As a school we want to respect our flags as one way of honoring our country and members of our armed forces. In Albemarle County we know that we are teaching and facilitating our students to be Life Long Learners (see the 12 competences here), and one of these competencies is for our students to "participate fully in civic life...within the context of community." Today our students experienced a very powerful example of this particular competency.
As a school we raise the US and Virginia flags every morning and we lower them at night, but we wanted to empower our students to be a part of this important duty.
A few weeks ago we asked fifth grade students if they would be interested in taking care of our flags every day, and we were excited that we had over thirty students volunteer for this important part of civic life.
Today we gathered these students together to go over the details of how to take care of the flags, including how to raise them, to lower them, and to fold the flags to store them at night.
What made the experience powerful for our students, however, is not just the lesson the learned but from whom they learned it: active duty members of the US Army, who are members of our community.
We reached out to members of the US Army's JAG (Judge Advocate General) Corps here in Charlottesville, and we were honored to have two members (both BBES parents) attend today. They delivered a powerful message to our students on why we honor the flag, what it means to them, and how to take care of our flags properly.
Our students learned a tremendous amount from these two servicemen, and we are now ready to begin to have our students take care of our flags every day starting Monday 10/27/2014.
We can't wait to begin this new tradition at Baker-Butler.
Below are some pictures of our very special morning today.
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| Talking to our students about why we take care of the flag |
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| Demonstrating how to fold and to unfold the flag |
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| Unfolding the flag |
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| Raising the flag |
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| Rendering honor to the flag |
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| Practicing folding the flag |
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| Students practicing folding the flag in groups of three |
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| The final stages of folding the US flag |
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