Dear parents,
Dear stakeholders, 

When will this pandemic end? 

It’s the question on everyone’s mind as a new year begins with another Covid surge forcing educators and parents to scramble.

 But what if it doesn’t end?

 Many experts predict the virus will circulate in some form for the foreseeable future. Whether it’s a pandemic or climate change, the future of education looks like disruption.

How, then, do schools plan for that grim future?

We have to remain agile, adapt, stay positive and test negative. Seriously speaking, each of us at EFBA gets up in the morning thinking that we will bring joy, meaning and optimism to your children and other people’s children. That’s our mission. There is joy in learning! There is joy in appreciating that we have enough! There is joy in seeing each other and taking care of each other. And there is a lesson in character building and grit in having faith that science, solidarity and human ingenuity will prevail…

There is also a lesson that we need to change our behaviors. 

As the book and documentary by Marie-Monique Robin explain, pandemics will only increase if we continue to destroy our environment. (Listen to this podcast in French to understand that I am not preaching). 

So please look up, the sun will come out again, the sky is blue under the clouds and we need to better educate our children to understand science and to fight for biological and cultural diversities! 

 There is another danger we need to inoculate the children against: the return of autocracy and fascism. This is one of the reasons why we decided during the month of January to introduce the children to the atrocities committed in France during the Second World War. There were very few who fought on the right side of History and we hope to teach the children to have the courage to stand up to the bully and fight for the common good, even when it’s hard and dangerous. 

It’s quite a feat to do this in a part-time setting, but we have to start somewhere, so here we are, doing our part! 

From our families to yours, we wish you a resolute year 2022. 

Meilleurs vœux !

Gabrielle Durana

Founder and Executive Director

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