Safety

Scrolling through emails, including news alerts, my heart skips a beat. Another school shooting. It dawns on me that, should I not have time to post this today, it won't be long until it's once again appropriate to post. There was, on average, more than one school shooting a week in 2015, 64 in total. Seven school shootings have already happened in the first six weeks of 2016. 

I look at the families around me and am filled with overwhelming gratitude for them, for this place, and for the feeling of safety and love that surrounds all here. I am deeply thankful we chose to homeschool our children, and for the blessing that is Epoch Arts Homeschool Co-op. 

Don't get me wrong. I am not under the impression that we are completely safe here. Anything can happen anywhere. And we do have a plan in place should someone enter the building in a threatening manner. That's not what I'm talking about here.

What I'm talking about is the absence of thought by the children that someone menacing could enter the building, and that schoolers turned homeschoolers have noticed the difference in atmospheres between their former schools and this place. They feel better here, safer here. 

The only drama we face here at Epoch seems to be in the form of Theater classes and the like, and the only weapons allowed are those crafted from paper, pool noodles, duct tape, binder clips, and other materials in World of Weaponry class. 

Today I am grateful that my children are able to learn without even the smallest amount of fear clouding their experience. I pray for those whose educational experience is marred by one news story after another of violence in schools.