A Gratitude List
The following is a gratitude list. Twenty-five reasons I am grateful for Red Oak Community School. This idea came from: 1) a personal goal to make my first thought of the day a grateful one 2) a twenty-one-day family gratitude challenge, recently completed and 3) Theresa, (assistant school manager) who during a board meeting, openly shared her gratitude for the parents, students, and staff who kept the school open despite a round of Covid.
Basically, I really like the idea of gratitude. So without further ado:
1. I’ve seen numerous articles lately about the dangers of blacktop and asphalt on school playgrounds, especially in high heat. I’m grateful that my kids play under trees, with trees, in trees…
2. I’m also grateful that they play with snow. A nearby school has this rule: No touching snow. No touching snow, whatsoever.
3. I’m grateful to a community that wants to be a community. There are so many parents signed up for one committee that they need to make sub committees.
4. I’m grateful for the way conflict is met at ROCS. There is talking, listening, and the shared goal of working through it together.
5. I’m grateful my kids get two snack times and a lunch. It’s a pain to pack all of that, but I appreciate knowing they are focusing on things other than hunger.
6. I’m grateful for the breezeway, where all the families, and all the students, first pass, then meet, then begin to know each other.
7. I’m grateful that my kids school supplies consist of rain and snow gear.
8. I’m grateful that there’s an event each year where the whole community gets together and makes soup.
9. I’m grateful that mistakes here are made with grace. They learn from their failures and then try something else. Something better.
10. I’m grateful ROCS isn’t just tooting its own horn. There are plenty of other groups out there tooting it for them.
11. I’m grateful for how crisis are met: thoughtfully and head on.
12. I’m grateful my kids get to take their shoes off when they’re inside.
13. I’m grateful my kids hear words like, “Black Lives Matter.”
14. I’m grateful my kids make signs like, “Black Lives Matter.”
15. I’m grateful my kids call their teachers by their first name.
16. I’m grateful the teachers call me by mine.
17. I’m grateful that each step, each move forward is taken with thoughtful consideration for who ROCS is and wants to continue to be.
18. I’m grateful that my kids are advised to NOT wash their rain and snow gear.
19. I’m grateful that there is always gear to borrow if something is lost or forgotten.
20. I’m grateful for the way curriculum is developed. It feeds the whole child, now and in the future.
21. I’m grateful for the way the teachers get to know my kids. Not just how they get to know their abilities, but how they get to know them.
22. I’m grateful my kids know words like “non-binary.”
23. I’m grateful my kids use words like “non-binary.”
24. I’m grateful for the way ROCS views tomorrow: as something to be worked on today.
25. I’m grateful for everything ROCS is, and all it sets out to be.
What are you grateful for?
-Celeste Irving, ROCS mom