth and dropping them again.

"There is always a war", I said. "And I'm missing the Monkees."

Over the years there have been years without war or conflicts or whatever, but it still seems strange to me to NOT have a war. I think we care less because we don't know who is fighting so much now. Without a draft, fewer people are directly involved. Fewer people know someone over seas. Fewer people have a personal stake.

And so my 99th reason for blogging for peace is that war should not be the new (or old) normal. Peace should not be an oddity that happens once in a blue moon.

100 days 100 reasons Blogblast for Peace

There are 100 days until November 4, the day of the peace blog.  Mimi has challenged us to post one hundred reasons to blog for peace, one each day.


I am going to try... you can see how well I keep up with regular posting.  I will sometimes post it alone and sometimes in conjunction with a different blog entry.  We will see.  One hundred reasons... one hundred days.


Today, I blog for peace because of:

I blog for peace for my children, my grandchildren, my nieces, my friend's children, and for the children of acquaintances, strangers, and enemies.  May they know peace.  May they embrace peace.  May they understand its value.

Not a response to cowardly anonymous letters...

I, along with several others, have received an anonymous letter from "concerned parents" consisting of various and sundry accusations and unpleasantries lobbed toward Carolina School for Inquiry and its director.  The writers claim they are anonymous because of fear of retaliation and not out of cowardice.  They also claim to represent the majority of parents, all of whom are terrified of the demonic power of the director.  Unlike whistle blowers who present factual information ("proof") of wrong doing to authorities in an attempt to right a wrong, these people offer nothing but bombastic rhetorical questions and sweeping generalizations.  All we know about them is that they are NOT English majors.


Some of the accusations allege mishandling of personnel issues or student discipline issues.  As anyone who works in HR should be able to explain to them, IF there were personnel issues (and I'm not saying there were) it would be illegal for the director or the board to discuss them.  And there are very strict laws protecting the privacy of students.  While one would hope that integrity would prevent people from spreading rumors that can't be legally addressed, we live in a free country and reap both the benefits and disadvantages of that freedom.


The few verifiable accusations not related to privacy issues are easily refuted.  For instance, they contend that when Governor Nikki Haley visited the school, the students were poorly behaved.  All we have to do is look at the videotape to see that the children were polite and exuberant; a wonderful combination I credit to the environment of respect and inquiry.  As always, I was proud of the students, the faculty, and the staff.  It saddens me that someone would try to steal such a momentous achievement from these students, simply to stoke their own anger.


And this leads me to what I really want to say about Carolina School for Inquiry, its fabulous director, and its magnificent teachers.  Carolina School for Inquiry started as a dream that students could learn in an atmosphere of respect, where their ideas were valued, their input expected, their voices heard.  Some people said that public school children needed worksheets and uniforms to achieve higher test scores (which, of course, have nothing to do with learning.)  We said ALL children are inquirers.  All children should be helped to find their inner writers, inner scientists, inner athletes, inner leaders.  ALL CHILDREN.


In the past five years, we have shown that to be true.  Our test scores are higher than the scores of the naysayers.  Our children love school.  They are not bullies, they don't bully; they have learned to deal with each other.  They don't have to be watched 24/7 to insure they don't step out of line, because the line comes from inside.  They know how to act.


Not everyone loves this as much as we do.  And that is OK.  CSI is a school of choice, and if it's not your choice, make another. 


In the past five years, we have not been the choice of fine families who believed that their children needed more or less structure than we offered.  Some wanted uniforms and more homework; others wanted homeschooling.  They believed their children would learn better elsewhere. 


We have not been the fit of some fine teachers.  Some left to become excellent teachers of inquiry elsewhere.  Others realized that they were more comfortable with conventional teaching methods than with the rigorous personal and professional demands on teachers of inquiry.  Some decided that teaching wasn't their calling.  Choices.


Carolina School for Inquiry has been a wonderful choice for my son.  At risk of staying safe in the mind-numbing boredom of a conventional school, he was shaken out of his comfort zone academically, physically, and socially by some of the finest teachers I have ever met.  No matter where he goes, no matter who he becomes, he will always be a learner, a scientist, a writer, and a great citizen.  Thank you Mrs. Dixon-Mokeba.  Thank you Mrs. Greene.  Thank you Mrs. K, Mr. Chris, Mrs. Johnson, Mr. Hodges, and Ms. Spradley.  Thank you to all of the art, Spanish, music, and PE teachers.  Thank you to everyone who has helped my child become the great young man he is.


My prayer is that ALL CHILDREN, no matter what their learning styles, their gifts and talents, their personalities, their background; will be given a Choice for an education style that fits their needs.  EVERY CHOICE SHOULD BE AN EXCELLENT CHOICE.