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SouthLake COVID Safety Measures for 2021-2022

Dear SouthLake Christian Academy Families,

As we prepare to begin school, you will find in your email inbox a document listing our safety measures for the coming year. The final page includes a document for you to sign and return to the school. I will summarize our plans here and respectfully ask you to read this email in total and reserve judgment until the end.

What Has Changed
Here are safety measures from last year we have relaxed. We will no longer do temperature checks as students enter buildings. Students may now observe 3 feet rather than 6 feet of space between their peers. We will no longer do chapel in individual classrooms but will return to group worship by division in large well-ventilated spaces. We will restart our STEM Lab for students in grades JK through 4. Students may now work in groups and share classroom supplies when needed. We will resume all Middle School and Upper School sports and our athletic association plans to allow spectators. Contact tracing guidelines now exempt vaccinated individuals from quarantine if they remain asymptomatic. Individuals who were masked when exposed to COVID may also avoid quarantine if their exposure was otherwise low risk. Parents will once again be able to volunteer on campus. We based all these changes on updated health guidance and our own operational experience, and each change will improve our ability to teach.

What Stays the Same, For Now
Here are safety measures we will keep in place for the time being. We will continue to provide online instruction for students when quarantine or documented health conditions necessitate. As last year, we may on occasion move to online instruction for a short time following major school holidays as a buffer for people returning to town. We will continue to wash hands and sanitize surfaces frequently. We will continue to use HVAC filters rated MERV-13 or higher. We will fully utilize our outdoor spaces for lunch, play, and instruction as often as logistics and weather permit. We will continue to open doors and windows wherever possible. And now I turn to the subject of masks.

We will start this fall as we finished last spring, with all students, staff, and campus visitors wearing masks when indoors and on buses. We will begin to relax this requirement as soon as conditions allow us to do so safely. There are a few exceptions to our mask policy. Vaccinated teachers may deliver lessons unmasked when at a distance, and then mask as they move closer to students. When engaged in strenuous aerobic activity indoors, students may remove their masks. Those with a documented medical condition making masks unsafe to wear may request an exemption from our policy with a written recommendation from their primary care physician. We will provide students with mask breaks as often as needed. Students may use their own CDC approved two-ply re-usable masks if they hook around the ears, fully cover the nose and chin, and visible markings on the mask conform with school dress-code standards. We will also provide one washable cotton/poly SouthLake mask for each student who has need. And now, I believe you deserve the following explanation.

Delta Variant
Based on the best data available to researchers right now, here’s what we know. The Delta COVID variant swept through India and Great Britain earlier this year and now represents more than 80% of new COVID cases in the United States. As compared to previous strains of COVID, Delta appears to be about 50% more contagious, particularly for unvaccinated children and adults under age 50. Delta makes unvaccinated people sicker, and symptoms develop more quickly, leading to rapidly deteriorating hospital capacity and likely a higher mortality rate. While vaccines greatly reduce the risk of serious illness from Delta, data suggests vaccinated people can still become infected with viral loads sufficient to make them contagious even when asymptomatic. While admittedly limited in scope, the data on Delta so far gives us reason for more caution than we had just a month ago.

Public Health Guidance
In late July, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services updated its guidance to public and private schools asking for universal masking indoors. The Centers for Disease Control recently recommended the same, as did the Mecklenburg County Department of Health. I regularly consult with SouthLake parents who are medical doctors who work on the front lines of this pandemic, and they recommend the same. The people who study the research most and understand the science best are now all speaking with one voice. Last year we listened to these voices and opened school, stayed open all year, and finished the year successfully. Why would we suddenly ignore these same voices now?

A Difficult Decision
I have toiled over this decision because I am painfully aware this announcement will be a relief to some but a disappointment to others. And honestly, I am disappointed too. My own daughter would love nothing more than to begin her senior year at SouthLake without a mask. But my job is not to make the popular or politically expedient decision. My job is to make the right decision. With more than half our student population ineligible for vaccines, and many in the SouthLake community immunocompromised, I am simply not willing to take unnecessary risks with their health while the Delta variant surges. What would we be saying to these members of our community if we disregard their safety for the sake of our comfort? And if I disregard all federal, state, regional, and local health guidance and things go sideways, would I not be guilty of gross negligence? Are government health agencies perfect? Of course not. I have on occasion taken issue with some of their guidance and the timing and manner of their communication. But I have no reason to believe social media pundits or cable news outlets provide me with better data. Maybe down the road our protocols will turn out to have been overly cautious. I can live with that. When it comes to the health and safety of our people, I will gladly err on the side of caution. That said, schools in our region opening mask optional have already faced significant outbreaks and had to change their requirements. We know from both research and experience that masks reduce risk and maximize our chances of keeping our doors open every day this school year.

School-Wide Zoom Meeting
I know some will disagree with what I’ve communicated here. Fair enough. Every SouthLake parent has a voice, even if not a vote. But before you respond, I make this request. We will host a panel discussion with three of our school doctors on Zoom this Sunday afternoon, August 8, at 2:30 p.m. You will find the Zoom information in the email I sent, and we will record the session for those unable to attend. You may submit questions either in advance or in real time to slcaquestions@gmail.com and we will answer as many as time allows. If you view Sunday’s conversation and still have concerns, I will carefully consider all respectful dissent.

Conclusion
Right now, I know masking feels like an imposition. Some believe mask requirements cause division, but doing otherwise runs the same risk. The truth is this – nothing can divide us without our permission. Some believe masks are a matter of personal liberty. I view the matter differently. As a trained theologian, I see far more in Scripture and Christian tradition about communal responsibility. For a Christian school, the obligation to love our neighbor supersedes other concerns. Indeed, Jesus calls love for one’s neighbor one of the greatest commandments. Caring for those around us does not restrict our freedom; doing so is the only path to true freedom.

Matthew S. Kerlin, Ph.D.
Head of School
SouthLake Christian Academy

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Thank you SouthLake Christian Academy

We made it. We completed a full semester of in-person classes, five days a week for all students in all grades. In previous years, such an accomplishment would hardly be noteworthy. This year, it feels like a monumental achievement. I will confess to a few sleepless nights this past summer considering our options. We had to weigh the risk of certain harm to many by keeping students online, against the risk of possible harm to a few by returning to in-person classes. That decision was the most difficult of my professional life. In the end, we decided to support both in-person and online classes. I won’t bore you with the details of what it took to prepare, but I will tell you the preparation was worth every cent and every second. A doctor whose children attend SouthLake said to me in July, “If any school can pull this off, SouthLake can.” In retrospect, he was exactly right. We are by no means out of the woods, but as this semester ends, there are a few people I need to thank for our success so far.

First, I want to thank our teachers. They bore the most substantial risks. Would students in their classes give them COVID? Would our safety measures really work? Would students and their families cooperate? They faced this semester with uncomfortable unknowns and re-entered our classrooms when many teachers across the country refused to do so. They were careful, but they were not hesitant. They did not complain about all the many changes we had to implement to make this work. They taught students in person and online simultaneously, which is incredibly difficult. Some got sick or had to quarantine yet still taught remotely from their homes by Zooming into their classrooms on campus. I’ve said it before, and I’ll repeat it here: our teachers are unsung heroes of this global pandemic.

Second, I want to thank our business team. This year they’ve had to make 10,000 complicated decisions in conditions of remarkable uncertainty. From CARES Act legislation to emergency financial aid disbursement to quarantine payroll tax adjustments, nothing this year was normal and nothing was easy. Both our CFO and our Senior Accounting Clerk are highly trained and experienced CPAs who care deeply about our families and never forget about the people behind the numbers. Without them, we’d never have finished 2020 with our current financial stability.

Finally, I want to thank our SouthLake families. You overwhelmingly supported our desire to return to in-person instruction and our plan to do so safely. You trusted us, cooperated with us, rolled with the changes, stayed flexible, kept us informed, and did your best to keep our students and teachers as safe as possible. You followed our protocols when your students had to be quarantined. You attended school meetings and parent-teacher conferences on Zoom. You were patient with tropical storms, power outages, early dismissals, and the accompanying carline delays that followed. And to top it off, you gave generously to the teachers’ Christmas fund.

I have never been prouder to be associated with SouthLake Christian Academy. By God’s grace and providence, we end 2020 as a stronger school than when the year started. May God give you and your family a blessed Christmas and New Year.

Sincerely,

Matthew S. Kerlin, Head of School

SouthLake Christian Academy

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Leadership During a Crisis

Last week I had the opportunity to participate in a Zoom meeting with the president of Samford University Dr. Westmoreland on the topic of leadership. He gave seven principles for managing through a crisis:

  1. Take a deep breath. Pause, reflect, relax, and think before you act. Even a few seconds of deep breaths can calm and center your thoughts leading to better decisions.
  2. Establish priorities. Crises require triage to be sure the important things get done and in the right order.
  3. Filter the clutter. Separate the speculative from the informative. Facts are your friends in an emergency.
  4. Take care of your people and yourself. Set limits on your work, a curfew for your emails, establish boundaries, and get needed rest.
  5. Guard your cash. This applies personally and professionally. In an economic crisis, limit spending to the absolutely necessary.
  6. Don’t quit. Even when your reserves are low, your mood depressed, you hope nearly shot, and your nerves frayed, keep going.
  7. Begin and end each day with Colossians 1:17. “He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.” Connect with your faith and operate with the knowledge that many things are beyond your control or ability to repair.

Were I to add an 8th principle, I would include Matthew 5:3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” To be poor in spirit is to have our hearts broken by the things that break God’s heart. To hold loosely the material things of this world in recognition that from dust we come and to dust we will return. To recognize our limitations, weaknesses, and failures. To acknowledge our need for help. To admit when we are wrong and ask for forgiveness. To be humble enough to recognize our complete dependence on God, and thereby strong enough to lead and act with wisdom, compassion, and justice.

Juggling the twin crises of coronavirus and racial violence, I suspect that the easiest parts of both are behind us. When camaraderie fades into frustration and solidarity slips into selfishness the complexities of leadership will multiply. May God give us the wisdom and strength to lead with poverty of spirit and perseverance.

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My Experience with Learning Disabilities

My life’s work has been in education, but I am also the father of three. All of my children are remarkably intelligent, but our family typically thinks of Kate as the smartest. When Kate was three years old, she learned how to play a matching game that involved placing cards face down in columns and flipping them over, two per turn, until you make a match. The person with the most matched pairs wins. To this day, nobody in our family has ever beaten Kate. We thought for a while she had figured out a way to cheat, until we learned she has a near photographic memory for shapes, faces, events, and places we have visited. I taught her to play chess when she was five years old. She played for a few weeks and then lost interest. She picked up the game again nearly six years later, and to my surprise still remembered the rules. When it came to children’s books, Kate memorized all her favorites. She knew when I tried to alter the story or skip a page. She could recite the story to me if I let her, and she knew from the pictures when to turn the page long before she could actually read.

In third grade we began to sense something was wrong. Kate did poorly on reading quizzes. She started to lag behind her classmates on standardized tests. She was barely reading at grade level while many of her friends were reading two or three grades above it, as her two older siblings had. At parent-teacher conferences we expressed concern, but Kate was our third child and by then we were more relaxed as parents. Kate was the kind of kid teachers loved – obedient, quiet, respectful, cooperative, and liked by her peers. Teachers told us not to worry, and we followed their advice. In fourth grade, the trend continued with low standardized test scores, reading comprehension problems, alternatively good and then terrible grades, depending on the kind of assignment or the style of test she took. As picture books gave way to chapter books Kate’s love for reading evaporated. It was a chore to get her to complete book assignments and she often seemed to daydream when she was supposed to be reading. The school had a special program for students with reading difficulties. She entered and then completed that program, but we noticed no improvements. We hired a reading specialist who worked with Kate two afternoons a week for about four months, after which the teacher told us everything seemed normal and Kate was just “a laid-back kid,” which I suspected was code for a student who is not motivated. Her fourth-grade teacher was the first, but not the last, to suggest Kate might suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder. I had never noticed any attention deficit in Kate except when she was supposed to be reading, and neither had anyone else. While the suggestion seemed implausible, I had no alternative explanation.

One day around this time Kate was trying to read a schoolbook to my dad, who himself cannot read out loud with any fluency because of his own learning disabilities. My dad noticed that Kate tended to skip articles and prepositions and could not sound out words she did not know. These are all things I knew about Kate, but my dad commented that he did the same things still. I was familiar with my dad’s story. He did terribly in school and was told by his high-school counselor that he “wasn’t college material.” My dad graduated with a biology degree from the University of Georgia and went on to have a brilliant career in the energy business, teaching safety and environmental responsibility to multi-national companies drilling for oil offshore around the world. Incongruously, I have distinct memories of standing next to my dad in church as he tried to sing from the hymnal. He mixed up the words and lines of the hymns so badly it became something of a family joke. It never occurred to me to ask why a highly intelligent and accomplished biologist, businessman, and environmental advocate did so badly in school, could not sing from a hymnal, and had read fewer than a dozen books in his life. But when my dad saw himself in my daughter, I began to suspect that something more complex was going on with my daughter’s ability to process language. We talked to our pediatrician and at his recommendation visited a developmental psychologist who tested Kate for a variety of learning disabilities. He determined that she had an IQ of 125 and in his opinion, she exhibited no language processing deficits because, in his words, “she didn’t invert letters or numbers with any consistency,” as if this were the primary indicator of a language processing disability. His determination was that Kate was “possibly” suffering from Attention Deficit Disorder and he suggested medication.

We accepted the psychologist’s diagnosis and tried several different brands and dosages of ADD medication over a period of months. The stimulant effect kept her awake at night, suppressed her appetite, and made her moody and aggressive. We would have been willing to tolerate those side effects, except for the fact the medication had no impact whatsoever on her academic performance. Parent-teacher conferences were again predictable. “Kate is such a sweet child, she just needs to work harder on reading and try not to daydream so much.” She continued to struggle with any assignment that had to do with reading. She was great at math as long as there were no word problems, which she hated with a passion. She was also great at spelling when the tests involved recalling a simple sequence of letters, but when assignments involved more complex skills like differentiating homonyms, Kate was completely lost. She fell further and further behind her peers on standardized tests, but still finished the year with good grades, much to her disservice.

A few weeks into the sixth grade, Kate was failing every subject except math. Adding insult to injury, we received the results of two different standardized tests showing her in the bottom 25% nationally in multiple areas of academic progress. Something just did not add up, so my wife finally got serious about finding answers. By way of a network of contacts, we found a speech and language pathologist who conducted hours of extensive and expensive testing. We learned that Kate had some unusual gifts: her working memory was in the 95th percentile; cognitive problem-solving skills in the 98th percentile; IQ in the 98th percentile. The IQ test was non-verbal and the tester showed me some of the problems and asked me to solve them. It took me several minutes to solve problems my daughter solved in just a few seconds. When the tester asked Kate to explain to me how she came up with the correct answers, I realized that her brain was working on an entirely different level than mine. And yet at the same time, the tests showed the source of Kate’s struggle: language comprehension 23rd percentile; phonetic decoding efficiency 23rd percentile; reading accuracy 5th percentile; reading fluency 9th percentile; reading comprehension 5th percentile. I learned that this remarkable combination of unusual gifts and striking deficits is typically called dyslexia. For ten years our public school system missed it. Skilled teachers, reading experts, and tutors missed it. Pediatricians and a developmental psychologist missed it. Kate’s own highly educated parents missed it. We felt horribly guilty about all the times we had written off her problems as insignificant, simply told her to work harder, coerced her to read more and more, and given her meds she did not need.

We learned that dyslexia, now commonly called Developmental Reading Disorder, is an inefficiency in the way the brain processes language that expresses itself in dozens of ways, including an age delay in speaking, difficulties with pronunciation, struggles connecting letters to the sounds they make, problems sounding out words, struggles expressing one’s thoughts in writing, spelling problems, speech that is not fluent, pausing or hesitating often when speaking, or difficulty finding the correct word to express a thought. Many of these inefficiencies show up most clearly when one is reading. Speaking comes naturally and is learned on an unconscious level. Babies learn to speak instinctually. Biologists suggest that speaking is a very ancient skill, built into our evolutionary inheritance, perhaps millions of years ago. Our brains handle speaking rather easily and efficiently. Reading, however, is a much more complex task and must be learned consciously and methodically. Anyone who has ever tried to teach a child to read knows that it takes time, patience, practice, and very specialized skills that take years to develop fully. In most people, the neural pathways utilized for reading develop efficiencies over time that allow us to hear, recognize, and make sense of words on a page with increasing speed. For the dyslexic, however, the pathways used for reading are far more complex, and therefore less efficient, like driving from one city to another on backcountry roads, slowly taking the scenic route. Sure, you take in the sights and sounds of the countryside one traffic light at a time, but it takes much longer to reach your destination. When you get there, you may very well be better for it, unless of course you are being timed and graded on how fast you get there.

Examining the brain of a normal person using an fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), you will see a few areas of the brain modestly at work during reading tasks. By contrast, if you examine a dyslexic reader’s brain in an fMRI, you’ll see multiple areas of the  brain lit up and working at cognitive load capacity. This is why dyslexics find reading arduous and why they take frequent breaks while reading. The brain is working overtime to find meaning in the words. Students with reading differences develop skills rather unconsciously to cope with the inefficiency. They learn to memorize things very quickly and to solve problems spatially, mathematically, and non-verbally. And sometimes they learn to smile, cooperate, act respectfully, and fool their teachers for years to get good grades. Our speech pathologist calls Kate’s learning difference “Stealth Dyslexia” – a condition characterized by highly developed coping mechanisms that mask significant deficits and make diagnosis extremely difficult. She tried to comfort us by listing all of the famous people, artists, inventors, entrepreneurs, and movie starts with dyslexia. None of this made me feel a bit better. The truth is, I missed it. Wanting to believe she was ok, I ignored obvious signs when I could have helped her sooner.

After diagnosis, my daughter began to get the help she needed. She got an education plan that granted her testing, homework, and note-taking accommodations at school. She was given extended time to take tests. She saw a tutor twice a week (at considerable expense) who was a Certified Educational Therapist specializing in the Orton-Gillingham approach to reading instruction. When we relocated to North Carolina, Kate began to meet twice weekly with a National Institute of Learning Disabilities (NILD) certified teacher in our school’s Academic Development Center. She now receives the instruction and accommodations she needs to learn effectively. She has a support system in place we would never have dreamed possible in her earlier years of school. Kate is now on a better road to success, one that recognizes her gifts and gives her a chance to thrive in spite of her reading inefficiencies. But truthfully, earlier diagnosis would have been much better. A dyslexia diagnosis can be made as early as age six and there are warning signs that appear earlier. Outcomes are better the earlier the intervention. I am blessed now to have resources to get Kate help. But what about other children in other schools who lack the knowledge, networks, and know-how to get help? By some estimates, nearly 20% of children worldwide suffer from dyslexia. In prison populations, that number soars to an estimated 48%.

As an educator, I am blessed to see teachers touch lives every day in ways our society will never adequately value. I am grateful for them beyond words. They have difficult jobs, and honestly, students with learning differences make their jobs even more challenging. Compounding the difficulty, generations of teachers have received inadequate instruction in the area of learning differences. University education programs typically devote little time to the subject, and as a result, most classroom teachers report feeling unprepared to help students with even moderate language processing deficits. Robust diagnostic resources remain difficult to access in much of the country so many students still go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. With reported high rates of dyslexia in the prison population, one cannot help wonder what role learning disabilities play in the so-called school to prison pipeline. We must do more to prepare and equip teachers to recognize learning disabilities. We must provide families with resources needed to get specialized help. And we must never overlook the unique contribution neuro-atypical students make to our learning communities. My daughter is a daily reminder to me that remarkable talents accompany the challenges of dyslexia.

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SouthLake Christian Academy – School Highlights 2018-2019

The Class of 2019:

  • 53 students graduated from SouthLake this past May
  • 7 graduates will play a sport at the collegiate level, including baseball, football, soccer, lacrosse, and volleyball.
  • 68% of graduates earned scholarship monies, collectively totaling more than $3.6
  • million in awards for academics, athletics, arts, leadership, and commitments to their communities.
  • SouthLake graduates were accepted to 86 different colleges and universities and will be attending 29 different schools in 10 states, as far north as Pennsylvania, as far south as Florida, and as far west as Texas.
  • For the first time in many years, more of our graduates will be attending school out-of state than in-state.
  • 16 graduates started SouthLake in kindergarten or earlier and maintained continuous enrollment through graduation. They affectionately refer to themselves as “lifers” and they have been on a journey together that will forever shape their lives.

Athletics:

  • 80% of Middle School and High School students play a team sport at SouthLake Christian
  • SouthLake competes in the Metrolina Athletic Conference (MAC)
  • Varsity volleyball won the MAC regular season and tournament conference championships
  • Varsity football sought to defend their state championship, reaching the state semifinals
  • Varsity girls’ tennis won the MAC championship
  • Combined girls/boys swim team scored first place in MAC swim championships
  • Varsity boys’ lacrosse repeated as state champions in Division II
  • Five student athletes received All State recognition
  • Two student athletes qualified for the state golf championships
  • Varsity baseball powered to a 14-win season
  • SouthLake Christian won the 2018-19 MAC Sportsmanship Award

Fine Arts Presentations:

  • Christmas at SouthLake – concerts and art display (December 2018)
  • Choir Candlelight Christmas Evenings at the Biltmore (December 2018)
  • Shrek, the Musical – theatre performance, over 1700 tickets sold (February 2019)
  • Lower and Middle School Art Show (April 2019)
  • Lower School Spring Art Extravaganza (April 2019)
  • A Celebration of the Arts – Middle and Upper School music and art show (May 2019)
  • ACSI Festival: High School choir – Superior, Middle School Choir, Concert Band, and Orchestra – Excellent (Spring 2019)
  • Additions to Fine Arts Curriculum & Course Offerings:
    • Chapel Band/Worship Studies was added as course offering.
    • Middle school and High School students may participate in Chapel Band.
    • Theatre is now taught year-round by a new theatre teacher.

Financial Position:

  • $7.5 million in net revenue ($8.7 gross)
  • $6.7 million in net tuition revenue ($7.9 gross)
  • $6.8 million in debt (financed at 5.25%, 5-year term, 25-year amortization)
  • SLCA awards 1.2 million annually in employee discounts and financial aid
  • Expenses:
    • $5m (68%) to salary, benefits, payroll taxes
    • $830k (11%) to facilities
    • $378 (5%) to administrative costs
    • $1.2m (16%) instructional costs
  • 2018-2019 enrollment was 575
  • Donations:
    • $150k cash donations to school ($260 per student on average)
    • $37k donations in kind for athletics (dirt, flagpole, water, lacrosse wall)
    • $23k donations from teachers to classrooms ($360 per teacher on average)
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An Open Birthday Letter to My Dad

Dear Dad,

For your birthday, I wanted to write you this letter to thank you publicly for being a great dad. You did all of the things that dads should do. You played with me in the yard, took me hunting and fishing, taught me how to train a dog, coached my baseball teams, paid for my piano lessons, and attended endless band concerts. You took me to church, taught me about Jesus, gave me relationship advice when I needed it, and helped me choose a college. And you did these things while loving my mom, caring for my critically ill brother, taking care of your own aging parents, and earning a living in noble professions that helped protect lives and the environment. And to top it off, you were the best man in my wedding, traveled from around the world to see your newborn grandkids, helped us buy our first house, and passed down old cars for us to drive. I don’t say thank you enough for all of these things.

Of course you weren’t perfect. Your haircuts were sometimes a bit shorter than I’d hoped, like the infamous time that you gave me a buzz cut but forgot to attach the guard to the clippers. That was the first time that I ever saw my bare scalp, but it was kinda fun to see my grandmother cry when she saw the aftermath. Oh, and remember the times you tried to teach me about auto maintenance? My cluelessness once got you so flustered that you added fresh oil to the truck without putting the oil plug back in. And then there was the time that we got lost in Washington D.C. on family vacation. There may or may not have been some significant profanity involved after we passed the US Mint for the third time trying to find our hotel.

And while I’m thinking about it, let me just go ahead and apologize for always putting my feet under your seat. Now that I’m a dad, I know just how irritating that is. [Apparently I inherited your sensitive rear end.] I also remember that when we were kids you used to say that you wished we obeyed you as well as our Labrador retrievers did. I always thought that was a joke. Now I have three kids and a Labrador Retriever of my own and I realize that you were actually serious, and I have to agree with you. And let me add that I’m rather disappointed that it’s now illegal to transport children and pets in the back of a pickup truck with a camper top. Sadly, my own children will never know the joys of laying on a mattress covered with dog slobber in the back of an old Ford on a 8 hour trip to see the grandparents.

These memories will stick with me until my dying day. I am thankful for them as I am thankful for you. You’ve said many times that when you became a dad you knew nothing about parenting, and that I turned out OK only by the grace of God. To that I would add one thing: you were there for us. You were a constant and consistent presence in my life. You were home in the evenings and on weekends. You spent quantity and quality time with us. You never tried to make up for lost time because you never needed to do so. I don’t know much about parenting, but one lesson I learned from you and mom stands out above the rest – time covers a multitude of sins. Of all the things I have to thank you for on your birthday, I thank you for your time.

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