Part 2: History and social Context
#SOULJOY
I stumbled upon the existence and legacy of historically Black boarding schools as well as our school's socially conscious Black student affinity group that existed during the Black Power Era: Afro-Am Society. I dedicated my History and Social Context's mission term paper to these topics at the end of my first year in the program. I revisited the paper in the spring of my second year teaching with the following questions in mind: why and how do faculty attach themselves (or not) to the mission statements of their institutions? Whom does this attachment serve?
I wrote an Addendum to that paper, justifying my decision to avoid engaging rigorously with the mission statement of our school. Essentially, I now understand that I was anticipating – actively trying to resist – using our school's mission statement to appease a number of discomforts that working in elite boarding schools causes me: survivor's remorse and an internal pull to contribute elsewhere, for example.
Click on any of the pictures of me and a few of my mentors to read my History and Social Context term paper and its addendum.
I wrote an Addendum to that paper, justifying my decision to avoid engaging rigorously with the mission statement of our school. Essentially, I now understand that I was anticipating – actively trying to resist – using our school's mission statement to appease a number of discomforts that working in elite boarding schools causes me: survivor's remorse and an internal pull to contribute elsewhere, for example.
Click on any of the pictures of me and a few of my mentors to read my History and Social Context term paper and its addendum.
There is so much thoughtful discourse in the Hermonite, the student publication, after the assassination (of Dr. King Jr.) and memorial services. Two, for example, stick out to me: “The Push is Now the Shove” by Thomas C. Harrison and Souljoy by Tony Garcia and Clinton Adams. Garcia and Adams quote Malcolm X and eschew their Black predecessors in elite educations rather disparagingly –although in line with the times. They insist that they will not, like their predecessors, be whitewashed. Instead, they insist that they will employ what other people call Black Pride and what some people at Northfield Mount Hermon refer to as Souljoy: “more than happiness in being Black.” It’s beautiful... (The Hermonite, Archives at NMH) (Jackson, 2018). |
I attended NMH as a postgraduate student in the 2012-2013 school year. I'm thankful for all of my former teachers and supporters that continue to cultivate my talents and inspire me as colleagues and mentors.
"...I have a paradoxical relationship with the school: one of both an insider and an outsider. I have no qualms about critiquing our school, even if it means disrupting patterns of fragility and refusing to romanticize what it is that we do. Earlier this week, I heard Anthony Abraham Jack quote James Baldwin; it seems very relevant now as I discuss my commitment to NMH because I care for its students dearly 'I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.' – James Baldwin" (Jackson, 2019, p. 23). |
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What is the purpose of schooling? Is education a public or private good? Grappling with these questions reveal a great deal of conflicting ideologies and realities. |
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Click here to get a glimpse of my early attempts to reconcile some contradictions in my values that emerged from teaching in independent schools.
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The title of Labaree’s (2010) book, Someone Has to Fail, captivates me. He provides a very interesting mix of pessimism, social critique, and irony. His social commentary culminates in a rather drawn out conclusion; “we,” U.S. inhabitants have a tendency to turn to school reform and education to solve social and individual problems. We do this, even though school reform has a long history of being ineffective in ensuring that all of our social goals materialize. He even refers to this resort to school reform as a syndrome (p. 222). He identifies the root cause of this ineffectiveness as “the contradictions in the liberal democratic mind.” He insists that it is impossible to satisfy the three competing goals of education, simultaneously: social efficiency, social mobility, and democratic equality (p. 17-18). While I do agree with the gravitas of those contradictions, I believe that the underlying source of those contradictions lie in the façade of liberal democracy and a democratic republic. Therefore, the public school milestones and narratives that Labaree highlights represent the reality of the aristocratic nature of the United States (2018, Jackson). |