We call it “D2C at SBC,” complete with its own songs, chants, and dances. It officially stands for Dare to Care, but it could also stand for Day to Cry.Dare to Care is a community service day. On Friday, classes were fifty minutes each instead of an hour each, so we had an early lunch and spent all afternoon at various community service sites around Cambridge. I was with a group of 8 or so teachers and 25 or so students at the Margaret Fuller House , a community center about a mile from the Kennedy-Longfellow school, where the Cambridge site is housed. The MFH has a camp for kids ages 5-7, and our students came and played with the MFH kids for the afternoon. It was so touching to see the SBC kids as the “adults.” They responded so well to being the big ones. They played so responsibly with the younger kids, helping them take turns, solving conflicts, letting the little kids win occasionally, just all around playing beautifully with them and being great role models. One of the SBC teachers who also went to the MFH quoted what an SBC student said to her, in response to a question about what kinds of games we should teach the MFH kids. Here is the exchange:
“What do you think we should teach them, [name of student]?”
“Well, we should probably teach them good things.”
“Good things? Like what?”
“Well, like respect, cooperation, things like that.”
