The Midwest experiences the wonder of God’s order through the changing of seasons. We build our routines by them, decorate by them, and dress according to them. Schools have seasons of their own, however, theirs do not coincide with nature’s timing.
Just when life is at its fullest in late summer – gardens, plants, and trees are at the height of their color and abundance – we throw open the doors of the school and declare, “Hurry in, a new year has begun!” We meet new friends, teachers, and families. All the pencils are long and sharp, notebooks are crisp, and each book’s binding unbroken. It is all shiny, and yet, nature whispers, “It’s time to unwind.” Harvest begins; leaves turn color and die. Then, right about the time first semester is over, nature sleeps the deep sleep of bare trees, brown grass, and perhaps a blanket of snow, but most likely, just gray skies. And while it may seem like the school year catches up to the natural world, we are truly only half-way into the academic year -we must finish what we started.
Schools are not able to be dormant like the grasses and flowers in nature’s winter. When scholars arrive back to campus in January, CCA will be in full swing, but pencils will be shorter, duller, and perhaps less plentiful, notebooks, half-filled and crinkly will get to the end of their usefulness, book bindings will be well loved and broken in, some things just won’t be as shiny.
The second semester is full and active – our scholars fill-up and when nature’s spring comes, it’s really our harvest time. When nature’s spring yields to the fullness of summer, we find ourselves in a winter of our own, the school empties; we can get much-needed rest.
This juxtaposition of nature’s spring and a school’s winter holds us in a sort of tension. Schools move in and about our own cycles – of newness, oldness, and death. It is the time when our littlest scholars look to the horizon and see first grade – the vestiges of kindergarten slowly dying. Eighth grade scholars see high school across the expanse – what lies behind them are seasons of elementary and junior high classes; before them, the prospect of great adventures. Graduation takes shape. Paradoxically our scholars will move toward the end and a beginning – winter and spring. We will send them off to be independent, joyful, and responsible citizens having inculcated in them knowledge and virtue fulfilling the mission of CCA.
What do we want in these seasons that ebb and flow with beginnings and endings? We want the scholars to embrace the journey – even the hard parts, to show up every day, and to live lives that reflect the wonder of God’s created order, so they are prepared for life away from CCA.
I wish you a Happy New Year in some sense and look forward to the promise of nature’s spring all while keeping my mind’s eye on the winter of our founding year and the spring of our high school in the fall.
-Mrs. Spaulding
