From the Head of School

Thanksgiving in an International School

A small cluster of families, poor and marginalised in their own land, club together to buy a battered boat.  They cross the sea for a more hospitable land, a better life: more like economic migrants than asylum seekers.

When they arrive, survival is harder than they had anticipated; the new land needs new ways they are yet to learn.  

Fortunately, some of the locals provide an aid package for the immigrants, helping their survival, those first difficult years.  That year was 1621, when both groups joined in a feast of thanksgiving.  

That was hundreds of years ago; today, in the land where they arrived, to be descended from those poor bedraggled immigrants, is a particular honour.  Every year, a whole nation tracing their roots to these first few, hold feasts to, in turn, give thanks.

It is not just Americans who celebrate Thanksgiving, and ISA’s recognition of it this week was not intended as a remembrance of the Pilgrim Fathers - but literally an opportunity to give thanks.  But, for an international school, the American story is worth remembering.  The care shown by the Wampanoag to these strangers was an early act of global citizenship.  Ultimately these European immigrants survived not just by the charity of the locals, but by learning from them - the ability to learn from each other is a good lesson for an international school.

Drop into Thistle Talk’s counsellors’ corner to see some of the many benefits of gratitude.  On Thursday, our  elementary school students took time out to remember all they have to be grateful for.  We may also note that kindness to immigrants can be a source of national celebration.