From the Desk of the Head of School- September 11, 2020
Dear Parents,
Today marks the nineteenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, and the heroism of the passengers on United Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. I know you all, like me, can remember that morning vividly and to think that a baby born on that day would be entering their sophomore year in college (perhaps the age of some of us on that day) is remarkable.
In my office I keep a list of essential questions that I’ve developed over my time in schools that help guide my work as an educator. An essential question is one that is open ended and thought provoking. In seeking to answer them one must provide support and justification for their answer. They uncover important, transferable ideas, which lead to additional questions. Really good essential questions recur over time.
One of those questions bubbled up for me as a result of the lived experience of 9/11 and how drastically the world has changed since. It is: What does it mean to live in an age of insecurity? Perhaps at no other time since that awful day in 2001 have we felt quite so insecure. With a pandemic swirling around us, we are desperate to find anchors onto which we can ground ourselves, our families, and our experiences.
I think, perhaps, this is why it was so important for us to do everything in our power to be able to convene together in person in our learning community. There is no other place that better represents what we hold dear than the school to which we send our children. We entrust the people we treasure the most in the world to Harding Academy. This place is our anchor.
So as we reflect on the tragedy of 9/11 and just how much the world has changed since then, we are reminded of that which anchors us - a learning community that challenges, nurtures, educates, and inspires our children to face this insecure world with a confidence and competence that will, I hope, change my essential question from “What does it mean to live in an age of insecurity” to “What does it mean to live in an age of security?”
Have a wonderful weekend and I will see you all again on Monday.
Today marks the nineteenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, and the heroism of the passengers on United Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. I know you all, like me, can remember that morning vividly and to think that a baby born on that day would be entering their sophomore year in college (perhaps the age of some of us on that day) is remarkable.
In my office I keep a list of essential questions that I’ve developed over my time in schools that help guide my work as an educator. An essential question is one that is open ended and thought provoking. In seeking to answer them one must provide support and justification for their answer. They uncover important, transferable ideas, which lead to additional questions. Really good essential questions recur over time.
One of those questions bubbled up for me as a result of the lived experience of 9/11 and how drastically the world has changed since. It is: What does it mean to live in an age of insecurity? Perhaps at no other time since that awful day in 2001 have we felt quite so insecure. With a pandemic swirling around us, we are desperate to find anchors onto which we can ground ourselves, our families, and our experiences.
I think, perhaps, this is why it was so important for us to do everything in our power to be able to convene together in person in our learning community. There is no other place that better represents what we hold dear than the school to which we send our children. We entrust the people we treasure the most in the world to Harding Academy. This place is our anchor.
So as we reflect on the tragedy of 9/11 and just how much the world has changed since then, we are reminded of that which anchors us - a learning community that challenges, nurtures, educates, and inspires our children to face this insecure world with a confidence and competence that will, I hope, change my essential question from “What does it mean to live in an age of insecurity” to “What does it mean to live in an age of security?”
Have a wonderful weekend and I will see you all again on Monday.
Inspiring The Mind • Nurturing The Spirit