Paragon Prep

Dear Paragon Families,

This week I took the 6th graders on our yearly trip to a Buddhist Temple, Hindu Temple, and Sikh Gurdwara.

This trip was, as always, grounding and deeply meaningful. Each year I leave these visits feeling more connected to our students, to our shared humanity, and to the mission that drives our work at Paragon.

This year, two moments in particular brought everything full circle for me.

At the Chinmaya Mission Hindu temple, our guide spoke about the sacred relationship between teachers and students. He asked the students to imagine he had a bar of chocolate and he was going to share that them. He breaks it in half – what would that leave him with?

“Half of what you had,” they replied.

“And can I take the chocolate back if I want to?”. Vigorous nods from the students.

But, he reminded them, knowledge is different. Once knowledge is shared, it can never be taken back – it is the only thing that multiplies when given away. That, he explained, is why the pursuit of knowledge is so vital, and why teaching is considered sacred work.

I know our students sometimes feel the weight of the challenges we place before them, and like all humans, they can be tempted by shortcuts and distractions along the way. But in that moment and the temple, I saw a few students glance over to me with a new kind of understanding. A reminder that this hard work, this stretching of the mind, is what gives learning meaning.

Beyond academics, though, there is another goal we hold even more sacred at Paragon: the journey toward kindness. This was our third year being welcomed into the Sikh Gurdwara Singh Saba, where our students participated in a shortened service and shared langar – a meal that is served and shared as we sit on the floor, to remind us of the values of equality and caretaking.

This year, the priest included a small message that he had not before. Reading off a paper that he had obviously prepared before we arrived, he profusely thanked the whole group for coming to visit, explaining that it is the meeting of new people that leads to understanding – something, he said, our world is in desperate need of right now.

That message sits at the very heart of why we take these trips, why we teach world cultures, and why we do what we do at Paragon. Beyond the classroom, beyond any single field trip, we are working to help students grow into curious, thoughtful, and compassionate people ready to engage meaningfully with the world around them.

Thank you for entrusting us with that work; it truly is the honor of a lifetime.

Warmly,

Haley Behr

Assistant Principal