Back To School

Yes, Harry will be starting school tomorrow!  Many children in Harry's situation either take a year off from school or spend the year in home schooling, to devote full attention to medical realities.  The time this summer that Harry spent with friends did more to make him feel better than just about anything else.  So we decided that keeping him in school would boost his morale and help him to keep up the fight.

We owe a huge thank you to the entire Sidwell team which worked all summer to make sure that Harry could continue simultaneously on rigorous academic and medical schedules.  We start with Jasmin Whitfield, the school nurse, and our first point of contact.  Jasmin was given the task of coordinating the team to keep Harry at school and keep him safe medically.  Sidwell has never had a student on active chemo attend school, so this was a challenge.  But that's what Sidwell is all about - meeting the challenge.

Nurse Jasmin

Jasmin was like Professor X. Xavier: she assembled a team of superheroes and brought them into action.  The team: Principal Mamadou Gueye, Academic Dean Min Kim, Dean of Students Michael Woods, Guidance Counselor Gaby Grebski, Academic Technology Coordinator Dawn Berkeley, and Learning Support Coodinator Michelle Schneck.  They held countless summer meetings to ensure Harry could attend school.  And the team also includes Harry's teachers this year - Mr. Patwardhan, Mr. Senger, Ms. Wang, and Mr. Markey.  And, in our meeting with everyone, we heard the words from Mamadou & Min that no upper school parent has ever heard in that office:  "We don't want you to worry about the grades.  They are not important."   (Ken still left worrying.)

Dean Kim

Min & Dawn evaluated numerous remote access formats to develop a system to allow Harry to be in school when he cannot be. Through applications and cameras in each classroom, Harry's classes will be webcast to him on days he may be in the hospital or unable to come to school.  In addition to allowing Harry to participate live, classes will be recorded for days Harry cannot 'attend' remote due to surgical procedures, low blood counts or just plain old feeling lousy.  And all his teachers had to go through extra training to ensure it all works.

Principal Mamadou

We are also deeply grateful to Mamadou for sending a notice reminding all parents to take extra precaution this year and keep students who feel ill at home.  As readers of this blog know, catching even a minor cold could be like pneumonia to Harry, and a fever like Ebola and Ebola - well let's not even go there!  (And Ken, for the record, has even curtailed his Africa travels.)

Harry refused to move down a level in math or to give up Chinese.  But to lighten his schedule, he will forego science this year.  His absences will make lab catch up too difficult.  So Harry he will either take an extra science junior year (and take history or English over the summer) or try to study and place out of Chem I.  Still, even without science, it will be a very demanding year for Harry academically as he will also have his extra "labs" in chemo three times per week.

In addition to everything else, Nurse Jasmin is providing Harry with a nap space, should he need some down time.

In the big thank you of the week, we are deeply grateful to everyone at Sidwell who dedicated so much time this summer to allowing Harry to continue to be part of this amazing school.