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Tuesday, November 22, 2016


Dear Friends,As we break for Thanksgiving, I want to express my appreciation to you and your children for helping to make Sidwell Friends such an extraordinary institution. With a contentious presidential election behind us, I remain grateful to work in a community that believes that there is that of God, that there is goodness, in each person. We are fortunate to anchor ourselves in a philosophy that, to quote our Diversity Statement, “affirms the centrality of diversity and inclusion in all aspects of academic and campus life,” that honors a “multiplicity of voices,” that seeks to “address tensions productively,” and that asks, “How do we nurture a sense of belonging and community and demonstrate our commitment to a just world?”At a moment when our nation is divided over an array of issues, Friends’ practices such as deep listening, truth seeking, peaceful resolution of conflict, and a commitment to honoring the inherent worth and dignity of each individual serve as moral touchstones. In fact, without using these “soft skills” to open respectful dialogue about ideological differences, we will not likely succeed at doing the hard work that will enable our democracy to flourish.As we consider this work, we might find comfort in knowing that Thanksgiving was established to help unify the nation during one of the most acrimonious moments in our history. In 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, the nation’s first Republican president, invited “fellow-citizens in every part of the United States … to observe the last Thursday of November … as a day of thanksgiving.” Although Lincoln is credited with proclaiming the holiday, his motivation came from Sarah Josepha Hale, a Boston-based magazine editor whose persistence and intellect persuaded him to establish a national holiday to help “heal the wounds of the nation and restore it … to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.”More than a century and a half later, we still approach this uniquely American holiday as a means of fully enjoying the qualities that Lincoln enumerated. As we gather with family and friends this Thanksgiving, let us make time to consider how we might discover common ground in our community, improve civil discourse, demonstrate respect for all, and let our lives speak to the values of simplicity, peace, integrity, equality, and stewardship.Today, I give thanks to be working with you in this effort and to know that you care deeply about the heart of our democracy and the spirit of our School. I am grateful to our students for their open minds, our faculty and staff for their open hearts, and our parents and alumni for their support. I wish you a restorative, restful, and peaceful Thanksgiving, and I look forward to continuing the long and essential conversation about the importance of being a Quaker school in the nation’s capital.In friendship and with gratitude,BryanBryan GarmanHead of School


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