Dear Whittle Team Members, Parents, and Students,
“We are bound together.”
So reads part of the first sentence of our school’s mission statement. It could not be more true in these difficult times. As all of us struggle with the sadness, loss, and fear surrounding us and the globe, remember the video message our DC students and staff sent to their colleagues in Shenzhen last week: “tomorrow will be a better day.” It will.
When this crisis has passed, it is important that all schools learn from it, build from it, and cherish even more all that we may have once taken for granted. In our particular case, these times bring the strength of our mission clearly into focus.
As families across the globe have seen hundreds of thousands of their schools shuttered, we are reminded of the deepest values of school itself. While this modern-day plague seeks to “socially distance” us from one another, we see vividly why our cultures created schools in the first place: to bring us together, bind us together. Our children don’t just enjoy being with one another. They learn better side by side. If anyone ever believed the online world would replace the physical reality of teachers and students working together, corona-virus has struck down that notion. Hundreds of millions of parents and their children long for the togetherness of school—and not just because it is more convenient. The glow of a screen will never replace the warmth of a school.
Yet, there is a place for technology and this virus has pushed all schools to explore and accelerate that too. We should codify what we have all learned from being forced away from the home fires of our schools. There are lessons for our future there too.
In Whittle School & Studios’ case, the significance of our global mission rings loudly. Like so much of modern life, the virus knows no boundaries, carries no particular passport. It shows how connected our problems and opportunities are. And it demonstrates how we must learn from one another. The brave doctors and nurses of Wuhan went to the front lines first and informed the world how to save countless lives. All of us at Whittle should be inspired by their actions to build a global community that shares.
Public schools around the world are going to suffer as a result of the reduced tax revenues that fund them, much as they did in the times following the financial crisis of 2008. In times of stress, the independent school community has a responsibility to help our public school colleagues even more, and I urge all of us to think of ways we can.
Finally, the virus is likely to be with us for some time to come, and all of us must think about the best ways to keep our children and faculty safe.
Thank you for your tireless efforts. The full first sentence of our mission statement reads, “our hopes are high, and by them we are bound together.” Let’s keep our hopes high.
Chris Whittle
Chairman and CEO
