Dear Families,
Below you will find the weekly message that I wrote yesterday afternoon to be sent today. When I woke this morning and, with increasing level of detail, read about yesterday’s school shooting tragedy, I added these few thoughts.
I am sure that the shooting is being discussed in classes today, especially by the older students (MS and HS). Our teachers, unfortunately, have had ample opportunity to develop the skills and habits to allow them to address these sorts of events quite expertly. There have, according to some reports, been 18 school shootings already this year. We will continue to provide opportunities for the students and teachers to process these events, at times in the immediate aftermath and, at times, in quieter moments.
We will continue to practice and adjust our lockdown procedures and will alert you in advance of all drills, as is our practice.
For those who want some support in speaking with their children about this tragedy, this is a good resource.
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Dear LREI Community,
I hope that this note finds you well as we head into the Presidents’ Day Weekend. When I was a kid, my school did not have a Presidents’ Day holiday, we had a day off for Lincoln’s birthday (this past Monday) and the next Monday off for Washington’s birthday. To be honest, the only reason I thought of this is that in NYC, as you know, we celebrate our first and sixteenth presidents’ birthdays by cancelling alternate side of the street parking, which is a great birthday gift for many of us. This got me to thinking about how we decide what and who to commemorate, what to observe, who we ignore. So, for example, Presidents’ Day makes sense to me, celebrating all of the men (hopefully someday men and women) who have led our nation. (If you are interested in Presidential history, I encourage you to listen to the “Presidential” podcast. It is a couple years old, but fascinating if you like things historical.) If we celebrate the leaders, maybe a “Citizen’s Day” or a “Democracy Day”? Maybe Election Day should be a holiday on which we honor and champion our democracy and the involvement of the citizenry, as we all head off to the polls?
We have Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day, so, my sons often ask, why isn’t there a Children’s Day? My snarky response is usually that “every day is children’s day.” We know, however, that this is not true. That many children, here and around the world, are not celebrated nor cared for by their homelands. They might be hungry, lack access to education or health care or be put in harm’s way, as we saw yesterday in Florida, where common sense gun control, at the very least, might have saved more than a dozen lives.
So while you celebrate Presidents’ Day with a day of rest, a longer time away, a sale…take a moment to honor those who have led our nation, and to think about what holiday you would create. Who has earned, who or what deserves, a national day of honor? I would love to hear your suggestions.
Finally, thank you to the members of the Parents Association Faculty/Staff Appreciation Committee for organizing this week’s good cheer and delicious treats and to all of the families that provided them. Thank you all for your partnership, always, as we know that our work together, on your children’s behalf, is an essential component of LREI’s success.
All the best for this midwinter break,
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“There is nothing which can better deserve our patronage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness.”
― George Washington
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“A primary object should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? And what duty more pressing than communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country?”
― George Washington
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“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
― Abraham Lincoln, from his second inaugural address.