Teacher Margaret's "View From My Window" - March 10th

Our “theater” season has begun. Today, Kindergarten students were part of a large enthusiastic audience for the Eighth Grade play “Nine Angry Teenagers.” While these youngest audience members giggled more than the play called for, they were practicing how to be a respectful and engaged live audience. This, too, is a skill worth learning. After the play, students wrote their Eighth Grade friends congratulating them on their successful production. This play fits in nicely with our year-long theme “we seek a world with equity and justice for all.” The play focused on questions of justice, fairness, and how to restore community when trust has been broken.

Fifth Grade students have just finished reading Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. They talked about the many ways war and violence prevent people from living out the promise of their lives. The students and Mrs. DeMarco decided to create a project based on the children’s peace monument in Hiroshima, Japan. They invited students across the school to send their wishes for peace. They are decorating the messages with their own paper cranes. They were finishing this book as the war in Ukraine broke out.

Today, PreK students discussed the picture book Three Lines in a Circle: The Exciting Life of the Peace Symbol.

Across the school, in age-appropriate ways, we are considering how to foster peace. For younger students, we are focused on creating peace in our classrooms and families. Young children may have questions about the war based on what they are overhearing on the news and radio or from the adults in their lives. My advice is to give children as concise and accurate an answer as possible to the question they ask. Don’t assume they want to know more than what they have asked. It's ok to let them know when you don’t know the answer in that moment.

Older students are asking pointed and in-depth questions in their classes about the war in Ukraine and its origins. Teachers are guiding their discussions and helping them find answers from reliable and age-appropriate sources. Westfield Middle School students are asking what our response and responsibility should be now for helping those whose lives have been disrupted and have been displaced. I anticipate, in Monday’s Middle School Meeting for Business, that the students will propose another bake sale and then student leaders will research and discern whether to support UNICEF or the International Red Cross.

Westfield Friends School hosted its first-ever local business networking breakfast this week. We had bankers, mortgage brokers, tech consulting companies, realtors, a chiropractor, and a local auto shop owner attend. Some were new to Westfield, others had been driving by for years and always wondered about the school, others had deep connections with the school. All were impressed to learn about the school and see it as a vital member of the local community. 

Our spring fundraiser and community event “A Taste of Our Towns” is shaping up to be a great event. We have an energetic committee working to bring in wonderful food from local restaurants. This same group is busy building an auction catalog and planning to create a warm and inviting venue within the school. I hope everyone in the Westfield Community will consider participating in one way or another. If you would like to be a sponsor or donate an item or come for the fun, everything you need to know is on the website.

Warmly,

Margaret Haviland
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