This week I was not in Montreal.  I was supposed to be there for my annual conference but attended virtually instead.  I was dreading the experience, but the keynote addresses were outstanding and so, despite the format, I learned a lot and found it worthwhile.

 

As Chair of the Cirque du Soleil, Canadian Mitch Garber told us the challenges he faced when annual revenue dropped this year from $1.2 billion to $0.  Having to let go over 1,600 employees was a horrible experience. Trying to predict what the future will be for live circus shows like Cirque du Soleil is impossible. I also didn’t know that Aldo was a Canadian, family-run fashion company with thousands of stores worldwide, but I quickly learned that “brick and mortar” stores were in trouble before the pandemic began and absolutely devasted with sales down to nothing afterwards. For Aldo, online sales are the future and shopping mall stores are not. In fact, with their high rents and competition from virtual shoppers and big box stores, shopping malls across the world face an uncertain future.

 

We are all wrestling with uncertainty.    

 

The big question which touched every aspect and topic of the conference was: will there be a “new” normal or will there be a mad rush to go back to normal when the pandemic is over.  One presenter was Luyen Chou, the Chief Learning Officer at 2U, a cloud-based educational company that offers virtual degree programmes to universities and colleges around the world.  According to him, there will never be a return to the status quo ante (the way things were before), and that the future of all education will utilize online curricula and artificial intelligence to enhance learning. In fact, he says, our schools are increasingly irrelevant and that the needs of current and future students are beyond what we offer.  Alex Usher, the President of Higher Education Strategy Associates says that, “It is going to end. Soon(ish). And we are going to get back to a pre-COVID normal relatively quickly. People telling you this is the new normal are trying to sell you something.”

 

And so, after a few days of all this confusion I leave my computer and return to campus life. It is gorgeous. Fall colours and smiling students greet me. I learn that our Debaters have won the provincial championships and that our Cross-Country runners Aria MacDonald and Francois Richard (both Class of 2020) have won Regionals and the Senior Boys won the Regional Banner. On Wednesday night after prep, there were 22 boys and girls (day and boarding students!) of all ages and nations, excited to be playing touch rugby under the lights on the turf field. On Thursday I found myself joining in with a group of students in Grade 6 who were happily skipping (for real…not being truant. lol!) during Wellness class with Ms. Schafer.  Trailing 0-2 after two periods to Cape Breton last night, our hockey girls overwhelmed their opposition with superior fitness and teamwork to emerge victorious at 4 – 2! There is nothing virtual about any of this. It is all good and healthy and joyous and real.

 

I don’t know what the post-pandemic era will be like, but I hope it includes what David Bensadoun says has “guided us (Aldo) amidst the many storms we have been through: Love, Respect, Integrity.” I would like to think that these aspects of a KES education will also be relevant for generations of students to come.