60 Years of Actions Not Words

By Sister Connie Craig
Society of the Holy Child Jesus

The Sisters of the Holy Child first arrived in the northwest DC area in 1954. They came to staff Annunciation, a newly opening parish school. For many years, they worked at Annunciation with the assistance of four lay teachers, always with an eye to finding a place for their own high school.

That place was ultimately found in Potomac, with two adjoining houses. One house became a convent for the nuns.
A smaller one became a library and a couple of classrooms. The original school was completed and ready to open when the first class entered. It contained five classrooms, a science lab, and a cafeteria. There was no gym, but rather a field with high grass and a basketball court. Gym, as it was then called, was basketball every day. When it was too cold outside, they would lay gym mats on the bottom floor of the house and the students would do somersaults.

Sixteen girls entered (of which thirteen graduated) and these were the ones who began the traditions. There were class plays, Carol Night, and Prophesies and Predictions in a formal ceremony at the end of the year. On Carol Night, the girls started at the end of the driveway and walked up to the convent singing carols. The nuns were waiting, standing on their upper deck. As the girls sang, the nuns threw pennies. They all joined together in the convent for   eggnog and cookies.

All students arrived at school in perfect uniform, wearing a bolero jacket. Upon reaching their lockers, they took off the bolero jacket and put on a brown sweater, which they wore through the day. At dismissal, it was back to the locker to return the brown sweater and wear the bolero home.

There are many stories of those early years. We marvel at the sixteen girls who entered a brand new school. They really were important in establishing the future traditions of the school. We are grateful for their risk and their contributions in forming the early traditions of Holy Child.