January Newsletter – So We Must Advance
Following the close of one of the most extraordinary years in our country’s history, we have started 2021 with a stunning month, a month when the most monumental events bear repeating, even as they are still fresh in our memories.
This month, this month that is still not over, Georgia elected its first Black U.S. Senator and its first Jewish U.S. Senator. The United States faced an insurrection as domestic terrorists stormed the Capitol Building in Washington. The former President was impeached for the second time. And then, two weeks after the insurrection and one week after the impeachment, the United States inaugurated its first woman, its first Black woman, its first South Asian woman as Vice President. All the while, more than 60,000 Americans have died of Covid, just this month.
Amidst all these tectonic shifts, it would be understandable to look for stability in some of the cornerstones of our communities, like our schools. It feels natural, to grasp for some familiarity in a time of such uncertainty. But in education, and in so many parts of our society, we cannot go back to what once existed. It is only by reimagining, by rethinking, by reinventing, that our country will move forward. Here locally, where families in Atlanta Public Schools are once again adjusting to a slowed pace of return to in-person learning, reimagining is our focus.