Letter to the Editor from Stuy Faculty

Be sure to check out The Spectator Editorial Board’s response here.

By Annie Thoms, Stuyvesant English teacher with the support of 66 teachers and 4 non-pedagogical staff members, whose signatures can be found at the bottom of this letter.

To the Editors:

In “An Open Letter to Principal Yu,” you raise many important points about the way forward for the Stuyvesant community during this unprecedented time. In the section “Hold Teachers to a Higher Standard,” however, you mischaracterize and elide the experience of many Stuyvesant teachers during the emergency pandemic period last spring. The tone of this section is accusatory, and implies that many Stuyvesant teachers chose to check out, that our “effort slipped.” We encourage you to rethink your assessment of our efforts with a more empathetic lens.

Just as the student body had a widely varying set of home circumstances, so did your teachers. Many of us are caring for our own small children at home, and were trying to navigate their remote schooling schedules while fulfilling our own. Many of us were ill, or had family members who were ill. Many of us, like many of you, lost loved ones. Many of us, like many of you, live in apartments where it is not easy to find a space where we can teach uninterrupted. Many of us, like many of you, struggled and continue to struggle with anxiety over the constantly-changing guidelines and requirements that shape our lives in this new reality.

Many of your teachers never stopped working this summer. We researched online teaching platforms and set up and attended informal training sessions for each other during our vacation time. We attended union meetings and SLT meetings, drafted remote and blended learning plans, wrote and signed letters and petitions in our effort to make sure that the new school year would be as safe and as intellectually stimulating as possible. A group of us engaged in an allyship course, meeting regularly and strategizing how to help our Stuyvesant community become more anti-racist. You would not believe the number of full-faculty emails we sent, trying to figure out how to do our jobs and support and teach you to the best of our ability, trying to figure out how to keep ourselves and you and all of our families physically safe.

As we begin this new school year together, it is vital that we extend empathy to each other, and that we recognize that all of us—students, faculty, and staff—are on the same side. In order to make this school year work, we will need open, respectful communication between students, faculty, and staff, and an understanding that we are all coming out of a traumatic spring, and still living and working in the midst of trauma. We all need to do our best in showing up for each other in order to get through this. That begins with empathy.

Sincerely,

Annie Thoms, English Dept.

Marissa Maggio, Biology Dept.

Sophie Oberfield, English Dept.

Maria N. Nedwidek-Moore, Biology Department

Anna Montserrat, World Languages Department

Jessica Quenzer, Biology Department

Minkyu Kim, English Department

Lisa Greenwald, Social Studies Department

Susan Brockman, World Languages Department

Mary McGregor, Librarian

Eric Ferencz, English Department

Stan Kats, Math Department

Jim Cocoros, Math Department

Brenda García, Social Studies Department

Emily Moore, English Department

Shu Shi, World Languages Department

Deame Hua, Biology Department

David Mandler, English Department

Heather Huhn, English Department

Dawn Vollaro, Math Department

Chie Helinski, World Language Department

Eric Wisotsky, Social Studies Department

Devon Butler, Math Department

Ulugbek Akhmedov, Physics Department

Manny Simon, World Languages Department

Ashvin Jaishankar, Math Department

JonAlf Dyrland-Weaver, Computer Science Department

Frida Ambía, World Languages Department

Kim Manning, English Department

Rosa Silverio, World Languages Department

Rosa Mazzurco, English Department

Linda Weissman, Social Studies Department

Rebecca Gorla, Physics Department

Josina Dunkel, Social Studies Department

Undine Guthrie, School Counselor

Jeffrey Kivi, Chemistry Department

Jeffrey Horenstein, Biology Department

Dylan Gunder, World Languages Department

Manny Ramirez, World Languages Department

Emilio Nieves, English Department

Megan Weller, English Department

Glen Chew, Math Department

Vasken Choubaralian, Health & Phys. Ed. Department

Barbara Garber, Health & Phys Ed Department

Darren Vargo, World Languages Department

Gregg Walkes, School Counselor

Ellen Siegel, Social Studies Department

Carrie Chu, Math Department

Debbie Goldberg, Math Department

V. Daniel Tillman, Social Studies Department

Gabriel Ting, Chemistry Department

Ellen Schweitzer, Social Studies Department

Melissa Protass, Math Department

Joseph Stern, Math Department

Deena Avigdor, Math Department

Leslie Bernstein, Technology Department

Aimee Hill, Biology Department

Julie Sheinman, English Department

Karen Leo, Art Department

Anthony Del Latto, Math Department

Lisa Shuman, Social Studies Department

Shangaza Banfield, Biology Department

Allyson Compton, Social Studies Department

Sau Ling Chan, Biology Department

Lisa Weinwurm, Health and Physical Ed. Department

Michael Waxman, Social Studies Department

Rebecca Lindemulder, World Languages Department

Kristina Uy, School Counselor

Meng-Ping Tu, Biology Department

Lori-Ann Newman, Social Studies Department

Catharine Maitner, Math Department