Small Appreciations

Today, for the first time since March 2020, Brearley students will be able to gather outside across classes in Upper School and across cohorts within their class in Middle School. In keeping with the MS theme of the year – small act, big impact – this relatively minor-seeming adjustment to our COVID protocols will have a large effect on student life. 

Even though about 90 percent of our students are coming to campus every day, they haven’t been able to gather in person with all of their friends. In MS, where they have kept to cohorts throughout the day, it’s not unusual to find them waving to each other across lunch circles or classrooms. US students have attended classes on dedicated floors and have only been able to communicate across classes in clubs and activities via Google Meet. 

To be a first year US student and walk onto a field this afternoon with your full team will be most gratifying, as will MS students’ ability to run and play after lunch with everyone in their class. 

These relationships are the glue that bind classes and divisions together. Seniors have missed being able to mentor younger students in person, and IXs and Xs are eager to be with those cool XIs and XIIs in the extracurricular activities that previously this year happened mostly online. 

We see this as an important first step to an eventual return to normalcy. My colleagues and I couldn’t be happier that it is one that will give a big boost to our students’ social connection. They need each other, and today they will get a much needed dose of togetherness. 

It is a small but important change that will be appreciated.