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Dear Keystonians,   

Being on campus this week, the energy was invigorating! Even though we are fighting the effects of seasonal colds, and the fatigue of deep winter, there is a hopeful joy in the air! With the Spring festival approaching, and the second semester begun, preparations around campus for events like the Secondary School Temple Fair and the Primary School Cultural Celebrations happening next week have added a joyful lightness to the lengthening days. It is amazing how a school community can function like a single organism, its wellness and excitement surging through the individual people who outside of this school might not otherwise share a feeling or connection.   

The organism of our school community lives and breathes in harmony, and unity-- a beautiful unity that is established without the constraints of uniformity. This is an important distinction that I’ve shared about in this space on several occasions. This week there were two things that made me think about unity without uniformity.    

The first one is our school uniform. School uniforms are designed to create a visual identity for a student body. Even that term in English, student body, speaks to the idea of the biological organism of a community - with each system and cell performing different functions that lead to health. At many schools, students wear the exact same thing every day. At Keystone, while I don’t think our students would say the choices are endless, there is a wide range of possible looks available on any day. Blue shirts, red shirts, formal dress shirts, pants or skirts, students can make choices each day and the result is unity, without uniformity.    

I also discovered recently that most people don’t know about the ways that our values are expressed in our school uniforms. These garments are ethically produced in fabrics sourced and produced with minimal environmental impact and employing justly treated labor. This is a choice we make that isn’t without controversy—our uniforms are not the cheapest garments you might buy-- but they are a decision we make as a school to do things as closely aligned with our values as is possible. And they unite our students in this shared and meaningful action to care for our planet and humanity in every way we can.  Our uniforms are a symbol of how we are united around the things that matter—compassion, justice, respect, wisdom, and honesty—and diverse in the things that don’t-- like color, or combinations of individual garments.   

Another fun example of unity this week has come with a large group of colleagues who are learning the beautiful art of dragon dancing in preparation for the New Year celebrations!  We have experts among us, but we can unite in a shared movement without all being at the same high level or, (in my case) even having any talent or experience at all. When we are united and committed to each other, we don’t have to all be the same, but if we commit to a shared goal, we can achieve amazing results together.    

Wishing you all a beautiful start to the year of the Dragon!  

Yours in unity and harmony,   

Emily