Monday Musings, An Early Labor Day

We sent our students and teachers out for an early day of labor last Friday, giving them a common experience with which to begin the year. While the annual Billy Goat Trail hike is a breeze for some (not including this "approaching middle-age" correspondent), for most it's a real challenge. Up and down the rocks, often using hands as well as feet to hoist ourselves up the cliffs, many of us woke up Saturday morning feeling a bit stiff and sore.

Nonetheless it's a great way to start the year, with everyone getting a good workout whether they took the trail or the towpath, or a combination of both. When we return to school in the morning almost everyone will have had the experience of a challenging walk on a beautiful day where they had the chance to talk with new and old friends alike.

Finding the right level of challenge is, always, the challenge for us as classroom teachers as well as for us as human beings. Trying to tackle an activity that is just a bit beyond our current capability is how we grow not only intellectually, but in confidence and courage. The Billy Goat Trail has been a wonderful challenge for Nora students going back many years, a bit of Montana ten miles from downtown DC, and will hopefully provide a good start toward tackling the challenges of the school year ahead.