A little while ago, Amanda said to me, "Dad, we (the students) are living through history." What she meant, of course, was that they had lived through a pandemic and were headed into a world conflict. This made me reflect on my own life and the words of Winston Churchill, "If we do not learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it.".

I thought back to what I had lived through and realized that it was not completely different from what our youth have been through. I lived through the war in Iraq, the Oklahoma City bombing, the attack on the World Trade Center, the attack on Parliament Hill (which to be fair our kids lived through as well). None of these had the magnitude of impact that the pandemic did (and continues to have), but they were historical events nonetheless. They also had a similar effect on society in that they caused a polarization of society, in that people took sides. All of these events, as do most historical events create division. Ironically, almost universally, they only way to get through many of these events is together.

Once again, we find ourselves polarized by the events of the last 2 years. In fact, we may be more polarized than we have ever been (although it is likely that everyone feels the situation they are in is the most drastic, so I may be incorrect). However, I think that we are lucky in that we have a group of people who have shown us the answer, our students.

Very early on, I began my mantra that the only way through all of this was together. Although I fully believed (and still do believe) that this is true, it was not clear to me how it would all work out. Over the last 2 years, our students have shown me how and solidified my belief that together is how we get through anything, no matter how hard. When things were at their worst at school, when we had to keep grades completely separate and there could be no mixing, our students reacted by renewing and reinvigorating their relationships within their classes. When they were confined to classrooms for the entire day, they found activities that they could do in the classroom and during the body breaks. In short, they reacted to being forced apart by finding ways to be together.

I think that this is precisely the challenge that we must meet as adults. Every day, it seems, that forces are at play to deepen the divides within our society; whether they be political, geographical, economic, etc. We need to, like our students, dig deep within ourselves and find ways to come together. We need to stand up to the forces (whatever they might be) who seek to polarize for their own purposes and show them, like we have so many times historically, that together we got this.