Tradition

Dear Friends-

As with any school with a 50 year history, we have many traditions at Randolph School, some of which have been around since the days of our founding. For many of us, this idea of tradition is a source of great comfort. It gives us a peace of mind to know that we can count on some important recurring activities from year to year, and it helps provide a certain structure to our lives. The very root of the word tradition (from the latin verb trader) offers the soothing promise: “to give for safekeeping”.

At Randolph we are preparing for one of our most significant traditions, the Harvest Feast. The kitchen has been jam-packed with students scraping, stirring, measuring and seasoning the bountiful harvest from our gardens in preparation for a sit-down meal with our entire group of children. It is a celebration of the wonders of earth’s gifts, and a time to honor not only the hard gardening work, but also the hours of dedication by the children and staff that goes into creating such a feast. It is also a time to meditate and reflect on the quiet influence of the cycles of nature and the passage of time.

Harvest Feast is a wonderful tradition because it is both meaningful and significant to our community. At Randolph we hold dearly to these type of traditions because they are an important aspect of our identity. We also realize that traditions without significance or meaning become simply repeated activities that fail to enrich us or move us forward. Understanding this difference seems to me to be at the heart of who we are as a school.

I hope you have a wonderful autumn weekend!

Ben