News & Weekly Letters

I’m often asked where I find the inspiration to write a letter every Friday. Each week is a little different: sometimes I see something that triggers an idea, sometimes it’s a conversation with one of you, sometimes it’s an article I read or a podcast I listen to, and other times—like last week with the Substantial Equivalency Law—it’s a necessity dictated by current events at the school. This week, for a change, it’s a photo that got me thinking. And a photo of me to boot!

Sometimes, events that occur far from our own reality have a direct impact on us. For example, in 1895, the State of New York passed a Substantial Equivalency Law, with the stated aim of ensuring that independent and religious schools follow a curriculum more or less equivalent to what is expected in public schools, particularly where English and math are concerned. Private schools are free to teach religion, foreign languages, or other idiosyncrasies provided their students can demonstrate a solid foundation in these core subjects.

I hope everyone is back into the rhythm after the two-week break and is ready to tackle the final stretch of the school year. Upon returning from Taiwan where I spent a spring break full of joyful and emotional reunions, I noticed that some little elves had been at work at 111 dotting each piece of furniture with a sticker—green for what gets moved to the new building, yellow for what stays, and red for what won’t make the short trip and will be discarded or donated.

When it comes to describing the current state of the world, one word continuously resurfaces: uncertainty. This uncertainty destabilizes us because there’s nothing more reassuring than thinking we can predict what’s ahead. I imagine everyone deals with uncertainty differently – I, for one, am currently getting daily doses of rationalization from Philippe! As for me, I usually turn to philosophy for answers, not only to stave off panic but also to find inspiration—inspiration that I strive to put to work at The École to make sure we always stay on course no matter what the environment is. Here are a few examples that have helped me in the past.

While the greatest concern of heads of schools and all educators is ensuring that what we are doing today is sufficiently future-proofing our students, in my experience, the main concerns for parents are understanding where their children stand in terms of their education and seeking reassurance that their children are learning what they should be learning. Schools like ours that end at 8th Grade have a small toolkit available to demonstrate children’s achievements (or shortcomings!) to their parents: report cards, various test results, and concrete examples of work in notebooks—but even then, it can be difficult to understand what students are being measured against.