You might have heard that there is an election being held today. Many of you (who watch TV or listen to the radio or use computers or ever leave your home) know that Virginia is considered to be a battleground state. You may also have noticed (especially if you happen to be on Facebook) that people are getting pretty worked up about this election. And they should be. Much is at stake.
One of things about ISW that makes me proudest is that, in these days of sharply drawn political lines, the student and adult members of our little community, which is incredibly diverse, move forward with tremendous respect for one another. We are all over the map politically; we come from many religious traditions; and yet we are united about a few key things. We believe that every student should learn at his or her own pace and that education ought to be both rigorous and, dare I say it, fun. We believe that no one should be glued to a seat in a classroom. We believe we should experience the world with all our senses and that we should go out into that world frequently. And we believe that you are never too young or too old to make a contribution to the world.
This has been a challenging and important election season. Would that we could find a way to bring ISW’s core values—respect, responsibility, integrity, empathy, and commitment to education—to our larger national conversations. With a little luck, one day our students will bring the lessons in civility that they learned here at ISW and at home to the larger world.