Hope for the 2nd Half: Erin Hellar

Hello and welcome to the start of another week of summer. Have you been enjoying our summer series, Hope for the 2nd Half? Today SLOCA mom, Erin Hellar reflects on hope and the importance of knowing the past when looking to the future.

Grab your favorite beverage or reading glasses or whatever you need and settle in for some inspiration and hope.

When I heard the summer theme was “hope” my first thought was to write about the hope I feel for the future in the newfound independence that my Intermediate student found through SLOCA’s distance learning. While that is without a doubt still a personal highlight of 2020, it doesn’t really hit at the core of what hope means to me right now. I started thinking about everything happening in the world today and it dawned on me that the real sense of hope I have is actually tied to SLOCA’s love of history.

What are we without our heritage, our past discoveries, our ancestral knowledge? The past is full of lessons our collective triumphs and mistakes have taught us. If we do not reflect on the path humanity has traveled what becomes of our hard-earned moral progress, growth, and social change? We are not just a moment floating along untethered from time and place. Our history is the bedrock of our current belief systems, laws, and social structures. Without that knowledge of history, how are we to see what brought us to this place? How can we keep progressing toward a better future for all? The value of history is that we can see what has brought us to this place. It shows us the why and the how of the laws, the rules, and the social constructs that are the foundation of our modern-day culture. 

Hope – a feeling that seems severely tested these days is not gone. Thankfully, our school values history. The books our kids read, the discussions at home and in the classroom, the reflections, and the projects are so valuable! I can not wait for my daughter to have her first logic class next year in UMS. (I also secretly hope it will help her see why all my rules are so fair.) The suggested summer reading for adults and book clubs are all so meaningful. I’ve previously read a few of the adult summer reading suggestions, they are not easy reads but they are so important. We are endeavoring to create a community that values logical discourse and the ability to see things from another point of view. Listening, truly listening, and responding with thoughtfulness. Hallelujah!!! This is what will equip our children with a foundation with which to create a brighter future and that fills me with hope. 

A global pandemic, a school closure, an upswell in awareness about the dangers and inequalities within a country that prides itself on freedom and equality. These are the moments in history that people will look back on. Will students someday read a novel adapted from a journal written by one of our students? Will they read about 2020 as a pivotal time that heralded a change in our collective consciousness, our hearts, our laws? This too will soon be history and what we choose to do now will shape the future just as those we’ve read about have shaped our today.

My hope then for today is that we can equip our children with the character, and the wisdom to make the changes that we have yet to collectively accomplish. When we see all that mankind has done over our short history here on Earth I am filled with a sense of awe at the power of the human spirit. We are capable of so much. We are powerful. May our children be inspired to harness that power for right, and may their education focused on history, logic, and character be the tools to guide them!

Thank you so much, Erin, for your honest reflection and inspirational reminders.

Looking for more reading — check out A Day in the Life by Erin from earlier this year. And don’t miss Gina Planeta’s thoughts on hope in last week’s Hope for the 2nd Half.