News & Weekly Letters

Last night, we celebrated the imminent end of this school year between colleagues. The staff party was the crowning moment in a particularly joyful week that saw our talented students take center stage once again. It was also an opportunity for The École team 2021-2022 team to get together one last time. The 2022-2023 version will look pretty different in September; several colleagues are leaving us for new adventures and challenges elsewhere. I am certain they will be dearly missed by colleagues, students, and families. I’ve gone through similar moments several times in my career and I know how difficult it can be on a personal and professional level to make the decision to leave.

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).