Headmaster's Thoughts: Looking Ahead
Dear Members of the York Prep Community,
This letter is for all of our members; parents, students, and faculty, because we really are all in this together. Every day brings stresses and challenges. For parents, there may be a conflict between education and the family relationship. I hope not, but one would have to be naïve to imagine that in a confined family situation, tensions will not appear. I pray that both can be put into perspective. At the end of the day, family is the most important relationship. We hope that we can help all of our families get through this pandemic with mutual appreciation and learning.
I am very grateful to the many parents who filled in our survey. Your overwhelmingly positive comments brought such satisfaction and pride to our faculty. The administration, particularly the Deans and myself, will endeavor to telephone every family in the coming weeks to see how things are going. We cannot over-communicate during this stressful time.
We are already wondering about the future. It looks highly unlikely that we will be able to return before the end of the school year. How great that would be, but the reality is that it is very improbable. So we are currently planning to teach until the very last day of school. We will not have “exams” in the old sense, but the grade for the quarter will be drawn from the work your child does until school ends. And the teachers will be compassionate and generous in their grading, knowing that learning in the circumstances that we currently have is not the same as that of a vibrant classroom.
We are going to offer optional fun courses online for the last three weeks of June. These will be free and hopefully of interest to your child and bring some structure to the families who want to join in. Our teachers will teach subjects that will not be the classic ones taught during the year, but more fun ones, that parents are welcome to participate in. I am thinking of such things as yoga and mindfulness, movie criticism, and the teaching of chess and backgammon. Ideas would be welcomed. There will be different courses geared to the 6th through 8th grades as compared to the 9th through 12th grades. We will send more details as we get closer to the summer.
The other critical educational component is to ensure that our students truly mastered the lessons taught online. Our review of studies in the Fall, when we renew the habits and foundations of learning after the long summer months, will be especially important this year. We are examining ways to strengthen this. Be assured that we will do whatever we can to help our students not fall behind in their learning because it was learned in a “virtual” setting.
I hope that you can find ways to enjoy this enforced “family time” through fun activities that you did not have time for before. I am concerned about the long term effects, socially and emotionally. Please encourage your student (and for students, let me encourage you) to reach out to Ms. Evelyn Rowe-Cosentino or Ms. Lizzy Aiello, if you have concerns.
At this point, it is difficult to anticipate what the school in September will look like. That probably will not be clear for some time. We expect it will be back to normal, however, we are looking at all possible options, and will do whatever it takes to ensure a “healthy” school. In the meantime, I am sure your child wants to be with their friends. Who would not? But we still have to maintain rigorous social distancing and avoid such group meetings for the health of all. Let us hope that one day soon our students can hug each other again. Those of you who visited York (and our students can attest to this) will have noticed that hugging of classmates is very popular.
Finally, I have “sat in” through Zoom on most of our classes and am very proud of the quality of learning that is occurring daily. That is a tribute to our wonderful faculty. In a real sense, our parents have joined the faculty. We are all now teachers of our students. Let us stay close and be mutually supportive, with genuine affection, as we face these coming weeks.
Sincerely,
Ronald P. Stewart
Headmaster
