The conclusion of a school year is naturally a point of celebration and reflection, an opportunity to survey the elevations and valleys of the time that has been accomplished, an opportunity to cast our eyes forward to the time ahead. This 2019-2020 academic year, even as it has presented challenges unpredictable at its outset, has nevertheless been another wonderful experience in the life of our School. We have so much for which to be thankful.
I began this school year—my inaugural turn at MICDS—with an aspiration to know the names and faces of every student in our community. I enjoyed meeting Beasley friends in their classrooms and cafeteria and their families in the pick-up line. I sold Brussels sprouts (or tried to sell Brussels sprouts) in the Middle School cafeteria. I visited Upper School classrooms and cheered from the bleachers and crunched the numbers to find threads of kinship between MICDS names and birthdays. I afflicted the Class of 2020 with music from my own senior year of high school. And I enjoyed every moment of connection to this special place.
The end of March was, of course, a point of inflection, but I will forever recall with admiration and some measure of pride the response of our community to a sudden and substantial challenge to our common endeavor, in ways both great and small. Our relationships with one another, forged in a shared environment, withstood the stress of detachment from that singular nexus—our beautiful campus—where we had gathered each day. Our response to the coronavirus pandemic reminds us that we are a people more than a place at MICDS, and I cannot express how humbled and inspired I am by the efforts and spirit of our teachers, our staff, our students and their families.
In the poem Little Gidding, one of his Four Quartets, St. Louis native T.S. Eliot writes, “For last year’s words belong to last year’s language / And next year’s words await another voice…. / To make an end is to make a beginning.» We do not yet know what next year’s words will be, but we do know that our voice, the voice of Ram Nation, will continue to be strong, proud and united. And we know that with the end of this school year comes the beginning of new adventures.
Oh, what a world! Always reason, always compassion, always courage. I wish you and your families a joyful and joyous summer season.
Jay Rainey
Head of School