Dr. Nelson’s Blog

Welcome to the first Middle School chapel of school year 2006/2007. We are very pleased to see so many Middle School students attending St. John’s School. Do you know why? Middle School students at St. John’s are very special students. You folks have very good ideas, tons of energy and a true need to share in fellowship with your friends and classmates at St. John’s.

You also have many challenges facing you as you pass through some of the most difficult times you will face during your school career. Why are these years – the Middle School years – some of the most difficult? The root cause of this reality is that you are going through some of the most radical changes you will ever experience in your life. These are real changes that will continue to affect you physically, emotionally, and arguably the most important way you are changing – socially. These social changes are reflected in how your relationships change between you and your family members, you and your friends and classmates and you and your teachers.

For those reasons we built a Middle School for you at St. John’s last year. We created a place – your space – to grow into the unique, special individuals that you are becoming. We are also pleased to continue to improve this experience – your space – for you so the changes you will go through will be as gentle, gradual and appropriate as possible – giving you time to learn how to grow with the changes.

Sometimes when you grow there are growing pains. My dad used to tell me when I was growing up that my aches and pains were due to growing pains. I didn’t understand him at the time, but now I know what he meant. He meant that my body was growing so fast that I couldn’t keep up with all the new changes happening to me. Students your age are growing so fast it sometimes it even hurts. We need to remember that sometimes we need to give you time to just simply grow. Why do some teenagers seem to be falling asleep during school? Sometimes it’s that they are growing so fast they are just worn out by staying awake.

What should your space be for you – the Middle School at St. John’s School?

It should be a highly motivating space where you want to learn and learn the most that you can.

It should be a fun space that makes time go by fast and days are shorter than longer for you.

It should be a safe space – a space where everyone can and will work together towards getting the best from all of the teachers, who have so much to offer and have so many talents to share with you as your mentors for success.

What should your space NOT be?

A space where students pick on and tease one another.

A space where bullying is allowed to happen.

A space where students do not tell their teachers when teasing and bullying happen.

A space where students experiment with tobacco, betel nut, drugs, alcohol, inhalants, and other harmful substances

A space where students identify each other by the clothes they wear or the cars their parents drive.

A space where students send nasty emails, sms and myspace messages and other forms of cyberbullying

A space where students don’t want to come to school

That is NOT what the St. John’s Middle School is all about and we are determined to keep it that way. If a student wants to make your space something other than what we want for you, come and tell me, tell Mrs. Santos, tell your teacher, tell Chaplain Moore, tell Mrs. Edwards, tell someone – anyone about this and we’ll make sure that your place is the place we designed it to be – a safe sanctuary for living and learning at St. John’s.

I want to leave you with a quote from Plato:

Do not train children to learning by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each. – Plato