First Month Reflections
“What are we going to do for Curriculum Night?”
The question wasn’t an idle one, and shortly after the school year began, it was being asked in all corners of our school community—by faculty, staff, administrators, and even parents. Curriculum Night at Browning has always felt very site-specific, with its opening gathering in Kurani Gym, parents trying to fold themselves into Lower School desks, the casual-but-essential spontaneous encounters in the hallways, and so forth. The event is an important touchstone in all three divisions, kind of an unofficial “We’re Really Back to School Night,” so there was no question of if we would have our Curriculum Nights, but the how was an unsettled matter.
Things were eventually settled, and—speaking as both a colleague and parent at Browning—I think they were settled quite well through a series of online sessions. Each division had its own approach to the event, and our families were treated to a number of interactions with Browning teachers and advisors, from videos detailing course syllabi and methods to Zoom meetings with pod instructors and individual class teachers. While the divisions pursued our newly-online Curriculum Nights in their own way, they all retained the vital elements that the in-person events had: A commitment to interpersonal connection, clear expressions of the developmental needs of boys, and assertions that successful learning involves the intersection of guidance, discovery, and joy. For all that was different about this year’s slate of Curriculum Nights, it was their thematic consistency with years past that was most notable.
And so it has been for our first month of school in general. With masks, social distance, barriers, staggered entries—plus no singing, no sports, no shared lunch space, and so on—we have all had to adjust to significant limitations and differences from previous versions of school. What has been most remarkable to me, though, has been the enduring nature of the things which bring value to the Browning experience. In the face of restrictions on space, movement, and access, our teachers have responded with creativity and care, with adjustments to learning activities and assessments that meet both the challenges of our present arrangements and the abiding needs of our boys. Our boys, for their part, have responded to our new modes not only with maturity—anticipated concerns about mask-wearing, for example, have proved misplaced—but also with their own kind of enthusiasm. Some boys are learning in person daily, others are in every other week, and still others are fully online, but it’s clear that whatever constraints they are facing, they crave and embrace the connections that school life can offer them.
“Our boys have responded to our new modes not only with maturity—anticipated concerns about mask-wearing, for example, have proved misplaced—but also with their own kind of enthusiasm. ”
All of this, of course, speaks to the patience, flexibility, and trust that all community members are bringing to our school year. Browning is given the chance to matter—and it surely matters—through the belief and commitment of those who participate in it. As I have said innumerable times since March, none of us would choose to be under extended pandemic conditions if we didn’t have to; indeed, there are limits to the number of lessons we want to learn from adversity. Still, we are called to meet the moments in front of us, and in dozens of ways—from Curriculum Nights to trips to Central Park to in-class lunches—our school continues to find ways to help the new feel familiar, to find meaning in challenge, and to keep joy within the reach of all of our boys.