Welcoming Groton’s Essential Workers: Our Faculty

It was no surprise when Groton’s headmaster, who is also a chemist, related operating a school during a pandemic to a principle taught in introductory chemistry courses.

In his opening chapel for Groton School faculty, on September 2, Headmaster and organic chemistry teacher Temba Maqubela put Groton’s resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of Henry Louis Le Chatelier’s principle of thermodynamics, explaining:

“When subjected to an external stress, a system in equilibrium will adjust by absorbing the stress to re-establish equilibrium. In adjusting to the external stress called COVID-19 and now the Delta variant, this is exactly what we are doing,” he said. “We absorb this external stress, adjust, and re-establish our dynamic equilibrium. Dynamic equilibrium is what makes Groton Groton.”

Coming off a year in which effective leadership helped the school function in person, the headmaster explained his approach to leadership. “Leadership during a crisis is not about popularity—it is about delivery and execution,” he said. Seeking consensus can slow vital decisions, on which health and safety rely.

He quoted the Reverend Daniel Heischman, executive director of the National Association of Episcopal Schools, who wrote: “By nature schools are laboratories for the moral interplay between the individual and community. School decisions, be they routine or critical, reflect the perennial, sometimes moral balance between individual desires and what is best for the community.”

Groton, Mr. Maqubela said, “is no exception in the interplay between individual desires and what is best for the community . . . we prioritize safety in the dorms, in-person classes, and a relatively open Circle for those in our community.”

Also at the opening faculty chapel, Headmaster Maqubela announced the first recipient of the Yan Huo Chair for Wellness and Mental Health, Director of Counseling and Psychological Services Dr. Sheila Fritz-Ellis.

He concluded his opening chapel talk by reminding faculty of four important factors for teachers to remember, adapted from Scholastic Education Solutions:

Create a safe, welcoming learning environment in every interaction with students.
Reconnect with your students and advisees, especially those who may feel dislocated because they learned virtually last year.
Lean on each other and be compassionate.
Meet students where they are, not necessarily where you want them to be.

Finally, he reminded Groton faculty how the world looks at teachers now: as essential workers.

“We are universally recognized and acknowledged by society as essential workers, let us be true to that phrase—essential workers,” Mr. Maqubela said. “Let us go forth and have a great, fruitful, and fulfilling academic year."

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