Burke.Word

The clamorous sounds and flurry of activity from lunch have dissipated as people have gone to class, leaving only those students who are on free periods.  The largest group of these consists of seniors who have congregated around two of the rectangular tables, while only one person, Ian B, occupies the senior lounge.  It’s fifth period, and the atrium is a very subdued place.  While the table group is engaged in loud conversation, Ian seems rather bored, forced to occupy himself with games on his phone.  The monotony is broken briefly by Phil, who skips mischievously over to the window separating the atrium from the quiet room, and peers sneakily but awkwardly in at its occupants.  Jacob enters the scene and engages Ian in a brief conversation about their senior seminar classes.  He then comes over to me and expresses that he is “extremely bored right now.”  Perhaps this boredom is typical of students free at this time, as when Olay saw me taking notes for Journalism, he said: “I wish I was in that class,” suggesting that he too was bored.  It seems that coming off the excitement of lunch, students are much more prone to boredom and sluggishness.

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Reggie!

In 1995 Reggie Wills, Burke Dir. of Equity & Inclusion, was teaching in a local elementary school.  One of his 5th grade students was Nathan Fleming.  This January, nearly 20 years later, Nathan somehow found Burke.Word, saw an article about Reggie that had been written a year earlier in 2011, and took the time to write a comment about Reggie on the blog.  Regrettably, I overlooked Nathan’s comment, and didn’t see it and post it to the site until today.

Here’s what Nathan had to say:

Reginald Wills is by far the greatest teacher I have ever had. It is truly noble for a man of his capability to dedicate his life to teaching others and promoting principles of equality and justice. If you ever read this Mr. Wills, please know that you forever changed my life, and I’m sure the lives of countless others.

Nathan Fleming
Former 5th Grade Student (1995?)

Pride can come in many forms, earned and unearned.  But, Nathan’s comment is a reminder about the nature of  lasting pride, the kind of pride that actually produces an almost physical reaction in your heart or catches your breath or tingles your skin.  And that pride is not just about words you hear, or a score you might get, or an award you earn, but is about the acts one does that live on in the lives of others who have been changed for the better.  Nathan’s comment, the work that Reggie has done/is doing – and the work that Burke (and other schools) does in the lives of people in the building and outside of it is something to be proud of.

PS – Reggie is among the humblest of men… so, I’m probably in a heap of trouble w/ him about now…

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Burke MS Softball Bengals ’12

The Capitals beat the NY Rangers last night to deadlock their Eastern Conference Series at 3 a-piece.  Ho-hum.

The Nats dropped one to the Pirates, but still stand a-top the National League Eastern Division…. zzzzz.
The real buzz among the DC sports cognoscenti from Capitol Hill to Capitol Heights is the continuing march of the Middle School Softball Girl Bengals to the PVAC Championship Finals with a breath-taking playoff win over a very strong Covenant Life team.

With storm clouds threatening, and the game see-sawing back and forth, these Tigers pitched and hit their way to the final.  Kate S. and Catherine W. continued their solid performance off the mound this season, by holding down a powerful CovLife lineup that defeated Burke in the Finals last year.

All 10 Burkies contributed at the plate and on the basepaths.  Albert Pujols may be struggling at the plate, but Sofia and Aya stayed hot at the dish with key drives during the game.  And Catherine, helping her own cause turned in what proved to be a game-winning triple toward the end of the game, driving in the go-ahead runs.  But for your humble scribe, the play that should be on Sports Center rotation today was the game-saving, championship-earning, all-star, last-second, breath-taking, running-catch by rookie Natanya S. of a  frozen rope fading liner that would have put CovLife back on top in the last inning!!  Last, but certainly not least, Esme won a spontaneously given Good Sportsperson Gatorade from Covenant Life for helping one of their teammates after a collision at First.

The Championship match is at home this coming Monday against Sandy Spring.  Come on out to the old ball yard, there may be a few seats left, and see the team that everyone in DC is talking about!!

Go Bengals!!!

A special thanks goes out to the Coaches: JD, Shala, Sam and Adam K. for an exciting, great season!

Thanks to photo-journalist and dad, Jeff Taylor for the action photo.  Thanks also to veteran sports reporter and conga player Danny Weiss for the reportage.

["50 More Years of Trotsky!!"]

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Burke’s good friends and partners at The No Rules Theatre Company are up to their not-so-old theatrical sleight of hand with a new and thought-provoking re-telling of the Peter Pan story.

Peter Pan: The Boy Who Hated Mothers magically weaves together the joy and pain of childhood, the meaning of kinship, the weight of love and loss, the power of imagination and dreams, and the promise and curse of the ticking clock – almost as if Dickens, Freud and Edward Gorey had helped ghostwrite.  The incredible cast brings these timeless themes to life – so much so, that they stay with you long after you leave the theater.

Great reviews are pouring in from the Washington Post, Maryland Theater Guide, DC Theater Scene, Metro Weekly, etc.  The play also just received a Helen Hayes Recommendation! If Helen says so, you and your family gotta go see it!.

Peter Pan is on stage now and runs through March 4 at DC’s H Street Playhouse.  You can buy tickets here.

Congrats to the entire NRTC team, including our very own Cory Frank, former Burke Theater Dir., and Joshua Morgan, who directed last summer’s The Davids.

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As you contemplate your upcoming holiday journey – especially when you encounter the traffic, crowds, delays and other festive trials – you may want to keep the following simple story in your mind and heart — and have a warm and great Thanksgiving!

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if you missed in, you missed one of the biggest events in BURKE history. More posts to come i’m sure, but here’s what the community had to say about David:

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