Perhaps you’ve noticed the sixth graders looking particularly noble and valiant lately. On Friday evening, May 30, 2014, a beautiful knighting ceremony was held for them to culminate their studies of the Early Middle Ages.
Each student carved a wooden sword and painted a shield in preparation for knighthood. They also learned about what virtue is, and how thinking about virtue has changed through the ages. They considered perspectives from the age of the Greeks and great philosophers like Aristotle, the Romans and what they valued, and how the concept of virtue changed in the Middle Ages, including the ideals of Saint Thomas Aquinas.
During their preparation for knighthood as a modern rite of passage, the sixth graders were expected to help others. The students did more around the house to help in family life, and also sought places to assist those in need outside of family life. Some helped prepare or serve meals to the needy, one helped neighbors with young children, and others helped with spring cleaning in their neighborhoods. I hope you got to see the symbols of knighthood that each child made – their swords and shields – while they were on display outside the sixth grade classroom and in the first floor hallway!
–Connie MacLeod, Sixth Grade Teacher