We didn’t talk about our privilege, but there were signs; our first minivan had a cassette player and a CD player. We even splurged for the button that opened the way back windows from the diver’s seat. That van literally died in the dealer’s lot as I tried to trade it in with 278,000 miles on it. In it’s early years, the van’s CD player rarely held anything other than the Elmopalooza CD. Not Springsteen. Not The Beatles. Not carefully curated grown-up playlists. Elmopalooza. Over and over and over again.
And the funny thing is, somewhere along the way, the kids would get dropped off at school or practice… and we would just leave it on. There we were, two adults driving down the road listening to Oscar the Grouch and Steven Tyler singing “I Love Trash.” (Although my personal favorite was “The Zig Zag Dance” by the Mighty Mighty Bossstones.)
At the time, those moments felt ordinary. Maybe even exhausting in the way family life sometimes can be — sticky cupholders, spilled goldfish crackers, endless car rides, repeated songs, and voices from the backseat asking questions before you’ve finished answering the last one. But recently, while driving together, singing, “I love trash…” and without missing a beat, the other joined in. Suddenly we weren’t just in the car anymore. We were back in those years.
And it hit us how deeply important those small moments really were.
Families are built in repetition. Bedtime stories read for the hundredth time. The same songs on long drives. Traditions repeated so often they almost become invisible while they’re happening. And yet those repetitions are the very things that shape us. They build belonging. Memory. Character. Love.
At Crossroads Academy, we believe deeply in the power of repetition too. Not repetitive busywork, but meaningful repetition — the kind that slowly weaves itself into a child’s identity.
Every year, Third Grade sings the Rome song, Second Grade performs the water cycle song, and Fourth Grade returns to Robin Hood. So many more traditions, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, and The Odyssey, Robert Frost. At first glance, these traditions might seem like charming school rituals or creative academic exercises. But they are much more than that.
When K-8 students revisit stories, songs, performances, and shared experiences year after year, they are not merely memorizing content. They are building confidence. Perseverance. Collaboration. Courage. Humor. Empathy. Respect for tradition. Joy in community.
A younger student watches an older student perform Shakespeare and quietly begins imagining themselves doing it one day too. A hesitant child sings a song for the first time and then, years later, sings it loudly from memory. A student learns that mastery and comfort do not arrive instantly — they are earned through practice, patience, and showing up again and again.
That is character education.
The Core Virtues are not built in a single assembly or one perfect lesson. They are built slowly, steadily, through repetition and shared experiences over time. Through songs sung together. Plays rehearsed together. Mistakes made together. Traditions carried forward together.
And years from now, long after our students leave Crossroads, I suspect many of them will hear a line from Shakespeare, or catch themselves humming the Qater Cycle Song, or laughing about Robin Hood, and suddenly they’ll be transported back here — to classmates, teachers, friendships, and the feeling of belonging to something good.
That’s the beautiful thing about repetition. What feels ordinary in the moment often becomes sacred in memory. Even a song about trash.
