Field Day, More Than Fun and Games

Next Friday will be Regents Academy’s  eighth annual Field Day. It is always a day filled with food, frolic, and fun. We have races. We play games. We eat hamburgers. And we even get to have a water balloon fight! But the thing I most enjoy about Field Day is the interaction between grade levels.

We have five seniors this year, and they are our team leaders. The rest of the students in the school have been divided up so that all the grade levels are mixed. And they will do everything together on that day. They will all assemble in the Great Room for a morning devotional and then it’s out to the flagpole to learn the team cheer. Once the teams have been gathered, the competitions begin!

I so enjoy this part. It is so touching to see a softer side of our young men come out. None of them hesitate to hoist a little one on their shoulders so he can see better. This is the day that the big ones forget about math assignments and papers and Latin and Herodotus and speeches and just enjoy those around them. Students at Regents Academy know how to work hard, but they also know how to play hard. And play is never more fun than when it is preceded by hard work.

The best example of what this day means to the little ones is found in the interaction between one of our senior boys and one of our first grade boys. The first grader knew that all the students would be divided up among the teams led by the seniors. So he went to his favorite senior and made a special request to be on his team. When the athletic director was finalizing the list, the senior approached her and asked if the little boy was on his team. He didn’t want to let him down.

When did it become a rule that all teenagers are rude and rebellious? Who decided that all teenagers are self-absorbed? The teenagers at Regents Academy high-five the little ones in the hall all of the time. Every day at lunch one of the little ones runs to one of our high schoolers and shares something important with him without fear of being rejected.

Field Day promotes these relationships. It is more than fun and games. Field Day is the day when those little ones get to spend the whole day with the big kids. And to one little boy, Field Day is the day he gets to spend with his hero.