Our school district presents a thrice-yearly series of speakers and presentations called “Developing Healthy Kids” – meant to address often-overlooked educational issues.
Last night there was a powerful 90-minute presentation titled “Surviving and Thriving During the Teen Years.” Spearheaded by my colleague and friend Kris DeYoung, it was a mixture of video, live performance, keynote, Q&A and more, centered around issues of mental health, taking the long view, and living our story.
My favorite moment was a spoken word poem presented near the end of the evening by Greta Kruse. The poem “Say Yes” by Andrea Gibson was passionately delivered, and encapsulated so well the emotional depth of the evening.
Here’s a favorite excerpt.
Saturn is on his knees, proposing with all of his ten thousand rings, That whatever song we are singing,
We sing even more.
And one more:
This is for trading our silver platters
For something that matters,
Like the gold that shines from our hands
When we hold each other.
(The video of the entire presentation will be posted later today, and I’ll update this post then.)
I am overwhelmed by the burdens our students carry, and inspired by the many who have the strength to share their story and help the people around them. We all need more opportunities like this, to hear from the budding leaders we teach every day. They can teach us and each other, too.