I imagine I’m not the only one whose use of AI has become a daily habit. Recently, for example, I uploaded all my weekly letters from 2025–2026 to Notebook LLM, a tool we hope our middle schoolers will soon embrace, and asked it to identify my biases and my obsessions: what I talk about all the time and what I rarely mention. As you might expect, I had the results within a fraction of a second: AI finds that I portray our school as a community, have a knack for transforming difficulties into opportunities, praise the educational excellence of The École, and, I quote, “display immense and explicit admiration for the school’s benefactors, Philippe and Laurence.”
On the other hand, among my shortcomings, AI chides me for neglecting the American side of our bilingual program, which I tend to discuss (again, I quote) “through the lens of test scores rather than as a central cultural pillar of the school’s identity.” Touché. The reproach immediately reminded me of this scene and a man so ignorant and disrespectful of the culture of the country he happens to be in (Egypt, in his case) that he doesn’t realize that being told he is very French isn’t meant as a compliment. So am I very French? Too French? And is The École too French with me?
This very serious question echoes conversations I am currently having with colleagues and some families. In this context, the announcement of Sara Weintraub’s departure, after all she did to shape our American program into what it is today—ultimately becoming its face and voice—hasn’t reassured those concerned that we are becoming overly French. As I mentioned, we are not recruiting a role-for-role replacement for Sara; instead, I am working on a framework with our American team that will foster collective effectiveness and professional growth, enabling our colleagues to have a broader impact.
There is no doubt that we have a truly French bias via our accrediting organizations (the AEFE and MLF), both of which court Sophie and me extensively. The accreditation visit in December—whose results we expect to receive sometime in July—was precisely the kind of exercise in which the primary measure of success was demonstrating how closely we align with the expectations of the French Ministry of Education. It may, therefore, be worthwhile in the future to identify an American accreditation body that would allow us to better showcase that side of our identity.
As I wrote last year (but didn’t upload to Notebook LLM!), I firmly believe in The École’s dual identity. It is something that motivates me every day, and the idea of working in a school that is solely French holds absolutely no interest for me. Nonetheless, I understand that my actions, my decisions, indeed the very words I write—or fail to write—may sometimes suggest otherwise. For that reason, I am delighted that Emily O’Hanlon will be joining us as Middle School Principal in September; her arrival will bring greater balance to the French and American voices on our academic leadership team.
Now that I’ve been made aware of my bias, an entirely new and fascinating area of reflection has opened up for me. I would be very interested in hearing your thoughts on the subject so that I can continue to do better and continue presenting The École in the best possible bilingual and bicultural light.