I admire you very much. Though it’s been said that admiration is a short-lived passion that decays immediately upon growing familiar with its object, I disagree. I find that the deeper I go into parenthood and the better acquainted I become with you folks, the more my admiration for you grows.
I admire you for having made the momentous decision to have a child, for deciding forever to let your heart go walking around outside your body. Some of you have even made this decision repeatedly! [An aside: When my sister Sue made her debut a few years after I first began to prowl the planet, my father noted that her birth “marked the triumph of Hope over Experience.”]
I admire you for showering your child(ren) with love that protects them from harm during their infant years and equips them with boldness with which to sail confidently into their many years, secure in the knowledge that their Crescent Ridge Academy (CRA) Montessori education is an irrevocable passport to tomorrow and a trusty North Star by which to navigate.
I admire you for sacrificing, willingly, what you have for who your child(ren) will become. Let’s be candid: a CRA education is costly; nevertheless, it remains one that – over time – affirms the wisdom of Ben Franklin’s aphorism that “an investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” And though I don’t know each of you personally, I do know that you look forward excitedly to discovering who your children will grow up to be, even as you savor the joys (and struggle through the challenges, just saying . . . ) they grace you with every single day. Shannon and I feel the same way about our son Ian; we can’t wait to see what he does with his life (sigh) but I guess we’ll both just have to be patient. As Bob Dylan sings: “If tomorrow wasn’t such a long time.”
Ian will conclude his nine-year Montessori odyssey in May, when he graduates from CRA (an event he helpfully keeps on our front burner).
Nevertheless, Shannon and I will continue to support CRA because we can’t wait to see what it will become. This extraordinary school has proven itself a living beacon of light keeping at bay the threatening shadows of ignorance, bigotry, violence, and fear. The longer CRA thrives, the taller it will grow, and the taller it grows, the farther it will beam its light into the world, moving us all ever closer to that elusive, long-coveted garden of intelligence, equity, kindness, and peace. Please join us. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Dan Kent
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