"It Takes A Village To Raise A Child" - Hilary Clinton

                 When I first heard of this saying in one of Hillary Clinton speeches, also used as the title of one of her books, I could not quite understand nor relate to it. Born and raised in the United States where nuclear families are predominant, it was rather difficult for me to grasp the numerous benefits children could gain when brought up in an environment where there is good support system, not only at home but, in the whole community to help shape, build, and mold a child character and personality.

                  What is a village? To get a better understanding of the statement, one needs to take a closer look at the structure or organization of a traditional African Village.

                   That community typically evolves around the family no matter how big it is. It was not unusual to see a village where everyone carries the same last name. Mainly because it was a huge extended family. They needed to work together to support each other socially, economically, and emotionally. The same way the men worked in the field to bring food home, the same way the ladies stayed behind to take care of all the children in the neighborhood as their own.

                  Basically, the term “it takes a village to raise a child” means it takes a cooperative effort in the upbringing of the child. That responsibility is shared with the extended family, grandparents, older siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Even the wider community such as neighbors and friends get involved . The level of involvement was such that, the neighbor could catch a child misbehaving and inflict some corporal punishment if needed. With this kind of watchful eye the child feels safe and secure, and also grows up to be a good citizen in the community.

                  We may not be living in a traditional African village setting but, that saying rings true for our school theme this year. “You, Me, Community.” We all know how essential and vital it is to live in an environment where one feels safe and secure in order to learn, grow, and mature. One can argue that school is a place to get knowledge that can be only useful for our own career but, it is also a place where we spend most of our waken hours. In a sense this is our extended family. Our school is that African Village where we care for and support each other to succeed from every perspective under the watchful eye of our dedicated and caring faculty.

                  The support system that we have at AISR really shined through when our Junior Varsity team lost to King Faisal a few weeks ago. The Varsity team of our school was there to cheer us on along with Mr. Hodgkiss and our coach Mr. Trimm. Of couse after the game we all looked like we just received a flogging from some muttawas, but the Varsity acted like big brothers, proudly declaring that they will avenge us and they actually succeeded because they knew that the set up of our match was not fair. The amount of good advise and tips we received from the coaches and our fellow Varsity team players during our subsequent practice is only second to the wisdom of village leaders and brilliantly drove Hillary Clinton's point home.

You, Me, Community