[Where it all started.]

A visit back to our elementary school with the sibs.

It's a lovely, charming little place nestled on a hill in Bel Air with views to the ocean. By L.A. standards, it's an old school, having been established in 1929. Its emphasis on tradition is one of the things I appreciate and remember most about attending school there -- think white robed Christmas caroling, candle-lighting ceremonies, poem recitations... My little brother is in his final year there, so when he graduates 6th grade this June, our family will be effectively graduating as well. Last week my sisters and I visited him at school for a morning and attended a few classes with him as his guests on Grandparents and Special Friends Day. Old lady alert: I was amazed by the technology these kids get to use every day in the classroom (two words: Smart Boards), and floored when the entire second grade class performed a violin concert. Kids these days...

My favorite John Thomas Dye School tradition: Every morning the entire student body gathers around the front lawn overlooking all of west L.A. to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and then, with arms raised to the sky, a Sanskrit poem, "Salutation of the Dawn":

Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn:

Look to this Day!
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course lie all the verities
And realities of your existence:

The glory of action,
The bliss of growth,
The splendor of beauty.

For yesterday is but a dream,
And tomorrow is only a vision.

But today, well lived, makes
Every yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.

Look well, therefore, to this Day!
Such is the Salutation of the Dawn.

Tender, right? (I kind of wish I still started my day like this. Roomies, if you see me in the front yard one morning with my arms outstretched towards the sun, reciting an ancient Sanskrit poem, you'll know why.)



Love this school. Love these kiddies.