25 minute read
Virtual Brearley
break, the School, out of an abundance of caution, made the decision to cancel classes in all divisions. The week would instead be devoted to faculty, students and families getting acquainted with their virtual classrooms. Three days before the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic, and a week ahead of the governor’s and mayor’s announcements that all city public schools were closing, Operation Virtual Brearley officially launched.
Though the School remained hopeful that classes would resume as normal after break, following the governor’s directive, we are staying closed for the rest of the academic year.
While navigating our new cyberscape has, at times, posed challenges, the speed at which the community has adjusted has been astounding. These past few months have been all-hands-on-deck to create a positive and welcoming virtual experience for our students. Staying true to our goals of fostering adventurous intellect, a passionate exchange of ideas and overall wellness of our students, we are delivering an online program that balances synchronous and asynchronous learning and facilitates the student connection to teachers and peers. Maintaining classes, advisories, town halls, all-important assemblies—even extracurriculars—also enables students to keep a routine, though in an effort to ease the burden of their being tied to their devices as the sole medium of learning as well as the number of hours teachers are spending preparing lessons and sitting in front of a computer, class length has been shortened and the expected amount of asynchronous work reduced. Managing academic work and physical and mental health is always a priority and is especially vital during this crisis.
This time has also shined a light on our community at its finest. We have been supporting our most financially distressed families with food and other necessities. Funds have been created both for faculty and staff who have been financially affected by the virus and for families for whom tuition may now be a hardship. Our counseling and wellness team has made itself accessible to students, parents, faculty and staff, hosting drop-in group meetings for students and initiating yoga, mindfulness and origami sessions, among other activities. Teachers are offering individual and small group support in transition, organization and executive functioning and have instituted “office hours” to continue those casual conversations that used to take place with students in the hallways. Upper School students are assisting teachers with young children at home by reading stories or helping with homework during teachers’ classes and as well as holding story time for young children of teachers at the Clarke School for Hearing and Speech. They are also sewing masks to donate to recipients in need. Lower School students have collaborated with the Stanley Isaacs Neighborhood Center to bring cheer to homebound seniors by making cards and letters for them. The Facilities and Securities Departments continue to come to school, once a week, for maintenance inspection—in 610, 590 and the Field House—and to pick up mail from the post office, bring it to school and sort it, and return to the post office with our outgoing mail. And, while we are unable to enjoy eating the delicious meals whipped up by our Kitchen, we have been treated to some of their prized recipes (although admittedly my pizza won’t be winning any culinary awards anytime soon).
While Brearley is eager to resume its physical life at school—to engage together, to read together, to solve problems together, to conduct experiments together, to act and sing together, to make music and art
together, to play sports together, in person—the “new normal” that the
Virtual fireside chat, April 30, 2020.
pandemic has forced us to create has also reinforced the strength of our community. Even if separated from one another and our schoolhouses, connected only by screen, we are not alone. We have been with each other all along, providing support and guidance, familiarity and routine. Together we form the lifeline of the School, one that becomes more united and unbreakable with each passing day.
Lately I have been taking comfort in the poetry of Robert Frost, himself a survivor of the 1918 flu and a longtime resident of Vermont, where I have been working since the early days of Virtual Brearley. His words have always resonated with me, but I find them especially reassuring now amid so much uncertainty and strife. As he writes in “The Tufts of Flowers,” which serves as inspiration for this issue’s cover and which I’ve taken the liberty to adapt to serve our entire community: “[People] work together . . . whether they work together or apart.”
Brearley continues to stand the test of time. I can’t wait to be with all of you again, in 590 and 610, soon.
Your devoted Head of School,
ABOUT THE COVER It is spring. Outside, winter’s monochrome has given way to a full, fragrant and audible palette of color. But because our time outdoors may be limited as we heed the recommendations of our city and state leaders and remain in our homes to help slow the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, we wanted to bring the new season’s nature to you—resplendently, vibrantly, exaggeratedly so—along with the uniquely familiar (yes, the beaver).
Created by Maxine Roeder ‘20, who used Copic marker, colored pencil and Micron pen on paper, this pastoral scene was also inspired by the poem “The Tuft of Flowers” by Robert Frost, which Ms. Fried alludes to on the previous page. The poem is a fitting message for us all during this pandemic. It offers solace and hope, reminding us that even if we must be separated from one another, there is still light and beauty to behold in our connected, committed and united community that is Brearley.
The Tuft of Flowers
by Robert Frost
I went to turn the grass once after one Who mowed it in the dew before the sun. A leaping tongue of bloom the scythe had spared Beside a reedy brook the scythe had bared.
The dew was gone that made his blade so keen Before I came to view the levelled scene.
I looked for him behind an isle of trees; I listened for his whetstone on the breeze.
But he had gone his way, the grass all mown, And I must be, as he had been,—alone,
‘As all must be,’ I said within my heart, ‘Whether they work together or apart.’
But as I said it, swift there passed me by On noiseless wing a ‘wildered butterfly,
Seeking with memories grown dim o’er night Some resting flower of yesterday’s delight.
And once I marked his flight go round and round, As where some flower lay withering on the ground.
And then he flew as far as eye could see, And then on tremulous wing came back to me.
I thought of questions that have no reply, And would have turned to toss the grass to dry;
But he turned first, and led my eye to look At a tall tuft of flowers beside a brook, I left my place to know them by their name, Finding them butterfly weed when I came.
The mower in the dew had loved them thus, By leaving them to flourish, not for us,
Nor yet to draw one thought of ours to him. But from sheer morning gladness at the brim.
The butterfly and I had lit upon, Nevertheless, a message from the dawn,
That made me hear the wakening birds around, And hear his long scythe whispering to the ground,
And feel a spirit kindred to my own; So that henceforth I worked no more alone;
But glad with him, I worked as with his aid, And weary, sought at noon with him the shade;
And dreaming, as it were, held brotherly speech With one whose thought I had not hoped to reach.
‘Men work together,’ I told him from the heart, ‘Whether they work together or apart.’
TOILING TOGETHER “It’s an incredible testament to the spirit of the Brearley student that you all have jumped into Virtual Brearley with such bravery and resilience. . . . We are all deeply proud of you; for how much you care about your work, your school and most importantly, your friends and family.”
—MR. BROWNELL, HEAD OF MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENT LIFE
—MS. FABIO, DIRECTOR OF HUMAN RESOURCES
“I have watched your teachers and all of you take on challenges in the most admirable of ways. You have been kind and respectful and patient and generous. You have embraced this new kind of learning and are becoming adept at unmuting and muting yourselves, using the chat space to ask questions, and using a real or virtual thumbs-up to indicate your understanding or agreement. You have shared ideas for addressing new service needs that have arisen from this pandemic and helped one another with tech issues, supplies and general emotional support. I could not be more proud and touched by all that I have seen.”
—MS. SEGAL, HEAD OF UPPER SCHOOL STUDENT LIFE
“Please allow me the opportunity to applaud all of you. I marvel at your resilience and the solidity you are displaying for your children; I marvel at your commitment to their education and the lengths to which you will go to provide that for them, and I marvel at the community you are for each other—be that for each other always.”
—MS. ZIMMERMANN, ASSISTANT HEAD OF SCHOOL FOR STUDENT LIFE AND HEAD OF LOWER SCHOOL
“We have all learned a great amount about a variety of things in a very short time. From distance learning to best practices in school hygiene, to thinking creatively about how to teach the Brearley program with integrity via methods as yet untried, we have come together in the service of our students.”
—DR. MULKIN, ASSISTANT HEAD OF SCHOOL FOR ACADEMIC LIFE “Within our community there are countless individual stories, circumstances, innovations and adaptations in this moment. It is important to remember that our own experiences with social distancing, quarantine and sheltering in place will mirror those of many and diverge sharply from others. If we keep this range of experiences in mind at all times we can be more empathetic and open to learning from and affirming everyone’s ‘new normal.’ As we find new ways to assemble and learn together, let us lead with open-ended inquiry (‘How’s it going for you?’) and mutual support.”
—MS. LYONS, PHYSICAL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
ALUMNAE DAY APRIL 17, 2020
When everyone received the reunion invitation in late February, who could have imagined that six weeks later we would be gathering virtually for a much abbreviated program? “Up Close with Jane Foley Fried” was held via Zoom and included heartfelt remarks from outgoing Alumnae Board president Terri Seligman ’78, as well as a not-to-be missed rendition of “By Truth and Toil,” sung by the B-Naturals under the direction of Karyn Joaquino of the Music Department. Alumnae in the audience spanned the Class of 1945 through the Class of 2019, and hailed from all over the country and across the Atlantic, in England and France. A recording of the event, including Ms. Fried’s illuminating comments about Brearley today and a Q&A session, can be found on the alumnae portal by visiting www.brearley.org/april17. A huge shout-out to the many classes who also planned Zoom reunions!
Our thanks to Alumnae Weekend and Reunion cochairs Wilhelmina Martin Eaken ’64 and Andrea Kassar ’95, who had planned a stellar program at 610 and 590, including the ever-popular Turbo Talks, the annual Reunion Luncheon, a panel on Climate Change, tours of the new schoolhouse and a Young Alumnae Luncheon. We may have had to postpone, but we plan to recreate the program when we reschedule the event. Stay tuned!
“Our mission statement emphasizes that a Brearley education unfolds over a lifetime. It is intentional that you, our alumnae, are included in our mission statement. I deeply believe that current students, teachers, parents—all of us—benefit from the full scope of a Brearley experience thanks to those who came before
us. Our current girls stand on your shoulders.”
—Jane Foley Fried
{Q&A
Q&A Highlights: Alumnae were able to submit }
questions via Zoom and email during the event. Go to www.brearley.org/april17 to hear the full session.
What’s been a challenge with distance learning?
JFF: I am so impressed by the way the Brearley faculty and staff have stepped up to the plate, in an incredible way, and very quickly. We are doing a tremendous job. Getting everybody the proper connection and Internet needed to work from home has been a challenge, as has been creating small-group, breakout discussions via technology—the passionate exchange of ideas that happens so organically in the classroom is not intuitively replicable on screen. Sitting in front of a device all day is not easy, which is why we’ve shortened the length of classes and the amount of asynchronous work assigned. This gives students and teachers time to stretch during the day and take breaks from their screens.
Can you talk more about the social and emotional wellness curriculum at Brearley?
JFF: Brearley has always had a well-defined academic curriculum for K–XII, and bits and pieces of an emotional and wellness curriculum. Wanting to enhance it and offer it to every grade, we created a K–XII social emotional learning program that includes diversity, equity and inclusion, sexuality health education, and values affirmation. Even “simple” things like how to make informed decisions of their own—we believe that helping students to develop a healthy mind in a healthy body not only complements their academic learning but is equally important in preparing them for principled engagement in the world.
“This is not an easy time to be educating K–XII students. Many of you know that because you have children or grandchildren who are also learning from home. We are seeking to balance academic goals and requirements with a truth we all recognize—this pandemic is meaningfully impacting students and families in both different and similar ways.”
—Jane Foley Fried
50TH REUNION
Our Zoomunion
by Alison Anthoine ’70
The Class of 1970 had planned a weekend of events to celebrate our 50th reunion. We were expecting a large turnout, so when the coronavirus made it impossible for us to gather in person we would not be deterred and turned to Zoom.
On the afternoon of April 17, we held a virtual reunion that was attended by 36 classmates from all over the globe—Paris, Bali, Maui, Panama and coast to coast—including several who had never met each other before (such being the nature of comings and goings in a K–XII school). Over the course of 2 ½ hours, we reminisced about our years together, shared our stories since then and expressed our hopes and fears for the future. It turned out that one of the advantages of Zoom is that only one person can speak at a time. Instead of breaking into smaller groups (as we no doubt would have done in real life), the moderator invited each person to speak in turn and everyone else listened. As a unified group, we all held space and were present for each other.
It wasn’t anything like what we had planned, but we celebrated our sisterhood in a meaningful way, and the bonds among us are stronger than ever. The class Listserv continues to be abuzz with reminiscences and rekindled friendships, and we all look forward to convening in person for a belated celebration at some point in the future.
CRISIS AND COMMUNITY: A TRADITION OF SERVICE WORK AT BREARLEY
While the novel coronavirus has forced Brearley to blaze new trails in disseminating its educational program, the School is no stranger to weathering epic storms, such as the 1918 flu pandemic and other communicable diseases of the early 20th century. According to Brearley’s 125th Anniversary book: “The School’s early years were marked by the need to handle the potential devastation wrought by communicable diseases. Until the advent of modern antibiotics and vaccines, Brearley relied on the services of a physician, who worked part-time, to ensure that its students were free of some potential contagion. The doctor might spend an hour each morning, examining students returning from an absence to make sure they were healthy enough to come back to school.”
Though Brearley remained open during the 1918 pandemic and other periods of rampant infectious disease, the book also notes that students “recovering from the effects of the diseases at the time could be absent for long stretches, missing the opening weeks of school, as they recuperated.”
To prevent the spread of illness, the School developed in concert with other city private schools the Regulation of Infectious Diseases, which outlined school health rules and requirements for families and students. Some are still in practice today.
Though each crisis that has intruded on Brearley differs, one commonality is our community’s response. None has ever been too big for us to face and fight together, with characteristic resolve and can-do spirit. In 1917, for example, Brearley transformed itself into an auxiliary for the American Red Cross and knitted for the Army and then for refugee children of France, creating nearly 1,700 articles including sweaters, caps and mufflers. After its services were no longer needed, the Red Cross Auxiliary, as it was known, developed into the Brearley School Relief Board to facilitate the School’s continued participation in service work. A student-wide endeavor, the Relief Board, funded by student dues and led by a committee of girls representing every class, undertook work with Bellevue, the city hospital, making layettes for the babies and providing toys and presents for the surgical wards during holidays, among other projects. It also provided summer holidays for Bellevue children; a 1924 Bulletin reports, “Children who in the spring are sick and weakly and are not allowed to go to school, are each given three months in the country, and the reports received in October have told us that in every case the children we have sent away have returned to the city well and strong and happy, and have been permitted to return to school.”
In the spring of 2009, a new influenza was detected in the United States, the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, whose rapid spread through the country and the world soon turned it into a pandemic. Fortunately, a vaccine was developed and approved in a matter of months and became available in the United States that fall. New York City set up school-based clinics to administer the vaccine, and Brearley joined the cause by setting up a makeshift clinic in the Assembly Hall. There volunteer physicians and nurses from our community immunized hundreds of Brearley students.
As the Class of 1918 reflected in commemoration of the School’s first 75 years, “We toil mightily and not without hope—and still do.”
New Diversity Statement for the School
This spring, Brearley presented its first Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Statement to the school community, an initiative that was conceived by Jane Foley Fried and spearheaded by Dr. Tanya Huelett, Director of Equity and Community Engagement. Unanimously supported by the Board of Trustees, the statement was created with input from administrators, faculty, staff, students and trustees with a twofold purpose. As Dr. Huelett explains, it is meant to be both a “declaration of our values and aspirations” and an “informal contract for all who join” Brearley.
The Brearley School believes that diversity of thought, practice and identity are essential elements in preparing students for principled engagement in the world. We believe in the importance of establishing and strengthening the structures and practices necessary to achieve equitable representation and participation in our school. We are committed to putting these beliefs into action and are therefore engaged in continuous study, self-reflection and dialogue in order to improve and adapt as we learn.
We embrace the opportunities and challenges of learning and working in a diverse environment characterized by respect and consideration for the needs of others. In partnership with faculty, staff, students, families and alumnae, we are endeavoring to instill and sustain shared values that promote a welcoming, inclusive and affirming community.
ANNIE DORSEN ’91 ADDS MACARTHUR FELLOW TO COLLECTION OF ACHIEVEMENTS
Congratulations to Annie Dorsen ’91, a 2019 recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” Grant, which every year recognizes 25 individuals who demonstrate “extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction.” A theater artist who explores the complex interface between machines and humans, Annie was honored for “pioneering a new genre of theater that dramatizes the ways in which nonhuman intelligence is profoundly changing the nature of work, culture, and social relationships.” She creates what she calls “algorithmic theater,” in which algorithmically determined texts are generated in real time for each performance of a piece. Annie’s most recent project, Infinite Sun (2019), is an algorithmic sound installation commissioned by the Sharjah Biennial 14. Previous performance projects include The Slow Room (2018), The Great Outdoors (2017), Yesterday Tomorrow (2015), A Piece of Work (2013) and Hello Hi There (2010), which have been widely presented in the US and internationally. The MacArthur Fellowship is only Annie’s latest nod of distinction; she has also received a 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship, the 2018 Spalding Gray Award, a 2016 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant to Artists Award and the 2014 Herb Alpert Award for the Arts in Theatre.
CAREER RESILIENCE PANEL
On the evening of February 12, 2020, the 610Connect Committee of the Alumnae Association hosted a Career Resilience event, featuring eight panelists from the Classes of 1970 to 2012. Representing the nonprofit, retail and social media sectors in professions like communications, law and filmmaking, the speakers shared career knowledge and advice, offering a diversity of experience and range in tenure that was instrumental in creating a broad and engaging conversation with the alumnae attendees, all of whom were in various stages of their professional life, including some contemplating a return to work outside of the home. The evening concluded with a networking hour. The event, which was also livestreamed, was generated in response to results from the 2017 Alumnae Survey, which indicated that issues and discussions related to our work lives are of interest. It was a resounding success, and more events with this theme will be planned in the future. To suggest a topic for an alumnae event, please email alumnae@ brearley.org, and to watch the livestream, go to www.brearley.org/careerresiliencepanel.
Above (left to right): Sommer Omar ’12, Alison Anthoine ’70, Amina Elderfield ’94, Elisabeth Chai Vasarhelyi ’96, Ariel Fantasia ’96, Ria Tabacco Mar ’99, Kate Hamill ’99 and Terri Seligman ’78.
RECENTLY PUBLISHED BOOKS BY ALUMNAE
THANK YOU
to the loyal and generous alumnae, parents and friends who support Brearley each year through the Annual Fund. Your gifts support teacher salaries and tuition assistance for families, and your generosity also helps Brearley to plan for increased financial aid in the year ahead.
Together, we can reach our $3,500,000 goal before June 30. Every gift counts and every gift helps Brearley be Brearley—no matter what.
Gifts can be made online at www.brearley.org/donate or via Venmo: Brearley_af. You may also contact Amina Holman, Annual Fund Director, at aholman@brearley.org.
ANNUAL FUND 2019–2020
Please send covers of your new books to classnotes@brearley.org.
IS THIS YOUR TEACHER’S HOME DESK?
This is my desk. This is where I teach. I like technology. The screens in this photo make me feel like I am teaching from the Batcave, which is nice.
Current and former Vs should be able to pick out some key texts!
one two
CROSSWORD PUZZLE
Cat, birds and fish: illustrations of South Carolina waterfowl that I bought while doing my dissertation research in Charleston 20 years ago; a small painting by Brearley alumna Isabella Falla (Class of 2014); and a feline-themed ring binder that I’m using as a planner this spring. three
ACROSS
3. Olaffub’s predecessor 4. _____, we are One Brearley 7. Number of steps between 610 and 590 8. Soda stop for students in 1903 9. Founded on March 3, 1893 10. Last name of Brearley’s second Head of
School
DOWN
1. One of Balthazaar’s predecessors 2. Beloved song sung at Winter Assembly 5. Total number of floors in 610 6. Student newspaper
ONE BREARLEY SAMUEL BEAVERS EAST RIVER REDS WHITES TRUTH TOIL BEVERLY
EAST END SOCRATES AMELIA TIGGER THEODORE OLAFFUB BALTHAZAAR JIMBO TOGETHER STUDENTS TEACHERS COMMUNITY JOEYS ROLLS MUENSTER BAGELS SOCRATES FRIDGIE TUNIC JANE FOLEY FRIED
HOW MANY MASCOTS CAN YOU FIND IN THE BULLETIN?
TWO-INGREDIENT Pizza Dough
compliments of the Brearley Kitchen
INGREDIENTS
2 cups self-rising flour 1 cup Greek yogurt
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a baking sheet and gather cheese, tomato sauce and toppings of your choice. Place both ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix until shaggy dough begins to form. Sprinkle flour onto a cutting board and knead the dough for about 8–10 minutes until smooth (elastic) in texture.
Roll the dough into a round ball and put in a ziplock bag for 20 minutes. Roll out dough into rectangles or circles. Place on baking sheet and bake for 9–11 minutes.
Remove dough from oven. Once dough has cooled, add tomato sauce, cheese and toppings. Place baking sheet back in oven and bake until cheese melts.
Cut into slices and enjoy!
SPOTLIGHT
THE BREARLEY Library
One of Brearley’s greatest resources is the library. A foundation for learning and principled engagement, it is also a hub for the community, where individuals can work alone or together. Reading challenges students to think critically and creatively, empowers and inspires. It is also integral to developing emotional wellness and leading balanced, joyful and purposeful lives.
Among our strategic goals has been to solve our chronic need for more space both to accommodate the School’s ever-evolving program and to enhance its legacy of academic excellence. The solution, creating a campus plan, came to fruition this fall with the opening of 590 East 83rd Street, Brearley’s partner schoolhouse and new home for the Lower School.
The modern facilities in 590 include a substantially improved Lower School library. Named the Uris Lower School Children’s Library, in honor of Linda May Uris ‘59, it is a welcoming environment for the entire community, set up to facilitate small reading groups as well as larger gatherings. Shelf space has been increased and configured for better book navigation by our youngest readers, and there is dedicated room for the division’s large ebook and audiobook collection. The library offers access to digital subscription databases along with a computer lab and classroom where, matching Brearley’s attitude toward technology in other parts of school life, teachers use technology in their instruction only when it enriches their lessons.
To best serve the needs of our older students as well, the School is planning an eventual move of the Middle and Upper School library to the 10th floor in 610. There additional space will accommodate almost twice as many students than the existing library, allowing the community to be optimally alone together engaged in reading, research and study. Adjustable shelving will make the divisions’ books and periodicals more easily accessible, and the sizable digital collection will remain a key learning tool as librarians continue to provide online research instruction to students.
