Observations

Dear Campus School Families,

A new year affords the opportunity for fresh starts - at least this is how adults often frame it. We seem to need a ritualistic nudge, like New Year’s resolutions, to change direction, shuck old habits, or reinvent ourselves. Perhaps this is because adults consciously or unconsciously think that at a certain point we stop becoming and simply are. Hence the importance of rituals like New Year’s resolutions, which once a year give adults the opportunity to at least consider new vistas.

Children, however, live a different reality. Their lives are more fluid and a continuous series of fresh starts, with each day bringing something new and novel and the chance to engage in the main work of childhood – namely, the process of becoming a person.

This is one more example of how children remain in touch with vital life forces that adults, over time, diminish or lose altogether. What would it be like if adults lived in a constant and evolving state of being and becoming and believed that each day offers new opportunities for growth and personal development? I think we would all be more interesting and complete people and the world would be a much better place as a result.  

So my resolution is to not make a resolution - but to try and learn from the example that children show us every day as they fully engage in the process of being – and becoming -  human.

Warmly,

Chris