We hope you will join us on January 18th as we host our fifth annual Post-Solstice Solace at High Peak Camp near Estes Park. It is an opportunity for us to go sledding, snowshoeing, ice skating, ice fishing, and play broomball. The day is unique for more than what we do, but also for where, why, and how we do it.

Shakespeare has Macbeth deliver a nihilistic soliloquy that begins, “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, / Creeps in this petty pace from day to day.” When death waits for each of us, what can be the ultimate meaning of our lives regardless of how floridly or cleverly they are described in exquisite language?

It is our custom to associate gifts with Christmas rather than to think of Christmas as a gift. In this custom we are not wrong, but fail to see deeply enough.

Christmas is one of the only holidays for which we speak of there being an entire season imbued with a particular spirit. If the spirit that breathes life into Christmas is charity, it is a good thing that we lengthen it from a day to a month or more.

A remarkable holiday is now before us, and it is one that speaks to our sense of American exceptionalism in a way few holidays do.

November 11, 2019 is Veterans Day – the 100th since President Wilson brought it into being as Armistice Day in 1919. It is interesting to note that in acknowledging this day there are no calls for students to be released from the schools as there are for other holidays.

Whether it was with seasoned veterans or newcomers, the Turkey Shoot has proven to be a welcoming venue for all members of our community. There is a hot chili meal in the clubhouse, a petting zoo, and an abundance of games for our youngest Hoplites.

That homework at Ridgeview has long been contentious is to say little more than that homework has long been contentious. The debate about homework is decades, if not centuries, old.

This time of year makes it remarkably clear how fortunate we are to live in Colorful Colorado. It also makes it much easier as a school to exhibit a life lived in harmony with the seasons.

In our current age, we tend to be especially cognizant of our rights as citizens, but less inquisitive about our duties.

We can promote our own growth by learning from one another. As a result of this growth, we can be better proponents of that kind of life that is marked by curiosity and intelligence and that we hope our children will aspire to emulate.

While considerable time might be spent examining the merits of classroom observations, the benefits of outdoor education, or the advantages of numerous extracurricular activities that involve a substantial proportion of our student body, the activity most integral to Ridgeview is reading, and one is unlikely to find any school at which reading is taken more seriously than Ridgeview.