Our lives involve a series of many changes and particularly so in childhood as we manage our physical growth as well as maturing emotionally and mentally. With children, we often use the analogy of the butterfly to explain the process. In a recent assembly, I explained how butterflies can’t see their wings and how truly beautiful they are, but everyone else can. Earlier this term, the children in Transition enjoyed watching the life cycle of the butterfly as they observed caterpillars creating their cocoon before emerging with their wonderfully patterned wings. Although humans develop more subtly, the change process is nonetheless miraculous.

As Maya Angelou said: “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”