Reflect & Rebuild
After a two-year hiatus, the Head of School and Advent admin welcomed faculty and families to an in-person Head's Fall Welcome. Thank you to the Church of the Advent staff for their use of Moseley Hall and to Rita's Catering for the appetizers and drinks. Here are Nicole A. DuFauchard's P'20, Goldstein Family Chair, remarks from the event.
Good evening; I am so thankful for everyone that came out tonight. It has been two years since we have been in this space together, and I could not be happier right now.
I would like first to acknowledge that we are on the ancestral and unceded land of the Neponset Band of the Massachusett Nation. We must credit the beauty and abundance of the land to the stewardship and continued legacy of indigenous peoples, enslaved Africans, and ancestors past, present, and future.
I cannot actually believe we are here. When I thought about how to keep these remarks brief and insightful, I had to begin by reflecting. This summer was the first summer I could be still and reflect. In some respect, this will be my ode to the question, "What did you do on your summer break?"
“We believe that our entire community has something to offer. Together, we learn, grow, change, commit, engage, and live in a robust, diverse, and connected way.”
My reflection began with 2019, a year that brought immense personal strife to my family as my husband started our summer with not one but two brain surgeries. My nephew was diagnosed with a rare and incurable cancer. My son, was about to embark on his last year at Advent. There was an actual flood at West Cedar, followed by an explosion that damaged Weest Cedar just as the work from the flood ended. Then, there was lockdown. We started an online school, reimagined Advent traditions, hosted our first-ever online graduation, and worked to keep our community together while being apart.
In 2020 we opened the school year like we were going to battle, PPE in hand. We were uncertain if we could keep the doors open past the first few weeks. My son began attending Boston Latin School online; my nephew was born; we elected the first female of color to the White House in Vice President Kamala Harris. I turned 45, and all the while, we kept our little humans together and safe against the backdrop of racial unrest, global pandemic, and political turmoil that infiltrated our daily lives. We were in school the entire year. We dug into our roots and held graduation at the Church of the Advent, just like in the 1960s.
2021 brought new hope with vaccines for children and fewer protocols. My kid started eighth grade in person. We got a second puppy because all dogs needed a pandemic puppy of their own. We navigated testing and dashboards and managed to find celebratory times in person. Who knew the Upper Grades Social, not the 60th Anniversary Gala, would be our super spreader event? We saw fighting begin in Ukraine; my husband and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary by purchasing a historical dream home in the heart of Roxbury. Once again, Advent was able to hold its graduation in Faneuil Hall.
I mean, in reflection, what didn't happen in this small window of time?
For the first time this summer, I was actually able to reflect, breathe, and take a moment. I realized in June that I was exhausted. We, as a community, kept moving at a pace that mirrors superheroes. My staff, faculty, children, and community are standing, beaten, tired, and weary but standing nonetheless. I realized that my reflections were filled with chaos and trauma but much more joy than I could have imagined. I could only see this when I could pull up and see the forest for the trees.
I started to consider what was important to me personally and what was essential to our school. I spent all of June and July of the summer reconnecting to family, friends, and this work. I traveled and saw the world through a new lens. This new lens is hopeful, but not without worry.
As we see the world changed forever, we see the new wonderings of what is in store for our children. I see our children's lives changed forever. This re-entrance to the world has some familiarity but is more vivid, more polarized, more accessible, and unreachable all at the same time. Headlines that dictate non-truths as fact and soundbites diminish the work and joy of what is possible.
And on a train from London to Paris, it hit me: It is time to rebuild. We will rebuild out of chaos. Advent knows this in its bones, as the school was built amid the chaos of busing and school desegregation. We continue to build from the inspiration of post-war Reggio Emilia, Italy. Our muscles know what is possible. And friends, we are rebuilding.
This year the School embarks on a 10-year reaccreditation process. This process is not about the stamp of approval we will receive from our accreditation association; this opportunity is our time to strengthen the school's commitment to our mission;
Through reflection and self-evaluation, we will reaffirm our strengths, identify growth points, provide a stable structure, build new initiatives, compare our standards against others and ourselves, recommit to our professional growth, and recommit to the community.
This means we spend the year reflecting, re-engaging, reconnecting, rebuilding, and reviving our roots to secure our future. Based on this principle of our mission. "This mission has been our building block in every rebuild we have ever done: Since 1961, The Advent School has stayed true to its founding vision: an urban school whose community reflects the diversity of Boston; a forward-thinking curriculum that inspires and engages a child's passion for learning; a commitment to social justice; and a culture of collaboration where every child has the confidence to take action in a connected world."
We have the opportunity to breathe a new life into a community that is rebuilding just like the beginning days. As I thought about this idea of the rebuild, Loris Malaguzzi’s words about the creation of the Reggio Emilia philosophy inspired me.
“...That building a school would ever occur to the people, women, farm laborers, factory workers, farmers was in itself traumatic. But that these same people, without a penny to their names, with no technical offices, building permits, site directors, inspectors from the Ministry of Education or the Party, could actually build a school with their own strength, brick by brick, by brick.”
Our mission provides the perfect bricks with which to rebuild. We will reflect, re-engage, reconnect, and rebuild with our city, Advent's core mission, with partnership and the Reggio Emilia approach. We reflect on what Boston offers our school and children and what we have to offer our city.
We will reflect, re-engage, reconnect, rebuild, and revive our roots. Our progressive education practices have been tested and pulled in the age of a global pandemic. The ability to be hands-on and experiential in our collaborative and democratic constructivist pedagogy is missing. The ability to be proximal once again opens us to possibilities. We work to guide our community in what happens when we keep students at the center of their learning can mean.
We will reflect, re-engage, reconnect, rebuild, and revive our core. Social justice stands at the center of all we do, not as a gimmick or a reactive tool. We develop the humanity we hope to see in the world and our future, understanding that identity and advocacy must be at the center.
We will reflect, re-engage, reconnect, rebuild, and revive with our passion. With the Reggio Emilia approach, it is not about aesthetics or materials. Reggio is about keeping children in mind to co-construct, co-conspire, and co-create a learning environment where children are understood to be capable. Adults are facilities - not directors - of their learning.
To try and take risks, fail, and lean into the unknown with the notion that learning and growth done in a community is best for foundational knowledge and any learning we will do in our lifetime.
Our final brick is partnership, with the community as our cornerstone. The last two years limited our proximity when we needed to be together most. Our goals cannot be complete without YOU, all of you in this room.
These are our foundations that must be secured, elevated, and unapologetically rooted in our practice daily to rebuild to the new world we enter. With this as our premise and our shared understanding of goals, I am thrilled to reintroduce the Advent Piazza.
Like the piazzas in Reggio, our community's ability to gather, commune, champion, heal, console, and uplift has been tested. Reggio started with the opportunity for the community to share in and celebrate learning and to find joy in offering skills and hope for their children.
"Community" is the feeling that I am part of something bigger than myself; it is a place where I am invested and have a set of relationships. Communities have an individual and a collective sense that they can influence their environments and each other. We have to understand that relationships come first. We prioritize our relationships in all of our work. Our mission is based on trusted and authentic relationships with our community members.
We must acknowledge that there is true equity in this partnership. We partner with our community to address needs, change unjust systems, and build opportunities.
We must amplify that we are strengths-based and believe all of our community has strengths and skills that contribute to a thriving school environment.
We believe that our entire community has something to offer. Together, we learn, grow, change, commit, engage, and live in a robust, diverse, and connected way.
Advent's Piazza is that vital space for our community. Here we recommit to family engagement, Reggio principles, social justice, and each other. From class ambassadors to fundraising and volunteer support to sharing passions and interests in connecting, learning, and playing.
I am thrilled to be working alongside you to reflect, re-engage, reconnect, rebuild, and revive what makes our school so unique: The Advent community walking together to amplify what we know to be right and just for children.
Thank you for honoring me with the best job anyone could ever ask for, and allies in you, your children, our faculty, and our alum who continue to champion Advent, its mission, and the legacy of all our students, past, present, and future.
