Rethinking Community BUILDING COMMUNITY IN COVID-19 TIMES
Our typical school year is rhythmed with social and cultural events. There are parties and holiday activities in Lower School, dances and proms for our secondary students, and graduations to mark a students’ passage from one level to another. Parents enjoy cocktail parties and a potluck dinner, as well as a fundraising Gala. The Section’s annual picnic reunites families, faculty and staff, while the Holiday Sale and Lycée-en-Fête bring together the entire Lycée community. Not only are these deeply embedded traditions essential to our transmission of American culture, they build community. What to do, then, when event after event is cancelled due to a worldwide pandemic? We simply put on our thinking caps, and come up with some creative, new, Covid-19-friendly ideas. SECTION-WIDE SPIRIT WEEK As we are spread across three separate campuses with hundreds of externé students, a Section-wide traditional American Spirit Week has never been possible. But with everyone stuck at home during the first rigid lockdown, transitioning to online classes and virtual communication, a virtual Spirit Week seemed the very thing to bring our entire community together. The Student Council chose the daily themes and coordinated in-class communication, and the entire student body, from Pre-K through Terminale, as well as parents, faculty, and staff joined in the fun. We celebrated Crazy Hair Day, Sports Day, Mismatched Clothes Day, Color by Grade Day, and finally Tropical Vacation Day (appropriately, on May 1). Members of our community uploaded hundreds of photos to the official Sprit Week album, creating a lasting memory of the occasion.
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