| What Others Say About Khalsa Montessori School |
Graduation 2004
Graduate Speaker
Emma Ignaszewski
When Andre 3000 received one of his many Grammys, he said, "Thank You. Peace out." As much as I would like to copy him, I feel I might later regret that I didn't say anything mature or proper of a Khalsa Graduation Speech. But thank you anyway.
So...
My first day at this school was like a dream come true. It was the second day of the school year; someone from the office had called the night before, informing us that there was an open space in the 4 th, 5 th and 6hth grade class. Dad asked me if I really wanted to go to this school. I wanted to go to this school very much. So I did.
Of course, before deciding like that, I had to know what I was getting in to. Dad and I had observed Jaswant's class from the inside the last school year, when I was in fourth grade. I remember it was the day before the annual Khalsa Science Fair. We watched Jaswant and Lucas Turner dissect a fish. I think there as a frog waiting next in line.
I remember Dad asking a girl working, actually working, nearby, why nobody had his or her shoes on. She looked down at their white sneakers and scratched her ponytail. "We're allowed to go barefoot in class."
So...
When I went in the gate on the second day of the school year 2000-2001, Jaswant asked a girl to show me around. Soon, we sat down at circle, my first Khalsa circle, Jaswant introduced me and had all the other kids go around and say their names. Then she asked the class if they had any questions for me.
I was surprised. Five minutes into my first day, and people were firing questions at me like I as a celebrity. This had never happened before. So many curios faces, goofy smiles and hands raised in the air.
"Do you have any pets?"
I remember answering this very question. Ugh. All my friends think I have the worst sense of humor. I don't blame them. I began horribly. "Two dogs, a cat, and a little sister."
But that doesn't matter. And anyway, more questions were asked and soon it was time to get o work.
I began with story problems. C-1, I think. And from there, I went places. Geography Nomenclature. SRA's. Geometry Construction Cards. Pin Maps. Rosetta Stone. Trinomials. Square Roots. I was so proud that I actually made it to the green box in Math Albanesi. The GREEN box. And not only that, Leah and I finished the Language Albanesi. We ended up making language materials for Jaswant and diagramming VERY complex sentences. But where will that yet you in life? Where?
It has gotten me here. Through really bad times and extremely good times, my four years at Khalsa has gotten me to here. And I like here VERY much.
