Our ninth grade students and secondary school choir had the unique privilege today of taking part in a deeply moving ceremony organized at the Lycée Français de New York by the French Consulate and the American Society for the French Legion of Honor. In connection with the Veterans’ Day commemorations of this coming Sunday, Mr. Bertrand Lortholary, the Consul General of France in New York, and Mr. Guy Wildenstein, President of the American Society for the French Legion of Honor, bestowed France’s highest decoration, the “Légion d’Honneur”, on 19 American veterans of the Second World War. Five of our ninth graders read texts evoking the D-Day landings and the LFNY Choir led us in singing the French and American national anthems. Please find below the words of welcome with which I opened this unforgettable event.
“Mesdames et messieurs, Monsieur le Consul Général de France à New York, Mr. President of the American Society for the French Legion of Honor, Mr. President of the French Federation of Veterans of War, Monsieur le Général, students, teachers and other members of the community of the Lycée Français de New York, and above all dear veterans and your families, our esteemed guests of honor on this most special occasion, it is an extraordinary privilege to welcome you this afternoon.
It is an extraordinary privilege because we are here today, 68 years after the D-Day landings which began on June 6, 1944, to honor the courage, the determination, the sacrifices of 19 veteran soldiers from the armed forces of the United States of America who helped to liberate France from the yoke of tyranny during the Second World War, risking their lives thousands of kilometers from their own country to uphold ideals regarding freedom, democracy and the human spirit which are at the heart of American and French civilization and indeed at the heart of the unique friendship which has existed between the United States and France for some 300 hundred years.
Dear veterans, thank you very much for the inestimable gift of allowing us to celebrate this exceptional ceremony in the presence of our ninth grade class and secondary school choir, young people whose infinite goodness is at once innate and nurtured by the education they are fortunate to receive in their lives. Two days ago, these same students had the opportunity to learn about the Normandy landings from one of world’s preeminent historians of the World War Two period, Professor Olivier Wieviorka. How profoundly meaningful it is for them therefore to be able to meet you today, you whose convictions and actions wove the very fabric of history which they have studied and which they know made possible the dreams for the future they have today.
I am reminded of the years I spent as a history teacher in France, years during which I had the pleasure of organizing more than a dozen school trips to the Pointe du Hoc, Omaha Beach and other locations along the Normandy coast. It is with great emotion that I will always recall how on those wonderful journeys from Paris to Colleville-sur-Mer our school bus would quieten itself at almost the same moment each time. Students would be talking and laughing, but then as we topped that last hill before heading down towards the sea, one by one they would hush their conversations, as one by one they caught sight of the beaches ahead. And then there would be quiet. That same quiet which accompanied our ninth graders and choir singers a few moments ago when they entered our auditorium and came into your presence, dear veterans. A quiet which reflects the natural affinity they have as young people with those who devote their lives to making our world better, a quiet too which captures their remarkable attentiveness to what through the example of your own lives you teach them about the indomitable power of hope. On their behalf, thank you very much again for granting them and us all the extraordinary privilege of being with you this afternoon.”
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.