Ending an Unusual School Year...

Dear Friends,

I am honored to be asked to write a letter addressing the RFS community. This is my second year at RFS and there have been by far many, many more high points than low points. Normally, in a letter reflecting on a school year I would write about the high points and successes of the students and faculty because both of these groups deserve all the recognition that they can receive. But this is a year when the global community interjected itself profoundly into the RFS community and to not end the year with an awareness of this is to not recognize its import to the community and the community’s response.

The school year began as it has for 150 years with all the hope of educating classes of bright and thoughtful Palestinian students. The school year also began as it has for the last 71 years with Palestine under occupation, and RFS facing once again challenges in so many areas which annually are amazingly overcome resulting in another year of education for the students. But the 2019-2020 year--the end of a decade and the start of another decade--also began with the no longer just gradually growing awareness that human behavior was changing the earth and with apocalyptic signs that no longer could be ignored. Throughout the year, students and faculty engaged in many conversations stating their concerns and anxieties about how their world was changing and how their lives would not be the same as their parents and ancestors. 

However, perseverance and resilience drove the students and faculty throughout the year. The concerns and anxieties seemingly were translated into the teaching and learning that RFS is so respected for in the larger community. In the minds and in the words of the students there was always hope that in ways not yet known, that some of them would have a contribution to saving life on earth and reversing many of the global climate trends. Others spoke of tooling themselves to become leaders who would also work to reverse these trends establishing a new world order. 

However, creeping up on the RFS community was the corona-virus outbreak and its growing impact on the global well being and economy. Finally, Covid-19 struck and the RFS community was confronted with a new challenge resulting in the closing of the campuses and the temporary cessation of teaching and learning. The community's perseverance and resilience once again prevailed and the faculty and students created virtual learning places for the management of the distance learning process. 

The viral threat will subside, the school year will end, the class of 2020 will graduate and all of the grades will rise to the next level to start a new school year which will be the 2020-2021 school year. No doubt the commitment of the students to reverse some of the global trends either through leadership or scholarship will also come to bear on the world community. Perseverance and resilience in the RFS coterie add up to hope in my mind. But as my students will tell you, my pedagogical practice follows the Socratic method of raising questions to stimulate critical thinking, so I will leave you with a question: What do you think makes RFS so dynamic and resilient?

Sincerely,

Robert Mark Bauman, Ph.D.