“Why study history?” is a question students ask, not because they lack passion for the subject, but because they seem to be naturally more focused on the present than on the past. The answers I myself would give are myriad, ranging from the importance of building collective memory to that
Read More!Category: Head of School
Qu’est-ce que le bonheur?
Most often, I think back on growing up in Vienna as an extraordinarily happy period. For three years, between the ages of six and nine, my three siblings and I had the pleasure of playing for hours in the gardens around Schönbrunn Palace, taking the tramway, going to the opera, among
Read More!Percival’s Question
Two thoughts kept coming to mind this past Thursday evening, as I listened to the remarkable discussion on social entrepreneurship taking place in the Lycée Français de New York Cultural Center. The first was one of gratitude to Pascale Richard for organizing such a brilliant event, which from the large
Read More!Teaching our Students about Social Entrepreneurship
Each year, the Cultural Center of the Lycée Français de New York is proud to organize three “21st Century Citizenship Panel Discussions.” These evening events are intended for Lycee Francais de New York students and other members of the school community, but are also open to the public at large. After
Read More!A propos de la rigueur
The early morning at the the Lycée Français de New York is a wonderful time because it is then that we welcome our students to school. It is also when we have the opportunity to engage in many a thought-provoking conversation about education. “Mr. Lynch, by any chance have you
Read More!Found in Non-Translation
English-speakers will have heard the expression, “lost in translation.” In all humility, I would like to propose a complementary saying, that of “found in non-translation”. This thought occurred to me last weekend when a friend and I were discussing an article we had both read on huffingtonpost.com, entitled “Eleven Untranslatable
Read More!The Snow Day that Wasn’t
One would be hard-pressed to find a place more full of cajoling than the entrance to the Lycée Français de New York this past Wednesday morning, particularly on the primary side of campus. Student after student had but one feeling to express: dissatisfaction, good-natured dissatisfaction, but dissatisfaction nonetheless! No matter
Read More!FAQs about Design Thinking
One of the most exciting concepts being explored by educators today is known as design thinking. The education departments of leading universities like Harvard and Stanford are conducting research into it; professional development conferences for faculty and administrators are providing workshops in this field. Following a conversation I had about
Read More!Madiba
This past Tuesday morning, we celebrated the life of Nelson Mandela by observing a minute of silence in all of our classes from CE2* through Terminale, just as leaders from around the world gathered in Johannesburg to attend the official memorial service for this extraordinary human being, universally considered to
Read More!Nous pensons, donc nous sommes!
Many will know the celebrated words of French philosopher René Descartes, “je pense, donc je suis”. I am borrowing them because they convey the critical importance of reflection in life. Yet I am also taking the liberty of changing the pronouns employed, out of a deep conviction that the best
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