1. Introduction by Dan Heischman
2. Reflection by Brandt Montgomery
3. Reflection by David Padilla
4. Reflection by Cheryl Adenekan
I vividly recall late February of 2020, at the NAIS conference in Philadelphia, where I crossed paths with numerous school people I knew, who shared with me the preparations their schools were making in case it was necessary to go virtual in the upcoming weeks. It sounded strange to me, at that point. Day by day, the Coronavirus was becoming more and more real to our country, and it gradually dawned upon me that life as we knew might well be interrupted.
Days later, NAES held its first diversity and inclusion conference in Baltimore, and, as it turned out, our last in-person event before the onslaught of the pandemic. Luckily, that conference went on without a hitch. The following week I returned to the office in New York and began to make some upcoming travel plans, as if what we were hearing about the pandemic was but a passing, short-lived issue.
Then, overnight, things changed.
So, too, our schools changed. Faculty received crash courses on virtual learning. The doors to our schools were closed. New norms regarding social distancing and at-home work and schooling structured our daily lives. What began with all of us pulling together, for the sake of the greater good, gradually splintered into political polarization. The murder of George Floyd, along with the inequities that surfaced during the time of virtual learning, ushered us into yet another pandemic, sitting alongside the first.
It has been two years since the beginning of the pandemic. It has left many exhausted, some bitter, even though we have made tremendous strides on both the health front as well as in our schools. Certainly it has left us changed forever.
As we make our way to the two-year mark, I asked three people—a head of an Episcopal school, a DEI director, and a chaplain—to offer their reflections on what we have learned, as well as still have to learn. I am very grateful that they have taken time, in the midst of their busy schedules, to give us a window into their—and our—experience.
The Rev. Daniel R. Heischman, D.D., is Executive Director of the National Association of Episcopal Schools.