You Are A Bright Light!

Dear Members of The Waldorf School of Santa Barbara Community,

Do you remember signing yearbooks just before school let out in 8th Grade? Do you remember the silly inside jokes? Do you remember the tone of those dashed-off words -- that tone of fizzy excitement (excitement for summer and high school) mixed with a hurtling sadness over parting? The words we write in yearbooks at the end of 8th Grade are their very own literary genre. They preserve, like few other kinds of words, a sense of life. Some 8th Graders kindly shared with us a few highlights from their yearbooks. Here they are (separated by asterisks):

You are the best friend I could ask for. Love ya, forever twin.
*
I have loved every second I have spent w/u. I am going to miss u more than you can imagine. I love you so much.
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Don't have too much fun doing math next year.
Your brain might explode.
*
You are a bright light!
*
Signing your book is kinda like goodbye.
It will never be goodbye with you.

That last jotting struck us as particularly poignant. Can you imagine one of our WSSB students recently writing those words to her classmate in her new 2023-2024 yearbook? Can you picture that?

Asked for words to describe their class, some 8th Graders shared the following. "Everyone was really kind," one student said. Then she added laughingly: "Most of the time." One student said school was "comforting." Another said: "We watched each other grow up. We were a family."

Asked for words to describe their intelligent, patient, loving, and long-dedicated teacher, one student said Mrs. Anderson "knows us so well that she would say, 'I know you in particular are going to love this upcoming block.' Or she would say: 'I know this is going to be hard for you. Don't worry -- I'll help.'"

One student said, Mrs. Anderson was "well-rounded"; another said she was "kind"; another said she was "tough and nice"; another: "awesome and wonderful"; and one said she was "core," which, apparently, is today's slang for a mixture of solid and cool.

Graduating 8th Graders, may you always remember words from your own 2023-2024 yearbook: you are, each and every one, bright lights. And may you never hide that bright light but instead shamelessly bring it wherever you go.

Ms. Anderson, thank you for helping these young people see and nurture their light. Thank you for drawing out each student's particular genius. Thank you for having the right stuff. Thank you for educating them so well.

In gratitude,

The Admin Team

PS The Rudolf Steiner Quotation of the Day is the following:
Receive the children in reverence.
Educate them in love.
Send them forth in freedom.

PPS The Walt Whitman Quotations of the Day (for you and your graduate) are the following:

There are days that must happen to you.
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I exist as I am, that is enough.
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…a leaf of grass…the egg of the wren…the running blackberry…and a mouse is miracle enough.
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You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light and of every moment of your life.
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I celebrate myself
And what I shall assume you shall assume
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul
I lean and loafe at my ease … observing a spear of summer grass.
*
Immense have been the preparations for me…