Junior+Retreat

The goal of the Upper School is for every class to come together in an alternative environment. We bring the kids together as a class with a particular mission. Our objective is to expand on the Junior Community Action team work and provide a solid day of field work, nightly sharing of team objectives, class bonding activities and the infamous culminating "circle." Every class is given an opportunity to reflect on the weekend and their year as a whole in this open forum to share what is simply on their mind. This time, the sharing went one step further than ever before and as a result, a historic milestone for Parker was conquered, not once, but four times. To jump start the circle, we often ask a few "firestarters" to stand up first and share their thoughts. What often happens is that we don't ever really need them, the Parker kids jump up at the opportunity to share their hearts. But, this time, something very very special happened. After one of our kids apologized for being so unpleasant, she said that she had something extremely difficult to share, "I am a lesbian." ... the class stood, clapped, and finally embraced their courageous classmate. Later on another young woman kicked open her closet door and shared an identical reflection which was followed with another standing ovation and group hug. And yes of course, as the recent campaign of "it gets better" begins to resonate, a junior boy sounds off, "well I wasn't going to do this, but I'm gay..." The amazing response was repeated and before we thought it was all over, the final chapter of the "open door circle" was revealed as one more junior boy made his peace. As a teacher, it was a historic and beautiful moment in the education of others and ourselves. The oppressive door was kicked open four times and four new lives were revealed in what must have been the greatest challenge and moment of our lives.