About Me

Head of Lower School at La Jolla Country Day School (mbaier@ljcds.org)

Friday, October 4, 2013

Honoring Ourselves and Honoring Others


“The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.”
~Socrates

Last week’s pillar of the week was honor.  There are many definitions for honor and we adjust them based on a student’s age.  Younger students learn about honor in the form of telling the truth.  Most students know honor as taking pride in yourself and others, as we have put on our Pillar circle below.   Older students learn about honor as it relates to trust.  People trust honorable individuals and we all want to be someone who others trust. Honor is also described to students as having the courage to do the right thing even if it is not the popular thing.  



Mrs. Madigan’s class participated in an honor activity where they wrote an adjective to describe each of their classmates.  The students then received their sheets and were able to take pride in the qualities their classmates noticed about them.  This activity is always well received by students and adults.  We did a similar activity in a staff meeting last year and it was always nice to look back at those honorable qualities others saw in me.  You could try it with your family, as well.



As you know next week is Homecoming for the Upper School.  There are always many questions as to why the Lower School does not participate.  I would like to address why that is here in the blog.  Homecoming is truly an Upper School event.  I worked in several K-12 schools and Lower School students truly do not understand the significance of Homecoming.  The activities actually prove to be a distraction to the learning process for younger students.  By not having Lower School participate, it also gives Lower School students something to look forward to as they get older.  There are some privileges that come with age, as we all know.  Having our younger students out of uniform for purposes they clearly do not understand is not the best use of those “out of uniform” days.  The Lower School students do get to participate in spirit wear days and free dress days.  As the school year continues, there may be other opportunities for Lower School students to have “special” dress days as organized by the Lower School teachers.   In deciding what to do for Lower School students here at Eagle Ridge, I consulted with several members of the Lower School Leadership Advisory Team (a group of teachers that were nominated by other teachers to meet with me and discuss issues or ideas within the Lower School) again this year.    It was agreed that Lower School students would not benefit from being involved (It would actually be detrimental for learning.) and there would be other ways for us to build community spirit both in the Lower School and school wide as the school year progresses.  

Friday is a designated Spirit Wear Day for Lower School. Students may wear Homecoming T-shirts, if they were purchased on this day and on any other Spirit Wear Day throughout the year, if they would like.   They should follow all of the regular dress code requirements for Spirit Wear Day.

Just a reminder that conferences are coming up on October 14th and 15th.  Below is the information from the Eagle Eye on how to sign up for conference with your child’s teachers.

                Fall conferences will take place on Monday, October 14th from 8am to 8pm and Tuesday, October 15th from 8am to 11:30am. The conference scheduler, Virtual Paragon, is now open and will close October 10th. Please follow this link to schedule conferences with your child’s teacher http://www.virtualparagon.com/eagleridge/conference/ . The master password to access the conference scheduler is Eagle7255. In grades K-5, please schedule conferences only with your child’s homeroom teacher and specialists (Physical Education, Art, Latin and Music). Middle School and Upper School are also using the conference scheduler this year.

Next Friday is a fall event for students in grades K-8.  Below you will see information about the ERA event at the Twin Cities Harvest Festival and Maze on October 11th.




Have a great week!
Mrs. Baier

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