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Dear Lower School Families,
The students and faculty had a wonderful time during Athletic Field Day last week! Thank you to all of the parent volunteers and those who donated snacks and their time. The winners of Field Day received the Laurel Wreath, which signified their team’s ability to work together to overcome the various challenges, and which they will hang in their classroom for the remainder of the year. During each Field Day, we also bestowed the Thumos Award for the class that showed the best balance of spiritedness and self-discipline. During our opening ceremonies, I focused on how we strive for excellence on Field Day and why we should be grateful as Great Hearts students, Texans, and Americans. I explained that we practice field day because we are honoring the tradition of the Ancient Olympians. Whereas the ancient Greeks paused their disputes and wars in order to gather together and put their best athletes to the test with the purpose of displaying and striving toward excellence, we take a break from our daily routines to come together in friendship and celebration of excellence in athletics and teamwork. It was a day in which we put the virtues we are learning and reading about in our literature and history classes to the test in competition. We went further to discuss that we should be grateful as Americans and Texans for the peace and liberty we have in our country that allows us to learn in the way that we do and that we should not take for granted the wonderful country that allows us to live independently, submitting ourselves to the principles of law rather than will and whim of a king or tyrant.
This week will officially kick off our Season of a Thousand Gifts in which we focus on building the habit of gratitude to ward off discontent. Fighting discontentment begins with practicing its opposites: contentment and gratitude. The season will last from the moment they meet in general assembly as a grade level this week through Winter Break. During this season of gratitude, each student will be challenged to write down 1,000 things that they are genuinely grateful for. Our hope is that this practice will begin a new habit and hopefully lead to a re-orientating of their hearts to not only see their cups as ½ full .... but right full!
C.S. Lewis maintained that we should give thanks for all fortunes, "if it is good because it is good, if bad because it works in us patience, humility ...". The Roman philosopher and senator, Cicero, said, "Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues but the parent of all the others." If a heart of gratitude were our guide, perhaps we would find it easier to exercise the virtues of responsibility, perseverance, integrity, honesty, courage, citizenship, humility, friendship, and wisdom. In our assembly, we will be learning about the Cardinal Virtues of Wisdom, Justice, Courage, and Moderation that have been handed down from Plato and Aristotle and how our school virtues help us to understand and live virtuously in our daily interactions. Are you aware that the Latin Cardinalis translates to door hinge or “that on which something depends”? It is through these virtues that we can most fully participate in that which distinguishes us as humans, using reason and exercising our will over our desire, and through which we can come to live a flourishing life.
Our first focus to practice building the habit of gratitude will be toward our military veterans and those who have given service to, fought for, or even died for our country. Faculty, staff, and students are invited to honor their family members who have served in the military by filling out a short info form that was sent home on Friday and attaching a photo to be displayed on the library, Wall of Honor, on November 11th, which is a school day.
In gratitude,
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