Throughout the month of April, St. George’s School has been very busy. From April 11^th to 15^th, we had Arts Week; from the 18^th to the 22^nd, we had Earth Week; and this week, we had LGBTQ+ Pride Week. While there has certainly been a lot to talk about in the hallways with all the high profile guest speakers and presentations taking place, is it possible for students to be over-stimulated? Guest speakers and celebration weeks like these can be great opportunities for learning, exploration, and dialogue, but these opportunities can be diluted quite easily if not timed correctly.

Over the past few years, Saints has invited far more guest speakers to the Senior School than it has in many previous years. These guest speakers have ranged from Syrian Refugees to Environmentalists to business leaders, and everything in between. Many topics have been spoken of that other schools might not even dare to mention. While some speakers have been met with mixed reviews from students, the overall effect on the school has been generally positive in most instances. Most of this positive effect can be attributed to the effort by staff to bring these topics back to the classroom after assemblies. Many post-assembly classes have been known to draw on with stimulating discussion of the speaker’s topic, with students becoming highly engaged and forming important opinions on the topics.

Arts Week has become a tradition engrained in the St. George’s community. For countless years, the school has taken a week out of the month of April to celebrate anything and everything that is the arts. Students have come to look forward to this week annually, with its various engaging classroom activities, artist demonstrations, and playful assemblies. However, with the flood of similar activities that have taken place in April this year, is it possible that the magical element of these unique opportunities has, in a way, been lost?

While it would be foolish to suggest only saving events like these for Arts Week alone, it is equally foolish to centralize these similarly planned events at the same time of year. In the future, I question whether or not it would be feasible to spread events such as Pride Week and Arts Week throughout the school year. If planned in this way, both Staff and Students would be able to fully appreciate these unique occasions, and hopefully that certain magic of these events would be preserved.