Traditions:
Our Community’s Foundation by Charlie Ramseyer
When you ask our students to reflect on their time at Wichita Collegiate, after they finish gushing about our teachers, they often dive right into memories of their favorite school traditions. Immediately you hear about the usual suspects, events like Picnic Day, the Mother Goose Parade, or Read Across America week. As you continue to chat, the students start sharing funny memories and reflecting on more of their day-to-day experiences: the routine schedules and cross-campus collaborations; their favorite class projects; the Spartan chants they learned in PE class; or what they were doing during last Friday’s big game. And that is where you start to realize how special this place really is. It is often said that traditions serve to keep us rooted. Starting with our littlest Spartans, we celebrate special traditions to reinforce to them what we as a school value most … a strong sense of community.
When current Early Childhood parents first tour the Lower School, it is common for them to be surprised as they hear about the beloved traditions and impressive capstone projects taking place beyond the halls of the Early Childhood building. And while that may be something our marketing department needs to look into, more than anything it shows how fully immersed our families are in the traditions and experiences their kids are living at that moment. In Early Childhood it is easy to get swept up in the excitement of Kansas Day or Read and Romp. Everyone looks forward to the Mother Goose Parade, a favorite tradition that was started by legendary Early Childhood Librarian Jenny Paulseen and has stood the test of time. In fact, this tradition has been around for over thirty years and now it isn’t uncommon for
Current kindergartners in Mrs. Zarei’s class gather on the playground as they celebrate Kansas Day.
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