“An instant of happiness is worth a thousand years of history” once penned the great French philosopher Voltaire and I could not agree more! It is with such a sense of delight that I am writing today, dear members of the Lycée Français de New York community, on the eve of our return to school.
As much as we appreciate the summer months, particularly for the chance to reflect and plan which they afford, we on our educational team miss our students very much. After all, they are our reason for being: their learning is the focus of our mission; their love of learning is the measure of our success. We cannot wait until Tuesday when our classrooms and hallways will be bustling once again with their genius and spirit.
This fall, we are particularly pleased to be welcoming 211 new students. Whether they are joining us in Maternelle, Elementary, Middle or High School (see graphics below), we are deeply thankful that they have chosen the Lycée Français and are committed to ensuring that each and every one of them will thrive in our midst. Our school is an especially dynamic and innovative community, but as our 146 new families will soon see, we are an especially warm and open one too, hailing from 50 different countries around the world, all dedicated to an educational ideal which upholds the best of the French and American educational traditions.
Of course, I would rather be sharing these initial words of welcome with you in person and look forward to doing so in just a few days. However, I am also glad to be writing to you by means of our new communication tools, brought to us by our Communications team, Elisabeth King and Cecile Gregoriades: our blog and online news site entitled “LFNY Life”, as well as our electronic bulletin called “L’Essentiel”.
LFNY Life, accessible to you at all times through the school website, aims to reflect the exceptional vibrancy of the teaching, learning and living which take place at the Lycée Français, including a constantly updated calendar, not to mention regular articles from me and the many other voices which compose our educational community. And L’Essentiel, which will be e-mailed to you every Friday, will concentrate on providing timely reminders about upcoming school events and links to some of the latest additions to LFNY Life, for ease of consultation.
Until I have the immense pleasure of greeting you next week, and on behalf of our entire faculty and staff, please accept my best wishes for the Labor Day week-end ahead and above all for an extraordinary year to come. May it be full of the happiness of which Voltaire speaks!
About the Author :
Sean Lynch was Head of School at the Lycée Français de New York from 2011 to 2018, after having spent 15 years at another French bilingual school outside of Paris: the Lycée International de St. Germain-en-Laye. Holding both French and American nationalities, educated in France (Sciences Po Paris) and the United States (Yale), and as the proud husband of a French-American spouse and father of two French-American daughters, Sean Lynch has spent his entire professional and personal life at the junction between the languages, cultures and educational systems of France and the United States. In addition to being passionate about education, he loves everything related to the mountains, particularly the Parc National du Mercantour.