Monday, December 15, 2008

A little something we like to say

There's a little something we like to say here at The Merasi School that goes to the tune of: Let unconquerable gladness dwell. It's a sentiment we stole right from FDR's Oval Office and transplanted into our desert classroom and the words echo through our hallways.

Now, if we are going to be total realists, my dear readers, what I just wrote was a boldfaced lie. For youngsters just wrapping their mouthes around 'red' and 'ball,' a multi-syllabic whopper like 'unconquerable' and the awkward consonants in 'dwell' are mish-mashed and pancaked smashed into all kinds of colorful variants. However, while the verbal packaging might be different, the contents are identical. Indefatigable joy resides at The Merasi School.

And there's nothing soft or gentle about this joy. It's a fierce current of energy that grows stronger and brighter with each student who joins our ranks and pours their young hearts and souls into developing core educational competencies to engage in a rapidly interdependent world. It's a joy that defies reason, because all reason says that these little ones --who are forced to drink from different water spouts than other castes and sit with the shoes in public places-- should lead joyless lives.

But if The Merasi School is anything, it is a small cluster of classrooms where possibility trumps reason and unconquerable gladness overpowers crippling reality. So as we charge through abc's and 123's with mighty merriment, we inch ever closer to the day when 'unconquerable gladness,' which is felt in so fiercely in the fibers of our little ones, can be just as fiercely verbalized.

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