Further Forward, Never Froward (A Principal's Perspective)

Following our short break in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we will resume full-time, in-person schooling for all upper-school students. If we are successful in this, gone will be the days of part-time, hybrid attendance. We will keep open the possibility of remote attendance for those students who must remain out for medical reasons, and the small handful of faculty who will continue to teach remotely out of a concern for their own medical circumstances. All of this is, of course, contingent upon our ability to do this safely for our staff, students, and families. As we inch forward, it bears briefly reviewing some of the lessons we have learned since last March. 

First, despite the enormous sums that have been spent on equipment and improved custodial services to mitigate the likelihood of an outbreak at Ridgeview, the greatest bulwark against the spread of this disease is and has been human beings and their capacity for good judgment. The administration will continue to invest in all the material things that make quarantining less likely, but it remains imperative that we all refrain from coming to work or sending our children to school if we think there is any possibility that we or they are sick. Please do not succumb to pandemic fatigue and become complacent.

Second, older students lead lives more like those of adults than their younger peers. School is rarely their only social outlet. They go more places and meet with more people and act in more intimate ways, and as is predictable with youth, often act with less discretion and sometimes less prudence. Statistically, if the science is to be believed, they are more likely to spread this virus, particularly asymptomatically, than younger children and in schools that have experienced breakouts, these students have spread it to teachers more often than teachers have spread it to students. As they are less likely to be seriously impacted by this virus, there is a tendency for them to be more cavalier. It is incumbent upon every adult who wields any influence in a teenager’s life to impress upon them the necessity and import of other-regarding judgments to see us through this crisis.

Third, what has been done over the last several months cannot be allowed to become the new normal. While remote learning has been better than throwing in the towel, it has been a poor substitute for the status quo ante. The impact on student’s mental health, their social lives, their academic progress, their intellectual betterment and moral improvement—all have been negatively impacted. The more remote the student, the more discernible the consequences. While we can return most of the students to the school, returning the school to its previous lofty standards will take more time. In terms of its academic rigor, intellectual richness, tutorial intimacy, breadth of coverage, and the profundity of conversation, the road back to a tolerable normal will be neither easy nor immediate.

A quotation that is popularly attributed to Winston Churchill is, “When you’re going through hell, keep going.” Its earliest occurrence seems to have been in dialogical form in the Christian Science Sentinel in 1943. Asked how he was, a man replied, “I’m going through hell!” His friend countered: “Well, keep on going. That is no place to stop.” Our situation is similar in that this is also no place to stop. Doing so would be grossly unfair not only to this generation, but to those who follow it. The diminution of standards is a sort of kind-hearted cruelty in that standards once diminished, whether they be intellectual, social, or cultural, are rarely regained. What is done in emergency is too often lived with once the crisis has passed, and it is crucial for our community to take another step in the slog towards normalization. It must do this for the benefit of its students, and for the ambitions of this community.

D. Anderson

Principal