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I am writing to you earlier than usual this week as once again we find ourselves facing our worst nightmare. 21 dead in an elementary school. 19 10-year-olds,—all in 4th grade—and 2 adults. We will be asked to discuss the tragedy with our students. We will answer that call. We will try to explain the unexplainable and we will try to make sense of the senseless. With all the strength we have left, we will comfort and reassure. We will—it is our job—draw lessons. What are they?

Who could have guessed that a couple of transatlantic flights and three days with 500+ colleagues in a windowless auditorium were the ideal ingredients for catching COVID?  Everyone, you answer? After managing to avoid getting sick for more than two years, I had begun to flirt with the notion that I was invincible—that a genetic mutation made me resistant to every wave and variant. Needless to say, I was very, very wrong—I’ve been knocked out by the virus for almost a week now.

Rumor has it that I went to Marrakech last week to catch some rays, leaving the rest of you here in the rain and cold of this endless New York winter. The rumors are greatly exaggerated! As I mentioned last Friday, I went to my first conference in more than two years, to meet my colleagues from the MLF, which is celebrating its 120th anniversary this year. More than 500 of us came together at the International University of Rabat, where there were 30+ seminars and 40+ workshops on the agenda, all centered on the theme “The World Afterward.”

The definite article might lead one to believe that The École stands alone (we are pretty unique after all) whereas we are, in fact, a member of several educational networks. Today, I would like to talk to you about two of them: the AEFE (Agency for French Education Abroad) and the MLF (French Non-Denominational Mission).

Because I had to stay at home almost all week to avoid spreading a virus that I ended up not catching, the timing struck me as felicitous to talk to you today about a project we are putting in place next year that is very close to my heart. It’s got nothing to do with COVID but plenty to do with homes or more specifically houses. We are introducing a house system, which, let me reassure you, does not mean that I’ll be working from home from now on or that the children will be following classes from home either!