Fishburne Military School announces resumption of in-person classes in August

Fishburne Military School will begin classes for the 2020-2021 school year in mid-August.

In a letter to its cadets, parents, and prospective families that went out on Wednesday, the all-male, military, boarding school outlined its comprehensive plan for the resumption of in-person classes and athletics.

In the letter, Capt. Mark Black, US Navy (Retired), superintendent of Fishburne Military School, noted “we at Fishburne Military School have withstood the test of time. We intend to demonstrate that mettle again throughout the 2020-2021 academic year.”

The school’s reopening plan emphasizes that the campus will be treated as a “restricted, sanctuary environment” throughout the year and that the school will implement a hybrid of traditional classroom instruction and online, virtual classroom technology.

While some assignments and instruction will be offered to cadets online in order to limit the number of students in a classroom at any one time, “our students will have in-person instruction every day,” Black said.

“Our faculty and staff have developed a schedule that employs a symbiotic relationship between actual and virtual classrooms that will greatly benefit the Corps of Cadets while maintaining the highest level of safety possible,” Black said.

The Fishburne Plan explains that “the greatest strengths of in-person learning stem from the face-to-face contact which enhances the breadth of the lesson. In person, an instructor can tailor the lesson through a better understanding of the students’ comprehension levels … online learning is more tailored to a one-size-fits-all model which focuses on key points in the curriculum and provides opportunities for reinforcing actual classroom instruction. A strictly online environment, however, is not conducive to capturing the nuances of a lesson or understanding the dynamics or individual comprehension.”

Students will begin returning to the Waynesboro, VA campus on Aug. 9 with the entire student body expected to return by Aug. 15. Classes are scheduled to resume on Aug. 18.

The complete reopening plan will be published to the school’s website at www.Fishburne.Org early next week.