March 30, 2020 Coronavirus Update from Head of School: March 30, 2020 Dear Parents, Colleagues, Students and Friends,
I hope the "first day back" has been energizing and fulfilling. Good to be back in the rhythm of teaching and learning – distance variety.
As we spend our days holding video-conferencing sessions with our students and colleagues, I am sure I am not the only one to have thought: what if all this had happened before the Internet and smartphone era began?
Many of the digital tools we are using to keep connected, fed and educated either did not exist even as recently as 2005 or were available to only a few. Facebook came along in 2004, but was still largely a college phenomenon at that time. Neither Instagram or WhatsApp had been thought of. And talk of "social media" would have drawn puzzled looks. YouTube was founded around 2005, Twitter would come along the following year, and it was not until 2007 that Apple launched the iPhone. Our televisions were not connected to the internet in those days. That meant no Netflix, Hulu and the rest, and of course no possibility of Zoom, GoToMeeting, etc. Yes, dear students, it truly was the Dark Ages around here not that long ago.
ANGEL BALL 2020: By the way, you may have heard by now that our Angel Ball 2020 has now been given a brand new date and a brand new beautiful venue: Saturday, November 14 at The Ritz Carlton Beach Resort. We are so grateful to all our incredible sponsors for maintaining their support of the school as we roll over from spring 2020 to fall 2020. Needless to say, the need for financial aid for the most deserving of our students has not gone away in the current period of the pandemic. A CSN education is a precious gift which has changed the lives of hundreds of students over the past 38 years in Naples. The dream is made real each succeeding year for our graduating students, and the nobility of the CSN mission continues. We therefore thank everyone for their patience and commitment to our continuing aspiration to excellence. Thank you everybody!
Finally, to return to our pre-tech nostalgia, despite our concern in recent years about what smartphones and social media are doing to our way of life, especially to school- age students, we may emerge from this moment with a new appreciation for technology which, frustrating and worrying as it may sometimes be, can also be extremely useful – and, as we have seen recently in certain circumstances, even life-saving.
As always, please keep in touch with your teachers and Division Heads during our Distance Learning adventure. Believe me, we all want to be back at school just like you do. However let's be safe and remain patient and focused on what has to be done right now.
Keep calm, carry on and wash hands, everyone! More on Thursday.
Kind regards, Dr. David Watson Head of School
COMMUNITY SCHOOL OF NAPLES Naples, FL 34109, USA Ph. (239) 597-7575 |