Thanksgiving 2021 was a successful, joyous, and memorable event.

As always, the American School celebrated this important American holiday which is always held on the fourth Thursday of November. The day is an opportunity to gather with those people who are important to us, enjoy a traditional feast (the main attraction being a roast turkey), and, most important, giving thanks for all of our blessings.

This year, we had the pleasure of hosting our Erasmus Plus visitors, both teachers and students, from Croatia, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Greece. Of all of the things to be grateful for, this was added to the list. The opportunity for our young people to be able to meet, get to know, and work collaboratively with their peers from other countries is an important one, and to see them together was a pleasure.

Actually, the school had three celebrations. One for the younger students, one for the older students, and finally, pani Asia Nowakowska arranged a celebration for the school’s cleaning ladies and pan Kazik.

 In addition to a day dedicated to gratitude, Thanksgiving is a day predicated on Hope. The first Thanksgiving at Plymouth in 1621 was inspired by Hope. The Pilgrims had left England, their homes, other loved ones, and everything they knew, to venture into a completely unknown land to begin new lives. Clearly, Hope was one of their driving forces. Thanksgiving was made a national holiday by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, at a time when the United States was involved in its terrible Civil War, when the question of whether or not America’s experiment in democracy and self-government, a nation “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal” (to quote Lincoln’s immortal words) was unanswered. Again, with such uncertainty, Lincoln had to rely on Hope. And we again find ourselves in troubling and confusing times, with many unanswered questions. And one more time, it is Hope that will get us through. We at the American School are proud and privileged to be able to do our part to educate our students and help them develop their characters, and I’m sure you agree with me that they embody all of our Hopes.