Term 2019-2020 | Issue 7 | June 2020

Steve Says...

Dear Friends,

I remember learning about the Declaration of Independence and Constitution in elementary school. Honestly, it felt like a pedantic chore, having to memorize passages and answer basic questions about their creation and content. Even though I could repeat the words on a test, and get an A+, I can't say that I fully grasped the principle of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

It's supposed to be self-evident, but principles can't survive or be truly understood by memorization. They have to be adopted into our hearts and lived by.

I've always said that education is about people; it's about teachers and students, dialogue, being heard, and recognizing that everyone is an individual. Such a human spirit makes each student feel safe, which is a necessary core of a school, because it's self-evident that to learn, grow, and be happy, students need to feel safe.

I like to think that a human spirit and safety, the freedom of the individual from fear, guides American society, just as it guides schools. I'm a school administrator, and everyone I know -- parents, teachers, students, fellow school administrators; in a word, everyone who puts people at the center of their lives -- is searching for words to describe their feelings at the killing of George Floyd, and so many other black men and women before him.

I don't have the words either; but maybe we should do what schools do best: examine and discuss, and try to understand what guarantees the pursuit of happiness to some, and denies it to others.

I'm offering this letter on behalf of The New School community. We've adopted the principles of equality, freedom from fear, and individual happiness into our collective heart. We felt we needed to show up here, at this tragic and sad time.

Steve

Virtual 30th Anniversary Celebration

The in-person 30th Anniversary Celebration has been postponed until June 5, 2021, but we still want to mark this important milestone now.  You can celebrate with us by visiting the 30th Anniversary page on our website!

We’ll be sharing photos from throughout our 30 year history, and videos featuring members of The New School community talking about what the school means to them.

You can play an important role in this virtual celebration by sending us your New School photos and your own short videos.  You can find more information about how to submit your photos and videos below, including some questions to help guide you when thinking about what you want to say.

We can’t wait to see what you submit!

Participating in the 30th Anniversary Celebration

• Send us your New School photos!
  • Tell us when the photo is from, who is in it, and any other information you’d like to include.
• Send us a short video of yourself talking about what The New School means to you.
  • Please keep videos short (up to 30-45 seconds).  This will help ensure we are able to post them.  You are invited to send in multiple short videos if you’d like to answer multiple questions from our prompts!
  • Please shoot videos in landscape mode (left to right).

You could see our photos on the 30th Anniversary page on our website or on our Facebook page!

You can use these prompts to help guide you when you film your video:

If you have a Google account, you can submit your photos and videos here:

If you have trouble with the form, don’t have a Google account, or if you have any questions, email Noelle at nandreano@newschoolva.com.

Help Celebrate the Class of 2020!

To celebrate the Class of 2020, we are collecting videos from New School community members congratulating them on their achievement.  These videos will be shared on a special page on our website and on Facebook.  Videos to individual Seniors will also be shared with each specific Senior.  

We invite you to share your own congratulatory video, either to the class as a whole, or to a specific Senior or group of Seniors.

If you have a Google account, you can submit your photos and videos here:

If you have trouble with the form, don’t have a Google account, or if you have any questions, email Noelle at nandreano@newschoolva.com.

Online Photography Class Exhibition

Students in Travis's Introduction of Digital Photography class have published an online exhibition. The work in this exhibition is broken into two categories: Photo Essays & Other Selected Work. Photo essays explore a theme or subject through images. These photos are meant to be viewed as a collection. The Other Selected Work portions of the exhibition are collections of unrelated photos meant to be viewed individually.

Most of the students in this course had no background in photography seventeen weeks ago, and some had never used any camera other than their phone. Throughout the class students learned the basics of exposure (aperture, shutter speed, and ISO), studied classic composition, learned how to use professional editing software, and experimented with light, textures, and subjects. They attempted to create art from the environment around them.

We hope you enjoy this exhibition. It represents a lot of hard work by students.

30th Anniversary Celebration

Save the NEW Date for our 30th Anniversary Celebration!

Date: Saturday, June 5th, 2021

Time: 1 - 6 p.m.

Location: The Stacy C. Sherwood Community Center & The New School

New School Bonus Programs

The New School participates in bonus programs that generate donations for the school when you do your everyday shopping online. They are easy to sign up for, and can have a big impact for students and teachers.

Here are two easy ways to support The New School while you shop:

1. AmazonSmile works with your existing Prime account and donates 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases when you select The New School as your charity: https://smile.amazon.com/ch/82-1288652

2. On CauseNetwork, you can shop over 1,000 retailers that will donate a portion of every purchase you make to The New School.  You can sign up at: https://newschoolva.causenetwork.com/

Thank you for your support!

If you have any questions about these programs, contact our Development Manager, Noelle Andreano, at nandreano@newschoolva.com.