Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration
One of the challenges as an educator, especially a white educator, in a primarily white school, in a primarily white state, is to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr day in a way that is authentic. Carly Fox and I decided this year to focus on Martin Luther King Jr and his legacy of social activism.
We started out the week with the movie Hidden Figures, which tells the story of how black women handled issues of racism and sexism in their day to day jobs at NASA in the 1960s. Because of their insistence on being respected, they helped change their jobs for the better and move NASA forward.
We followed this with our 2nd Annual Diversity Conference this years title was “Everybody, Everybody;” Reimagining Gender and Sexuality in Our Schools. The conference was a great success with teachers, administrators, and students from seven schools and districts attending. We had lots of purposeful conversation about how to work with gender and sexuality issues at our school and make our communities more inclusive for all gender and sexual identities. Current VA student Sarah Jacobelli ’19 said, “it was incredible to meet many different queer student leaders and discuss gender and sexuality in our schools. I believe that we are on a path to make great strides in supporting the LGBTQ+ students at VA, and am excited to open up new discussions with the community!”
On Monday we had an all-school presentation where Carly Fox, Diversity/Inclusion Coordinator and History teacher, gave us a historical perspective of Dr. King’s work in social activism both with the Civil Rights movement and other movements, and how he felt that they were interconnected. We followed this with a performance of the Vermont Academy and Kurn Hattin choirs who sang selections which encouraged people to become involved in changing the world to make it a better place.
Next Ms. Fox and I had a panel with two local activists, John Bohannon from the Community Asylum Seekers Project and Mo Motel from the Brattleboro Community Justice Center, who spoke about their work here in Vermont. As four white people on stage, we addressed the importance of recognizing and acknowledging white privilege and working to dismantle white supremacy. Students were given information about how they can become involved with local programs during advisory meeting on Tuesday.
On Tuesday night, as part of residential life night, the community viewed the film The Hate U Give which deals with the issues of institutionalized racism and police brutality. The Hate U Give was also one of our summer reading books last summer. This was followed up with discussion questions during advisory meeting on Wednesday. We see this as a start to important conversations about ways that we interact with each other and the choices that we make. We encourage our students, especially our underrepresented students, to join in the conversation. With each added voice, we become a more vital community and start to address real and important issues in an authentic and meaningful way.
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We followed this with our 2nd Annual Diversity Conference this years title was “Everybody, Everybody;” Reimagining Gender and Sexuality in Our Schools. The conference was a great success with teachers, administrators, and students from seven schools and districts attending. We had lots of purposeful conversation about how to work with gender and sexuality issues at our school and make our communities more inclusive for all gender and sexual identities. Current VA student Sarah Jacobelli ’19 said, “it was incredible to meet many different queer student leaders and discuss gender and sexuality in our schools. I believe that we are on a path to make great strides in supporting the LGBTQ+ students at VA, and am excited to open up new discussions with the community!”
On Monday we had an all-school presentation where Carly Fox, Diversity/Inclusion Coordinator and History teacher, gave us a historical perspective of Dr. King’s work in social activism both with the Civil Rights movement and other movements, and how he felt that they were interconnected. We followed this with a performance of the Vermont Academy and Kurn Hattin choirs who sang selections which encouraged people to become involved in changing the world to make it a better place.
Next Ms. Fox and I had a panel with two local activists, John Bohannon from the Community Asylum Seekers Project and Mo Motel from the Brattleboro Community Justice Center, who spoke about their work here in Vermont. As four white people on stage, we addressed the importance of recognizing and acknowledging white privilege and working to dismantle white supremacy. Students were given information about how they can become involved with local programs during advisory meeting on Tuesday.
On Tuesday night, as part of residential life night, the community viewed the film The Hate U Give which deals with the issues of institutionalized racism and police brutality. The Hate U Give was also one of our summer reading books last summer. This was followed up with discussion questions during advisory meeting on Wednesday. We see this as a start to important conversations about ways that we interact with each other and the choices that we make. We encourage our students, especially our underrepresented students, to join in the conversation. With each added voice, we become a more vital community and start to address real and important issues in an authentic and meaningful way.
Vermont Academy is a coed college preparatory boarding and day school in southern Vermont, serving grades 9-12 plus a postgraduate year.
