Happy Memorial Day!

Today is a day that for many Americans marks the beginning of summer. And I think that for many people, the day's meaning has gotten lost in all of the barbeques, picnics, sale ads and all of the commercialism. But today the real meaning of Memorial Day came to light through our children. I had to work today ( which was a bummer) but to celebrate, our staff grilled out hot dogs. Then afterward, we had a little celebration for our students. We only had a handful of students today (about 39) because we are doing our OFYP (optional flexible year program). To help you understand what OFYP means, I'll tell you a little about it. Most of our students who pass all of their state mandated tests, have good attendance, good grades, and good behavior get to go to school for 170 school days while the ones who don't have to go 180. It's just a little incentive to do well in school. Well anyway to get back to today's celebration, we played a little video about the history of Memorial Day and a video of soldiers fighting for our country with a very sad song playing in the background. After the last video played, a kindergarten student said, "Well that was very sad.". I tell you I was almost in tears. Then we all sang God Bless America and we said the pledge of allegiance to the American flag and to the Texas flag. We then handed out popsicles to the students and they all went outside to play. Overall, it was a really great Memorial Day. And I hope that it was a day that our students will never forget.