Dear Families, Faculty and Staff,
I hope you are enjoying spring break to the extent you can given the situation of our city and world right now. While the uncertainty of what is to come is taking a toll, I have also discovered many upsides of being at home with family.
When we launched our new vision and strategy at the beginning of the year, I wrote that Latin has been redefining educational excellence for 130 years. Like all great schools, education must evolve for our ever-changing world. I never could have predicted our world would change so much. This pandemic has forced us to redefine how we learn; how we teach; how we communicate; how we lead; how we act as a community. In our first week of remote learning, we proved we could pivot quickly and hold together in an emergency. Going forward, we will prove that whether remote or in person, the conditions for excellence in learning are created and sustained through teacher-student connection.
We are currently building our remote learning plan and it will continue to be a flexible, evolving document as we navigate this new territory. We learn more every day from our peer schools internationally and in the U.S. who have crossed bridges we have yet to face. They have been exceedingly generous with their insight and open about their missteps so we don't repeat them. Our plan integrates this input, as well as feedback received from our own teachers, students and parents/guardians thus far. Most importantly, it integrates the most essential elements of the Latin experience: being personal, inclusive and inquiry-based with many of the modes of learning practiced at Latin under normal circumstances: synchronous live lessons, group time, asynchronous project time, etc. Despite the distance, I hope you will find that many things remain the same. Our commitment to innovative academics, availability of teachers, our incredible support structure for students and families and a commitment to transparent communication remain steadfast.
I will share our comprehensive Remote Learning Plan on Monday, April 6. In advance of that, the division directors will each be sharing information that will help you and your student(s) prepare for the weeks to come.