January 25th, 2010
Greetings Cambridge Parents,
Can a part-time seamstress make a difference by refusing to give up her seat? Would an elderly farmer, an African-American raised to believe he was inferior, stand in a court room and accuse two white men of murdering his nephew? Can a young, 26 year old Baptist minister, just hired to lead a small church in Montgomery, Alabama, deliver a twenty minute speech that will change the face of a nation? Can nine young boys and girls enter a school, an institution that epitomizes the ugliness of segregation, and change the course of history?
As my 8th graders and I venture further into the journey of the Civil Rights Movement, we continue to return to our unit theme: “Small Acts of Personal Courage.” It was the courageous acts of everyday people – Rosa Parks, Mose Wright, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Little Rock Nine (and so many others) that spurred a segregated country to change in its beliefs, its structure, its cultural stereotypes. The face of our nation changed because people from every day “walks of life” made a decision – a commitment – to not stand idly by while injustices took place before them.
This courage to act in the face of difficult consequences kept alive the hopes for something better and greater.
My hope is that our 8th graders, and all of our students, will recognize that they can bring about change – in their homes, their present and future schools, in the lives of families and friends; and, on a daily basis, they too can commit to small acts of personal courage – in their faith, in their call for justice, in standing against the flow of the world around them.
Presently, the faculty is reading and studying together N.T. Wright’s Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense. In the opening chapter, labeled, Putting the World to Rights, the author summarizes, “Christians believe that this is so because all humans have heard, deep within themselves, the echo of a voice which calls us to live like that. And they believe that in Jesus that voice became human and did what had to be done to bring it about….we need to listen for other echoes of the same voice…”
I pray that we all seek to listen to the echo of His voice, to be faithful and obedient, and to commit to small acts of personal courage.
Blessings to you and to your families. As always, it is an honor to serve Cambridge School.
God bless,
Steven T. Song
Head of School
Notes of Importance:
· This Saturday, January 30th, we will be holding Admissions Testing for grades K-2; please contact Laura Karey if you have any questions at all (lkarey@cambridgeschool.org). If we need to cancel because of inclement weather, the make-up day will be February 6th.
· Please return Re-Enrollment Forms as soon as possible.