Sept. 30 Musing from Panther Prints

These are uncertain and deeply unsettling times. The worst prognostications are dark; the best aren’t very good. We don’t yet know how this will play out or over what time frame. Nor is it my role to comment on those predictions or even the causes of the financial and political situation in which we find ourselves. However, it seems appropriate to ask, “What is our role at EDS?” and “How can we help?”

Let me tackle the second question first. Here’s how we can help: Episcopal Day School can be a place of great comfort and rejuvenation in troubling times – for children and for adults. Despite whatever personal turmoil or even tragedy one might be experiencing, visiting this campus can have a healing effect. Come to an event or have lunch with your child. Experience the warmth and love of this environment and be reminded of God’s presence in our lives. Watching the children work, play, love, and grow can remind us all of the resilience of the human spirit and restore our hope in the future. Visit a chapel service on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Friday morning and allow yourself to begin your day in quiet reflection and prayer. On a more practical matter, if your family becomes so affected by current economic conditions that your ability to continue to offer your child(ren) an EDS education becomes questionable, please come talk with us. There is a misperception that financial aid is meant only to pay tuition support for very poor families. At most good schools like EDS, financial aid is available to keep the school affordable for middle class families AND to help families bridge the gap in time of financial trouble such as cutbacks and layoffs.

But the first question is even more important to me, “What is our role at EDS?” Whatever we make of the current economic and political conditions, our children will inherit it. Our job is to help prepare them. This is why the EDS faculty began three years ago asking the questions, “What can we know about the conditions of the world our students will enter, and how can we best equip them for it?” We aren’t interested merely in meeting today’s minimum standards; we have our sights set on the demands of the decades ahead. We could write a multi-volume series on this subject, but let me point out two of the key issues on which we have focused. The first is the rate of change. There is much we cannot predict about the world – and specifically the economy – of the future. But we can say with certainty that rapid change will be a universal characteristic. Sociologists and economists are predicting that our children will change careers (not just jobs) an average of 3-5 times in their working life. Clearly, more than ever our children need to be equipped with fundamental skills of problem solving, adaptability, and self-directed learning. Already you see these skills embedded in the EDS curriculum from 3 year olds through 8th grade, but you will see more and more focus on this.

Today’s uncertainty about the American economy is just one of the many challenges we face. Unrest in the Middle East, China’s ownership of American debt, unchecked immigration, changing American demographics, environmental concerns, world health issues: focusing on these can be overwhelming and dispiriting. However, ignoring or dismissing them won’t help. Our students will desperately need a moral compass, a sense of meaning and purpose. How would they navigate the complex human world without understanding the history of God’s creation and their place and purpose in it? How can they walk with confidence and competence if they don’t know that God walks with them? It seems to me that the value and importance of an Episcopal education has never been clearer.

These can be uncertain and deeply unsettling times. Our hope is that EDS can provide for you and for your children (and for the entire community, for that matter) a place of comfort and a reminder. Come visit, watch, and feel our work together in community and be reminded of God’s love, and restore and resolve your hope for the future.