Dear students,
and dear parents,
Our community – similarly to every other Italian community – has been heavily impacted by the coronavirus outbreak and it is clear to everybody that COVID-19 is a global rather than local phenomenon. Unfortunately, Covid’s spread does not seem to abate at this moment in time, but it could not have been otherwise, given that we live in a globalized world.
The mandatory lockdown for schools is one of the measures that have affected our everyday lives the most. When faced by such challenges, our children are presented with the chance to reflect and appreciate the importance of their school education.
School plays a fundamental role when it comes to children's social and emotional development. Home confinement has upended our daily routines, our most private thoughts and actions. It all becomes even more paradoxical when we realize that we are not fighting a war - a metaphor the media have resorted to lately, thereby almost trivialising the current health crisis. Our enemy is invisible. Yet it does exist.
I call upon your sense of responsibility and urge all of you neither to panic nor to allow the circumstances to defile what we hold most dear: our civic values.
Let us meet the challenge and turn difficulties into opportunities to evolve; since extraordinary opportunities often present themselves in extraordinary times.
The tragic situation we are going through drives home essential notions such as “we are the others” and that nobody can survive this on their own. We will put it behind us only if we support each other, in the name of the values we share.
Therefore, it is my great pleasure to quote these enlightening stanzas by John Donne:
“No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as any manner of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
Last but not least I would like to express a most heartfelt thank you to our IT team members – whose swift and competent contribution has ensured a frictionless transition to remote learning mode. Thank you so much.
An equally heartfelt thank you goes to the teaching staff, for showing their professionalism and love towards our school while working all hours, against all sorts of difficulties.
Thank you to all those who are cooperating, thank you to all the parents: this would not have been possible without your support.
See you soon, we hope for our beautiful school, and thanks to everyone.