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As we prepare for the upcoming Spring Break, we remain hopeful that our students and teachers will be able to continue with in-person learning for the remainder of the year. While the decision will not ultimately lie with us, we are doing everything we can to ensure an environment that is good for kids, good for teachers, and good for public health. On behalf of the entire school community, thank you for your support and understanding, as we navigate this challenging year together. Without your commitment and pragmatic assistance each week, we would not be able to honour the past, preserve the current moment, or plan for the future. All of these are vital in our common lives and in the common life of our school.
So, what can any of us do next week? With the current stay-at-home order that is in place, it means that our Spring Break will require children and parents to dig deeper and draw on depleted social and emotional reserves. When children are looking for that something special to do while we are at our wits’ end, is any advice helpful?
Personally speaking, I have found it helpful to really focus on the experiences of generations that have come before us. It is easier said than done, but I for one plan to re-watch The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, a 2005 movie based on the cherished children’s book by author C.S. Lewis. The first in The Chronicles of Narnia series by Walden Media, it remains a favourite of mine today. At the beginning of the film, British children are depicted being sent out to the countryside by their parents to keep them safe during the blitz, when British cities like London were being bombed during the WW II.
In those days, real children like yours were tagged with their names and details and sent away on trains and buses to stay with people they didn’t even know – while their parents remained behind and listened to the bombs raining down over their cities. Think of the fear and foreboding of having to make such a decision to keep your child safe! And then think of enduring it. When I reflect on the experiences of the World Wars and their impact on children in the battle zones, I am humbled and thankful and believe that nothing my own children ever had to go through could compare.
As we endure this current “battle” in the midst of a pandemic, maybe it is good to glance around and be thankful for the challenges we are not facing. Yes, the impacts have been far-reaching for many Canadian families. But probably not to the same extent for our children and our families. Our students are coming and going from their safe homes and a safe school, and they are well-fed, cared for, and they have hope for the future. None of them is enduring the ravages of a global pandemic in a war-torn or impoverished region of the world – unlike many families and children in our global community.
When the Pevensie children – Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy – were sent off to the countryside for their own safety, they had no choice but to be courageous. They knew about the horrors of the war across the ocean and they understood that they would be isolated from their parents and homes and friends.
But they also had one another and they had a job to do. They had no choice but to endure it and “face life bravely and with joy no matter what it brought”. And they also ended up having the adventure of a lifetime!
As our children take a week’s respite, let’s help them (and ourselves!) keep everything in perspective.
We will return and we will do the job that we need to do and we will continue to move forward with purpose for better days.
Take care and if you haven’t visited Narnia lately, maybe you should.
Like living in Ontario today, there is never a dull moment there either!
Ric Anderson, Head of School