Dear ACS Families,
First, I want to give kudos to all ACS students who participated in, planned, and attended the first Tiny Desk concert last night in the Upper School library. It was wonderful to see the passion and commitment of our talented performers and to see such a great audience turnout. Thanks as well to the many faculty who helped with planning and supporting the event, namely music teachers Mona Dleikan and Abir Hallik, Arts Coordinator Joanne Saad, and Activities Director Martin Mugharbil. Having attended numerous sports and other events this fall, I've been impressed with just how involved our students are.
School, of course, can be a stressful place, especially as students move up through the grade levels and academic expectations become more demanding. When students get to high school, the pressures of IB exams, more rigorous academic assessments and expectations across the board, and the university application also come to bear.
There are social stresses as well. Not all students have an easy time moving from elementary school, to middle school, and then to high school. This is a challenging period of growth and constant change. Students are trying to figure out who they are, which people they enjoy being around, and how their peers are responding to them. Even the most self-assured and confident people may sometimes struggle.
Probably one of the best antidotes for coping with these various stresses is getting involved in activities outside of academic classes. Although this can add to the time demands on students, the benefit of feeling that you are doing something with people who have shared interests and desires, regardless of whether they are one's friends or not, helps students to feel more connected and less isolated. Moreover, the more connected students are, the more willing they will be to come out to support friends and peers who may be participating in a very different activity. Therefore, when challenges and stresses arise as they invariably do, students who are more actively engaged with our community are naturally buoyed by the feeling of belonging to something that is far larger than themselves.
I always encourage students to be as involved as they possibly can be at school. Parents, please encourage your children to get involved if they aren't actively involved already. Not only will this benefit themselves in countless ways, it also helps to strengthen and tighten our community, and this is good for all of us.
Sincerely,
