School portraits / A school-supply pickup · September 2020
Sidwell has supplied the rock
A September supply pickup offers equipment parents did not have to hunt down.
Every September, school supply lists make very specific demands on household patience. Parents are routinely dispatched for blunt scissors, twenty-four washable glue sticks, and folders with prongs that defy human thumbs. Usually, if an assignment requires a rock, you are expected to hunt one down in the yard, wondering where your child put all the pebbles they smuggled home in their pockets all spring.
In September 2020, Sidwell Friends spared Lower School families the search. At supply pickup, each student was handed a candle, a packet of seeds, and an actual stone.
The kit supported remote Meeting for Worship, the Quaker practice of gathering in silent reflection. Parent organizers Noreen Muhib and Melissa Merideth hoped to help children feel connected rather than isolated. Muhib’s family had previously tried the couch, bed, and floor without finding a dedicated space; sending identical items was meant to give children a recognizable spot on their tables.
Beside a laptop, a stone has the singular grace of requiring no Wi-Fi. It simply sits where it is placed, heavy and patient, entirely indifferent to whether the morning is going according to plan.
As Muhib noted, being told to find the items would have meant one more chore. Handing them over took a task off a parent’s plate—leaving families with three quiet objects, and one fewer errand.