剧变, 动荡, and change have long been 旅行ing companions throughout human history, 这些构造塑造力量似乎在2020年充分发挥作用.
As I ponder the events of this year, my thoughts 旅行 back to another year of tumult, 1968. 在1968年的大部分时间, 一个有思想的美国人可能会想, 有充分的理由, whether the grand experiment of American democracy was on the brink of collapse. Multiple thr吃s were evident: violent anti-war riots were happening on many college campuses; the Tet Offensive underscored an increasing belief that the President and Pentagon had lied to the American people about ‘winning’ the Vietnam war; deep racial divisions fueled violence in multiple cities and was punctuated by the assassination of Martin Luther King; and only a few months later, the political system was rocked by the assassination of presidential candidate Robert Kennedy.
I cannot recall wondering at any moment since 1968 if American democracy was fundamentally thr吃ened, 或者是定义我们作为一个民族的核心DNA, 作为一个国家, 受到重大改变的威胁. 直到2020年. 我清楚地记得我在1968年的想法和感受. I wonder, now, what my students are thinking and feeling as 2020 lurches forward?
人类历史在本质上主要是进化的, 不时出现改变人生的革命时刻. 剧变 and 动荡 are the engine of radical change—both positive and negative—for humans and the societies they cr吃e. 索伯里的学生们现在目睹了这样的动荡和不安. 一场全球大流行改变了我们的工作方式, 学习, 旅行, 假期, 吃, 收集, 重新创建, 交互, 诸如此类. 在这个全球威胁之上, centuries of systemic racism that was built into the very fabric of our nation at its birth is being challenged in ways no American has ever seen. The names of professional, college, and school sports teams are being changed. 学校和学院的名称正在被替换. 纪念碑正在被拆除. The Black Lives Matters movement has focused the nation on its past, present, and its future. Will this be the time when we finally pivot away from systemic racism?
Every day Solebury students are confronted with a nation more divided than at any time since 1860 or 1968, 观察一种无法统一我们国家的政治制度, 或者向人民提供领导, in the face of a pandemic and a powerful movement for racial equality. 事实上, at the highest levels one of the foundational pillars of our democracy—the peaceful transfer of power—is being questioned and challenged.
If upheaval and 动荡 and change perm吃e the atmosphere that envelops us in 2020, 空气中也夹杂着希望. 韦德娱乐app下载地址学校的年轻人是最容易接受的, 包容, open-minded students I have worked with during my forty-five years in education. They give me hope; they are the future. The BLM movement may just be the thin end of the wedge that finally blows open the door and unleashes a fierce wind that blows through our society and roots out systemic racism from our many institutions, 让我们坚定地走上为所有美国人带来真正变革的道路. The pandemic has brought into high relief the fundamental divide between haves and have-nots in our society. 我们不能再忽视这一点, 或埋葬, will we now choose to cr吃e a society where opportunities abound for all, 而且不止几个?
我一直坚持这个信念, 希望, 这是我们作为一个物种所取得的所有进步的根源, 并且永远不会, 是教育. As I write these words we are 41 days away from the scheduled beginning of classes for the 2020-21 school year. 距离3月12日还有4个月零几天...这一天，我们在索伯里的世界被Covid-19颠覆了. 然而,, 尽管动荡不安, 骚乱, 以及我们日常生活的变化, Solebury’s effort to deliver a high-quality education and sustain our community persevered. 不管开学那天病毒给我们带来了什么, 9月10日, we will continue to offer this robust education and nurturing community.
剧变, 动荡, and change are undoubtedly never going to be absent from the human experience. 教育也不能中断.