Designing Afro-Latino Curriculum for Self-Determination
During the 2015 Afrolatino Festival of New York in a panel discussion on the contextualization of blackness, William Garcia briefly mentioned working to implement Afro-Latino curriculum in schools, which greatly intrigued us. Thus, we reached out to him to learn more. His amazingly detailed and extensive response, published below, recommends “looking for solidarity between oppressed people in the United States but also involves questioning African American and Latino nomenclature”. Prior to beginning, it is noteworthy that William Garcia describes these topics as “difficult conversations”. Thus, we encourage critical analysis, respect, and “productive dialogues with parents, students, communities, family members, and friends”, perhaps along with cultural resources from our People of African Descent in Latin America unit.
Designing Afro-Latino Pedagogy for Self-Determination (by William Garcia)
American Negro must remake his past in order to make his future (Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, 1874-1938)
With an increased media attention to police violence there is an emergence of educators utilizing Black Lives Matter as a movement to create and develop curriculums of social justice (Rethinking Schools 2015). The recent article “Black Students’ Lives Matter: Building the school-to-justice pipeline” (2015) posits:
For the past decade, social justice educators have decried the school-to-prison pipeline: a series of interlocking policies—whitewashed, often scripted curriculum that neglects the contributions and struggles of people of color; zero tolerance and racist suspension and expulsion policies; and high-stakes tests—that funnel kids from the classroom to the cellblock. But, with the recent high-profile deaths of young African Americans, a “school-to-grave pipeline” is coming into focus.
But yet what does it mean to be black in the United States? Am I as an Afro-Latino allowed to call myself Black? Who gets to be African American? Some recommendations from the article include:
- Provide a social justice, anti-racist curriculum that gives students the historical grounding, literacy skills, and space to explore the emotional intensity of feelings around the murder of Black youth by police
- Support students who want to have conversations about the Black Lives Matter movement outside the classroom, in school forums or school clubs
- Raise the Black Lives Matter movement with other teachers at our schools
These recommendations do not mention the growing Hispanic population that is also comprised of Afro-Latinos. Afro-Latinos are people of African descent in Mexico, Central and South America, and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, and by extension those of African descent in the United States whose origins are in Latin America and the Caribbean (Flores & Jimenez, 2010). According to a recent poll ‘Hispanics’ will be the overwhelming majority in the U.S., yet there is little knowledge of how race, ethnicity, gender and national identity functions under a nomenclature of Latinidad in the U.S. For many, Latinos are all composed of one race and have little differences between us. The one-size-fits-all approach to Latino students is the approach many educators act upon when educating and interacting with their Latino population. When one considers the census categories, Latinos are denied access into two races —Black Non-Hispanic and white Non-Hispanic— and then categorized as an ethnicity.
A diverse Afro-descended student population mainly from Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America has complicated the topic on what it is to be black in the United States. If all Black Lives Matter, then is being black synonymous with being African American? Can Afro-Cubans or Afro-Colombians be black?
Fixed categories of blackness do not allow Afro-Latinos to identify and explore their identities, which creates an invisibility of how policy, especially in the realm of education, has not been developed to attend to their academic needs. There is a need to redefine what it means to be black in this country [Editor’s Note: See Soulville Census: Learning about the Nuances of Blackness]. Essentialist forms of blackness in the U.S. make it difficult for students to relate to the way that we can understand race critically and politically as well as teaching in ways that are culturally relevant for them.
When it comes to the social-emotional condition of Afro-Latino students in the classroom it is clear that they are culturally and racially misunderstood which seems to lead to higher levels of depression in these students. For example, in 2003 an academic article titled: “Dual Ethnicity and Depressive Systems: Implications on Being Black and Latino in the United States” indicated that Afro-Latino females tended to exhibit higher levels of depressive symptoms than adolescent males and older adolescents tended to show higher levels of depression than younger adolescents.
- Empirical research on the social and psychological adjustment of Latinos of African decent is virtually non-existent.
- Many adolescents comment were: “People were unfriendly to me”, “I felt that people disliked me”.
- Many Afro-Latinos are faced with a number of stressors associated with their unique dual ethnicity and double minority status.
- Afro-Latinos in therapy mentioned also having distress due to having problems fitting in and gaining acceptance from peers at a time when that is a high priority.
Another article that sheds light on how schools in the United States fail to create curriculums for Afro-Latino students is Ramos-Zayas’ “Learning Affect, Embodying Race: Youth, Blackness, and Neoliberal Emotions in Latino Newark” (2011) which concluded in his transnational study that: In Newark and Belo Horizonte (Brazil) only two students identified as black and deployed Afro-Brazilian pride and solidarity language. As a result, their friends challenged their Black self-identification and simply did not feel these students looked Black and accused the students from Belo Horizonte of identifying as black because it was trendy particularly in light of affirmative actions discussions happening at the times. In this study, there was also a Puerto Rican student from Santurce, an urban city in Puerto Rico who felt that Blackness was based on spatial terms, following a “Rastafari” identity or living in Piñones, areas associated with Afro-Caribbean arts and folklore though not with explicit struggles of racial justice and empowerment. Meaning, even when Afro-Latinos identify with their blackness, other students policed and defended established notions of identity.
Afro-Latino Racial Literacy in order to Denounce Racism
According to Ladson Billings (1995) culturally relevant pedagogy is characterized as teaching that empowers students intellectually, emotionally, socially and politically by using cultural referents to impart knowledge, skills and attitudes. This teaching helps black students develop different ways of being black and Latino in a way that helps the students understand themselves and strive for academic excellence. Howard Stevenson’s Promoting Racial Literacy in Schools (2014) defines the goals of racial literacy as:
Strategic deconstruction of racial information and knowledge, the building of healthy, cross-and-same racial relationships, the flexible reconstruction of racial identity, the willful, choosing of racial styles and self-expression, and the assertive countering of racial stereotypes.
Afro-Latino students need to master micro-aggressions from Latinos, which is an understudied topic. Much research is needed in order to understand how Latinos reproduce racist experiences through racial interactions. Racist forms of racial socializations remain a taboo discussion topic in Latino communities, which can be extremely complicated, what Derald Wing Sue calls Race Talk and The Conspiracy of Silence (2015), a type of silence which he believes harms society and does not allow productive dialogues with parents, students, communities, family members, and friends.
Afro-Latinos in the U.S. have what Juan Flores called a ‘triple consciousness’, a term borrowed from W.E.B. Du Bois in order to define Afro-Latinos as black, Latino and U.S. American. Afro-Latino students need to be trained to confront racial blindness in Latino communities in the U.S. by first knowing that comments such as: “I’m not racist, my grandfather’s black”, “There’s no racism between Latinos”, “I’m not white, I’m light skin”, “We’re both black because we’re both in the U.S.”, “I’m not racist because we’re all mixed”, “The Civil Rights Movement is moreno history”, “You’re not that black”, “You don’t look Puerto Rican, you sure you’re not Dominican?”, are all good examples of day-to-day experiences of micro-aggressions that Afro-Latinos youth have to confront.
This is a good time to explore the genealogy of spoken word and explore Willie Perdomo’s “N****r-Reecan Blues”, Tato Laviera’s “El Arrabal: Nuevo Rumbón” and “Ode to the Diasporican (pa’ mi gente)” by María Teresa (Mariposa) Fernández, who all explore their blackness and Latinidad in the U.S., can be easily added to a curriculum in poetry. Students can then discuss these poems in connection to their own lives as early as upper elementary schools. Storytelling is a great way to help Afro-Latinos relieve the stress they confront on a day-to-day basis.
This lack of culturally relevant pedagogy for Afro-Latino students is reinforced with the proliferation of white and light-skin actors across media. As discussed above, Latino media produces racial stress, self-hatred, depression and at times racial violence especially by Telemundo and Univisión selling a world of whiteness.
Blackface entertainment, which is still a common form of entertainment in Latin American media, can also have devastating and traumatic effects on Afro-Latino students, especially if family members think it is funny and enjoyable. Because of these shortcomings in Afro-Latino education, anti-black racism and white supremacy in the Latino media has to be confronted by engaging with these difficult conversations in schools and with the rest of the community.
Proyecto Más Color is an awareness campaign started by Sophia and Victoria Arzu, two young Honduran-American women of Garifuna descent. Their project promotes the representation of Afro-Latinos and other minorities in Latino media and campaigns for more diverse depiction on Spanish-language television that includes Afro-Latinos and beyond. Furthermore, Victoria Arzu expresses the fundamental and insightful criticism that is disregarded in the Latin@ community: “People need to remember that Latino is not a race”.
Proyecto Más Color
They have written a plethora of letters to Telemundo and Univisión television networks requesting the presence of Afro-Latin@s and other minorities. Telemundo responded to them by saying that they were unable to fulfill the request because it would compromise ratings and because they were based in Mexico. As a response, they founded Proyecto Más Color, which has a created a petition against Telemundo and has accumulated numerous signatures and continues to raise consciousness. In another video posted, “What Am I? (Afro-Latino)”, the Arzua sisters discuss what it is to be Afro-Latinos and confront the assertion that all black people are African Americans. As young students they are an inspiration for other Afro-Latino students who seek visibility and agency. These initiatives have successfully had an impact on a political level.
In September 2014, during Spanish Heritage month, the AfroLatin@ Forum organized a roundtable discussion in New York City to appeal to the U.S. Census Bureau to re-analyze the account of their numbers and recognize Afro-Latino identities.
Afro-Latinos Need Historical Literacy
Recent research by Harvey Graff (Graff, Mackinnon, & Sandin, 2009) suggests a multimodal approach to historical studies of literacy with an emphasis on:
- Multiple literacies and multi-media context (including multilingual)
- History of emotions
- Political culture/political action
- Connecting past, present and future
- Gender, social class, race, ethnicity, generation
However, the question to be posed is: How can we cultivate multilayered and nuanced understanding of subject matter through subtle transactions between teachers and learners? According to Sonia Nieto:
Modifying instruction to be more culturally appropriate is an important skill for teachers who work with students of diverse backgrounds, yet few prospective teachers learn about cultural differences or the type of strategies that can help more students or about how culture may influence their learning. (Nieto, 2002).
Nieto’s useful adaptations to curriculum fosters community-based learning [Editor’s Note: See also Fabian Villegas’ recommendations on community-based learning in Fabian Villegas: Descolonización, más allá de la estética], critical perspectives which can be enhanced by doing research on students’ ethnic, racial, and linguistic background, inviting guests from various Afro-Latino countries from Latin America or the U.S. to visit the classroom, either family members of the classroom or not, preparing students for understanding the history and geography of those countries while relating them to the topic of identity. Socio-political contextualization takes into account the larger societal and political forces in a particular society and the impact they may have on student learning. This framework is concerned with issues of power and includes discussions of structural inequality based on stratifications due to race, social class, gender, ethnicity and so forth.
I also believe that multimodalities are approaches that will ensure that students and teachers have shared understandings of teaching and learning in the classroom (Casey, 2012). This is a good opportunity to mention to students that the conceptual understanding of Afro-Latinidad is not recent. In fact, the notion of being black and from Latin America has been existent for many years. Piri Thomas’s famous book Down These Mean Streets (1967) changed the way we look at race and Latino identity. Piri disagrees with his brother José who is a white Puerto Rican (light skin):
José: “Poppa’s the same as you… Indian.”
Piri: “What kinda Indian?..Caribe? Or maybe Borinquén?”
Piri: “Say, José, didn’t you know the Negro made the scene in Puerto Rico way back? And when the Spanish spics ran outta Indian coolies, they brought them big blacks from you know where. Poppa’s got moyeto blood.”
The novel Down These Mean Streets (1967) argues with his brother by questioning racial democracy in Puerto Rican culture and identity. The fact that Down These Mean Streets, one of the most cherished books of Puerto Rican diaspora literature, questions racial democracy and mestizaje reminds us of the importance of viewing Puerto Rican notions of racial mestizaje with a critical lens. The reality is that it is impossible to understand Afro-Latino identity without having historical understanding of African American/Latino history in the United Sates. Texts such as Down These Mean Streets can be compared with texts such as To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) by Harper Lee, which was published only seven years before Thomas’ masterpiece.
The prominent literature of the African American experience and Black freedom struggles overlaps with what today is known as Latino and American Asian Movements. Many recent studies within Puerto Rican history have explored the development within Black politics (Lee, Flores). However, after the Civil Rights movement, white backlash and internal class and identity divisions broke such coalitions, remaking “Hispanicity” as an ethnic identity that was mutually exclusive from “Blackness”. “Latino” became politicized as both a race and an ethnicity, which erased the long history of Arturo Schomburg, Jesús Colón, Celia Cruz and Carlos Cooks.
African Americans, Afro-Latino and Latinos were pivotal actors within the racialization of “blackness” and “Puerto Rican-ness”. Given the centrality of this issue, Sonia Lee’s Building a Latino Civil Rights Movement (2014) posits that:
Evelina Antonetty a Puerto Rican had been training Puerto Rican and African American mothers to fight for their children’s education in New York City schools since 1965. Standing at the forefront of the bilingual education movement for Spanish-speaking children, she was at the peak of her political activism. Crucially, she was forging national networks with African American, Native American, and Mexican American parents interested in the community control of education.
Although Antonetty took the middle ground and there is confirmatory evidence of Puerto Rican, African American and Afro-Latino coalitions, identity politics has separated the stories of brave activists, as was the case with Antonetty. As Lee argues, “narratives of white backlash are important, but they do not explain how grassroots leaders of color themselves experienced the overall failure of the movement. Closer attention to class divisions within communities of color (and I would suggest identity politics) in the 1970s indicates that professionals and politicians of color played a vital role in dismantling the coalition of grassroots leaders had helped build” (Lee, 2014). For the sake of discussion, I do not think that Antonetty is less important than Rosa Parks or any other activist that fought for racial and social justice during the Civil rights movement, brave warriors, who dismantled the oppressive nature of white supremacy and inequality during the 1960s.
Therefore, historical literacy involves looking for solidarity between oppressed people in the United States but also involves questioning African American and Latino nomenclature. We need to include Afro-Latinos/Latinos when teaching about the Harlem Renaissance, Black Power movements, The Civil Rights Movement, hip-hop music and Rosa Clemente’s leadership in the more current Black Lives Matter movement. For that to occur, Afro-Latino educators have to design curriculum that can meet the Common Core Standards.
Recommendations for Developing Successful Afro-Latino Curriculums
I encourage educators to design Afro-Latino curriculum that manifests cultural sensitivity, varying perspectives, the complex reality of controversial topics, which can be addressed proactively by teachers clarifying any biases in African American/U.S Latino history that excludes Afro-Latinos. The following list represents considerations when designing effective Afro-Latino centered curriculums:
- Legitimizes Afro-Latin American forms of knowledge through shared experiences with African Americans and other Afro-descendants (e.g. Civil Rights, Hip-Hop, U.S. imperialism)
- Scaffolds cultural practices that are part of their identities and communities
- Extends and builds their native languages (including Garifuna, Spanish, Spanglish)
- Reinforces community ties with one’s race, nation, gender and experiences in the U.S.
- Promotes positive social relationships with other Afro-descendants in the U.S. in ways that encompass unity through difference
- Creates an Afro-Latino self-determination and self-worth (socio-emotional)
- Promotes cultural and critical consciousness
In closing, I propose a rich theoretical understanding on Afro-Latino student development based on critical race theory, culturally responsive pedagogy and practice. Addressing racial disparities is about engaging students thereby making their lives better. I believe that creating Afro-Latino pedagogy will create a community of practice in which inquiry is a cornerstone of continuous student self-redefinition through improvement in culturally responsive systems.
We need educators to get involved with Afro-Latino students, our history and the way we occupy space in the Americas in order to address this gap in education.
- Anthony Neil, M. (1998). What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Black Public Culture. Routledge.
- Black Students’ Lives Matter: Building the school-to-justice pipeline. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/29_03/edit293.shtml
- Braxton Peterson, J. (2014). The Hip-Hop Underground and African American Culture: Beneath the Surface. Palgrave Macmillan.
- Dzidzienyo, A., & Oboler, S. (2005). Neither Enemies Nor Friends: Latinos, Blacks, Afrolatinos. Palgrave Macmillan.
- Eric Dyson, M. (2010). Know What I Mean?: Reflections on Hip-Hop. Basic Civitas Books; First Trade Paper Edition.
- Guiner, L. (2005). From Racial Liberalism to Racial Literacy: Brown v. Board of Education and the Interest-Divergence Dilemma. Journal of American History, 91.
- Ramos-Zaya, A. Y. (2011). Learning Affects, Embodying Race: Youth, Blackness, and Neo-Liberal Emotions in Latino Newark. American Anthropological Association, 19(2), 86–104. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-7466.2011.01134.x
- Ramos, B., Jaccard, J., & Guilamo-Ramos, V. (2003). Dual Ethnicity and Depressive Systems: Implications on Being Black and Latino. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 25, 147–173. http://doi.org/http://hjb.sagepub.com/content/25/2/147.full.pdf+html
- Lee, H. (1960). To Kill a Mockingbird 1st Edition Book Club. J B LIPPINCOTT & CO.
- Song-Ha Lee, S. (2014). Building a Civil Rights Movement: Puerto Ricans, African Americans, and the Pursuit of Racial Justice in New York City. University of North Carolina Press.
- Thomas, P. (1967). Down These Mean Streets. Vintage.
- Stevenson, H. C. (2014). Promoting Racial Literacy In Schools: Differences That Makes a Difference. Teachers College.


Feminism in New Zealand
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Feminism in New Zealand began in 1840, when the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi created New Zealand as part of the British Empire under Queen Victoria. The British government passed the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852 which granted limited-self rule, an estimated three-quarters of the adult male European population in New Zealand had the right to vote in the first elections in 1853. Māori first voted in 1868 and women voted in 1893.
In New Zealand there was a distinct history of settler capitalism and homogeneity from subsequent migrant flows, thus the feminist challenges primarily arose from Maori women. Feminists began to emerge throughout the 1960s. Unlike feminism that regarded race, or post colonialism, New Zealand feminism was connected with the existing progressive political organizations. By the 1970s the 1st ‘women’s liberation’ groups began to appear, many of whom were middle class Pakeha women.
New Zealand was the first country in the world in which the five highest offices of power were held by women, which occurred between March 2005 and August 2006, with the Sovereign Queen Elizabeth II of New Zealand, Governor-General Silvia Cartwright, Prime Minister Helen Clark, Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives Margaret Wilson and Chief Justice Sian Elias.
- 1 Pre-colonisation
- 2 History
- 3 Issues
- 4 Important Changes and Initiatives
- 5 Families and households
- 6 Opposition to Change
- 7 Māori Feminism
- 8 See also
- 9 References
- 10 Further reading
- 11 External links
Prior to European settlement of New Zealand, kinship systems in Māori tribes were often arranged matrilineally. Diplomacy and rituals of exchange between Māori tribes were also often arranged according to the concept of mana wahine, the prestige and political power held by a woman or the women of a tribe. Today, numerous Māori iwi and hapu descended from such women insist on identifying themselves as being "the people of" that particular female ancestor. For example, on the East Coast of the North Island a prominent iwi group is Ngāti Kahungunu, eponymous of the male ancestor Kahungunu. However within the Mahia area of that region, there is a local preference for the name Ngāti Rongomaiwahine; Rongomaiwahine being known as the more prestigious ancestor of the people there. Similar insistence is made by members of Ngāti Hinemoa and Ngāti Hinemanu.
Recent scholarship has challenged the popular notion that pre-colonial Māori societies were strictly patriarchal; some Māori scholars have suggested that the solidification of a patriarchal structure in Māori societies was shaped by colonial contact, largely through the expectations and prejudices of European settler-traders and Christian missionaries.
- 1860: married women's Property Perfection Act, allows women to keep their earning and belongings if deserted.
- 1864: Heni Pore, fought for the King movement and distinguished herself at Gate Pa. Later, became the Secretary to the Māori Women's Christian Temperance Union, and later became known as an expert on Māori land title.
- 1867: The Municipal Corporations Act and The Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act was created and enforced
- 1873: Employment of Females Act enforced
- 1884: Married Women's Property Act
- 1893: Pākehā and Māori women won the right to vote in general elections due to the Electoral Act, and Elizabeth Yates became New Zealand's first woman mayor in the British Empire
- 1895: the first women's hockey team was established, and Minnie Dean, was the only New Zealand woman to hang
- 1896: National Council of Women of New Zealand was created, Emily Siedeberg became the first woman doctor to graduate,and Mary Ann Bacon became the country's first woman stockbroker
- 1897 Ethel Benjamin became the first woman to be admitted as a barrister and solicitor.
- 1898: The Divorce Act of 1898 allowed the dissolution of marriage virtually equal for women and men.
- 1933: Elizabeth McCombs becomes the first woman elected to Parliament
- 1938: Catherine Stewart becomes the first woman elected to Parliament not via Widow's succession
- 1946: Two women appointed to the Legislative Council; Mary Anderson and Mary Dreaver.
- 1947: Mabel Howard, who was elected to Parliament in 1943 becomes New Zealand's first Woman Cabinet Minister.
- 1949: Iriaka Rātana becomes the first Māori woman elected to Parliament
- 1951: Māori Women's Welfare League founded with Dame Whina Cooper as president
- 1975: Marilyn Waring at age 23, becomes the youngest member of the Parliament of New Zealand
- 1983: Catherine Tizard becomes the first woman Mayor of Auckland City
- 1984: Ann Hercus appointed first Minister for Women's Affairs
- 1988: Lowell Goddard and Sian Elias become the first women appointed as Queen's Counsel of New Zealand
- 1989: Catherine Tizard becomes the first woman Governor-General of New Zealand
- 1997: Jenny Shipley becomes first woman Prime Minister of New Zealand
- 1999: Helen Clark becomes first elected woman Prime Minister of New Zealand
- 1999: Sian Elias becomes the first woman Chief Justice of New Zealand
- 2005: Margaret Wilson becomes the first woman Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives. As a result, all five of the most senior positions of state are simultaneously held by women, as Wilson served with Queen Elizabeth II as Queen of New Zealand, Silvia Cartwright as Governor-General of New Zealand, Sian Elias as Chief Justice of New Zealand, and Helen Clark as Prime Minister of New Zealand.
In the 1870s the government initiated a campaign to encourage more women to move to New Zealand. They did this by giving them the prospect of working with more pay than being at home. By 1916 and 1941 the inequality issue began to dissipate, and the gender differences were about equal. By 1971 the gender shift began and women began to outnumber the men. By 2001 there were 104 women to every 100 men.The female population is soon to outrank the male population by 2051, because of the high mortality rate among men aged 15–24, and the female life expectancy is expected to increase much faster than males.
The average age for the people of New Zealand is 36 with 12.6% being over the age of 65 and 21.5% under the age of 25. Yet, for the Māori people the average age is 23 years old with 4.1% aged over 65 and 35.4% aged under 15.
In 2001 the gender differences in New Zealand were exponential having 63,000 more women than men. According to current census records, this trend is expected to continue. There are other anticipated key issues expected to occur in the lives of the New Zealand women including:
- a decline in the birth and fertility rates in the younger women, and childbearing in later years
- the family structure has changed with the decline in marriage rates, increase in divorce rates, and increase in reconstituted families
- women's incomes are still below men
- continuous segregation in occupations as women still make up more than 90% of the secretarial, nursing, and maid positions while men are often carpenters, joiners, mechanics, fitters, and heavy truck drivers.
- there are more younger Maori women than older Maori women.
- There is a higher fertility and childbearing rate among the younger Maori women than the non-Maori women
- There are higher mortality rates among the Maori women, especially the very young and middle-aged
- the younger women are more qualified educationally in all ethnic groups than the older women.
Important Changes and Initiatives
- Increase in the number of women in self-employment
- increase in organisations/networks such as WISE, Women into Self-Employment.
- development of gender analysis methodology
- increase in "out of school" care offered to low income communities
- increase in government cooaporation to overcome gender bias in employment towards the Maori, Pacific Island, rural and urban women.
- more attention to child care provision and paid parent leave, thus allowing more women to participate in employment
- renewed look on retirement income, especially those of Maori women.
- increase in participation of women in local governmental affairs, including taking office such as mayors.
- improvements on the anti-domestic violence legislation (1995)
- national breast screening programme
- Free visits to medical practitioners for children under 6 years old
- In 2000 the Property (Relationships) Bill was introduced which allows women to have access to property and earnings following a marriage or de facto relationship break down. This law also applies to same sex couples, given they have lived together for three years.
Families and households
From 1971 and 2001 some differences have occurred in how new Zealand families. In 1971 the family was commonly a legally married husband and a wife with about 3 children. The men were the ones that went out to get the money for the household, while the women stayed at home and raised the children. over the past 30 years this idea has changed due to bringing in different cultural ideals, family patterns, and contributions. Māori women are less likely to marry and more likely to live in extended family situations.
Opposition to Change
Though the past century has brought about many gains in women's rights and feminism and they continue to effect levels of attainment for the women in New Zealand.There are women in power positions available to be seen for the public eye, but for the average New Zealand women there is still a constant reminder of male domination in matters of decision making, occupation and income, retirement provision, home ownership, and family responsibility. The government favors the state initiatives for the sake of strengthening the economic base and communities. The Right-Wing governments have also taken a hold of the neo-liberalism reform that subverts the gender compromise grasping the metropolitan welfare system. It also undermines the progress in sex-reform that include anti-discrimination provisions, child care services, etc.
Mana Wāhine/Māori Feminist discourses
Arguably, Māori women have been involved with New Zealand feminism since 1840, when at least three Māori women were included in the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi which created New Zealand. This was significant at a time when women generally did not hold power within the British Empire. It is reported that these women were allowed to sign the treaty after the Māori women had expressed their anger at being excluded. The New Zealand suffragette movement included Māori women who also lobbied to be allowed to vote. In particular, there were Māori women who were landowners and they argued that they should not be barred from political representation. Māori first voted in 1868 and women (both Māori and Pākehā) voted in 1893.
A major focus of the early women's movements was the development of bicultural relations between Māori and Pākehā. Political advances were made when Iriaka Ratana was the first Māori woman MP, who was elected in 1949.
The development of the Māori Women's Welfare League or Te Rōpū Wāhine Māori Toko I te Ora in 1951 in Wellington, provided an avenue for Māori women to be represented in the New Zealand government. While the original goal of the League was to preserve Māori culture and to promote fellowship and cooperation between various women's organisations, it became heavily involved in housing, health and education issues and was instrumental in making te reo Māori part of the country's official languages.
In 1970, women's liberation groups were formed in New Zealand and included Māori women in decision-making. However, within a few years, Māori women began to separate from these groups to focus on their own issues. Many of the feminist organisations dominated by white, middle-class women were delivering health and legal services but these were not reaching many Māori women whose main concerns were economic.
Background of Mana Wāhine
To understand the key issues for Māori feminists, it is necessary to understand mana wāhine. In te reo Māori, the Māori language, what may be termed “feminist discourses” are often referred to as ‘mana wāhine’. Mana wāhine discourses allows for the extension of Kaupapa Māori, Māori practice and principles, to the intersection of Māori and female identities, and makes said intersection visible. Kaupapa Māori locates itself within a worldview different to that stereotypical of the west, allowing for the generation of new solutions. As a result, mana wāhine is, in contrast to the broader projects of ‘feminism’, a self-deterministic approach that gives effect to the intersections of female and Māori identities. Visibility and validation of this intersection in-turn validates mātauranga wāhine, Māori women's knowledge. For some, preference for the term ‘mana wāhine’, in contrast to ‘feminist’, is a direct result of the preconceptions attached to said title of ‘feminist’, particularly in Pākehā culture.
Multiple theories of Māori feminism (mana wāhine) exist concurrently due to the diversity of iwi, ‘tribes’, across Aotearoa/New Zealand. Māori, regardless of iwi, share great disruptions that occurred as a direct result of the processes of ‘colonization’. There are, therefore, great differences between the Māori and Pākehā feminist projects. In order to encompass a wide-view of issues facing women of Māori heritage, many argue that te reo Māori me ona tikanga (Maori Language and Culture) are necessary inclusions in mana wāhine, and this epitomises the differences between mana wāhine and Pākehā feminism. Biculturalism, therefore, is often campaigned for by Māori feminism, allowing for a simultaneous campaign for Indigenous rights; a campaign bypassed completely by multiculturalism. Mana wāhine, therefore, acts as a tool which allows Māori women to take control over their history and future. That is, mana wāhine, by necessity, takes into account sexism, racism, colonialism and class and overlaps with the political aspirations for self-determination. This is why mana wāhine is an important area of discourse.
Mana wāhine allows for the provision of analysis unique to the position held by those lying in the intersections of Māori and women. The unique world-view of the Māori population is vital in the understanding of pre-colonial Māori society. Sources such as Māori society, both te ao hou and te ao tawhito (the present and past); te reo Māori; Māori women's histories; and nga tikanga Māori, Māori customary practices, are important in development of these discourses. Indeed, these sources give great importance to Māori sovereignty. Kaupapa Māori conjointly working with mana wāhine locates Māori women in intersections of oppression from colonization and the racism resulting therefrom, in addition to sexism. The effect of colonization was devastating, the estrangement of wahanu, community, and the enforcement of the ‘nuclear’ family were particularly harmful. Colonization also resulted in the enforcement of traditional, western, religious ideas of the status of women and this resulted in a dramatic shift of power away from women in Māori culture.
Mana Wāhine Current Issues
Biculturalism continues to be a key emphasis for mana wāhine as it informs wider debates about colonization and decolonialism, ethnicities and politics. Biculturalism emphasises the important position of Māori culture, whereas in a multicultural nation Māori would be just one culture among many. This could then remove their sovereignty and the relationship Māori have with their land.
Colonization significantly disrupted all of Māori society but, the disruption was on multiple levels for women. As a result, Māori women have needed to reassert their positions and status, not just in the broad society but also in their own communities. They have needed to find their own voices. However, this discussion does not always resonate with Pākehā women as they believe that Western feminism is for everyone. Māori women emphasise the need to be visible in their differences as those differences count. Of importance is the need to highlight that unless the ‘multiple forces of subjugation’ resulting from colonization are taken into account, feminism cannot fully account for the realities of Māori women.
Historically, as Māori collectivism gave way to Christian individualism, Māori have increasingly been forced into the Pākehā model of the nuclear family. This has meant that Māori women have become increasingly vulnerable as their dependence on their husbands has increased and as they have become increasingly isolated from their broader community. In addition, Māori women often end up with the jobs that Pākehā women do not want. It can therefore seem that Māori women end up with the ‘scraps’ from Pākehā women.
There are critical differences between Māori women and men in relation to health, education, employment, and family structure and support. Critically, lifestyle options and opportunities for Māori women have been restricted. However, even when it is identified that there are specific issues impacting Māori women, they are often not included in the forums for resolution. And if they are, their voices may be shut down.
One of the goals of mana wāhine is to ensure that Māori women can make sense of their different realities and identities, and to celebrate the strength and resilience of Māori women. As a result, mana wāhine stories and theories have been diverse rather than homogenous. This includes differing views on how to best achieve equity and reminding others, including Māori men, about who they are and where they have come from. Many Māori today have been disconnected from their traditional cultures which have been reinterpreted through post-colonial eyes, resulting in some Māori men using this to deny women power and a voice. When this is combined with Pākehā feminist priorities, many Māori women feel they are ignored when both gender and colonisation issues and impacts are discussed i.e. they are seen as lesser. However, it is important that Māori women are not viewed as passive victims waiting to be rescued by Pākehā women.
Some Māori academics have asserted that the term ‘lesbian’ is one with a western history and with western connotations, a term that may contradict some Māori cultural histories. Sexuality, however, remains an important area of intersectional discourse for mana wāhine and Māori feminist projects, with many prominent figures working in this field, including activist Ngahuia Te Awekotuku.
Mana Wahine and in visual art and performance
The art of Maori women often confronts issues that have been underscored as relating to mana wāhine. The materials used in the preparation and production of artworks, are not simply a means to an end; they are integral to the work and possess important meaning. The forms which artworks and objects take are diverse, ranging from sound and performance to painting, jewellery, and fashion; these forms are not simply the vehicle or vessel of artistic expression - they embody inherently the message of the work. Artists’ use of the body and space interrogates various issues, discourses and sites of contention including (but not confined to): the gendered cultural practices of Pākehā colonisation; the tensions between urban life and traditional spirituality; the restoration of cultural memory – cultural narratives (oral histories); and modern situational cultural and geographic isolation caused by dispossession.
Importantly, ‘Feminist art’ tends to be viewed by many Maori women as Pākehā contrived and therefore irrelevant. The continuous, ageless dynamism of mana wāhine is rather a more applicable term for this discussion. Additionally, because mana wāhine envelops these works within its matrices, they speak with a richer prescience than a work that is simply an expression of art in and of itself and necessarily gives way to a more expansive function and understanding of art, as such.
Catriona Moore, speaking of feminist art more broadly, notes the multiplicities of purposes, directions, and outcomes that are characteristics of feminist art and aesthetics – these make the artworld a dynamic space for discussion, development and advancement. Art characterised or described within a mana wāhine context operates similarly. However, artists who identify with and engage in exploring mana wāhine through their artistic practices do not necessarily identify as feminists, or label their art as such.
Diverse works such as those by the Mata Aho Collective  and the performance art of Rosanna Raymond, announce and powerfully realise reconnection and reclamation, two important tenants that situate women in mana wāhine and characterise activism in this space. Dr Maureen Lander's fibre and installation art  and Shona Rapira Davies’ use of textile and object making practices delineate the strength of Maori women and the subtle yet poignant processes of restoration and affirmation achieved through their commitment to investing in and working with traditional materials.
Similarly the artistic practices of Nova Paul, Lisa Reihana, and interdisciplinary artist and archivist Tuafale Tanoa'i aka Linda T, expend notions of conventional image making and cinematic art. These artists and their works are reminiscent of and carry on the practice of Merita Mata, which continue to challenge colonial narratives imbued with rejections of systemic Pākehā patriarchal models of power, knowledge and ownership.
The central place of exploring Maori mythologies through themes such as mourning, life, death, sovereignty, place and the spaces women occupy are interrogated in works by artists such as Alisa L. Smith  and Robyn Kahukiwa. Importantly, Robyn Kahukiwa does not associate herself with feminism. However, Kahukiwa's works find expression in mana wāhine, specifically with reference to the important place of women in Maori spirituality. By extension, the synergies in the expansive works of Pasiffika Queen and Sissy that Walk, who critique modern understandings of gender and sexuality, further create discourses around Maori identity and representation.
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In just a few weeks, the Ruth Corkin Theatre will be filled with students, parents, and alumni as we are transported back to New York City in 1899. While we will most certainly tap our feet and clap our hands to the music and feel amazed by the intricate set design and incredible choreography, it is also important to note that this year’s U.S. Musical,Newsies, offers an important history lesson to the cast and crew and those who watch the show.
Much like Hamilton: An American Musical helped to tell a historical story through song and dance, Newsies provides an opportunity to learn more about a segment of American History. Through its retelling of the 1899 Newsboys Strike, Newsies focuses on how society treated low-income children during this time period. Through dialogue and lyrics, we are given a glimpse of what it was like to be a child before protective labor laws. While early 20th-century America would shift its view on child labor laws, the United States did not ratify a change until 1938 when Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Newsies is just one example of the importance that the arts and humanities hold in education. Theater engages audiences through storytelling and song, draws people into the story, and creates a connection to the characters. Angela Modany describes the process in a February 2012 Smithsonian article as “embodying empathy.” By creating connections to characters, either as an actor or observer, you empathize with their experience, gaining a deeper understanding of the historical context. The concept of embodying empathy is not a foreign one to Brimmer classrooms. Whether it is through special programming like Model UN, the Chinese Temple Fair, Winterim, and community service days, or in-classroom mock trials, debates, skits, and Harkness discussions, the Humanities and Creative Arts departments create experiences for students to build connections with people, characters, or events.
This year we have discussed the meaning of empathy and its etymology in detail. To be empathic means to be “in suffering” or to feel the feelings of another. In Dr. Helen Riess’ book, The Empathy Effect, she shares that we naturally connect to those with whom we share common experiences or traits. The concept of embodying empathy works seamlessly with Riess’ research. When students share experiences, they are both learning important topics and developing a profound connection that creates stronger empathic responses.
I look forward to seeing you at one of the performances of Newsies in March, and if you would like to learn more about the 1899 News Boys Strike in New York City, here is a link to resources produced by the New York City Public Library.
“No Condition is Permanent” was the title and central theme of this week’s Bissell Grogan Humanities Symposium keynote speech by Dr. Rajesh Panjabi. Dr. Panjabi captivated the audience as he shared his personal experience of escaping Liberia during the onset of civil war as a child, resettling in North Carolina, and eventually co-founding the non-profit, Last Mile Health. By embracing the mantra, “no condition is permanent,” Panjabi and his team have set out to change the way people in developing countries access health care by creating networks of support that could save up to thirty million lives.
The idea that no condition is permanent resonates as we head into Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Next week we will take time to recognize and honor the work of Dr. King and those who followed him. King also believed that no condition is permanent. He worked tirelessly as a non-violent civil rights activist in the fight for racial equity, a cause which ultimately cost him his life. In his final speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” he whole-heartedly embraced this mantra when he famously said, “Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop…And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.”
People like Dr. Martin Luther King and Dr. Rajesh Panjabi are inspirational, but we don’t want students to be daunted by the scope of their impact. We asked students to think about the conditions that exist in their lives that they can work towards changing and how might they react to changes that are not within their control. How might they approach improving their work as a student, becoming involved in a cause that they connect with, or trying a new activity or extracurricular to move out of their comfort zone?
We asked the 12th graders to think about the legacy they want to leave on the School and what they hope to accomplish during their final months as Brimmer students. Some of the goals that members of the Class of 2019 shared were: “I want to build an even more supportive community by going to more community events”; “I want to help the community know more about traditional Chinese culture”; “I want to help my friends who will be CAP leaders next year develop their voice as leaders”; and “I want to promote the idea of what it means to be a student-athlete and a leader among the community and becoming mindful of the impact (negative & positive) that we have on each other.”
As our students continue to figure out their place in the world, I hope that they will carry with them the idea that no condition is permanent.
It has not been due to a lack of effort, but I have never been able to get into yoga. Hearing about all the positives that are associated with it, both of mind and body, I was eager to try it. After a 10-week session a number of years ago, I enjoyed the physical aspect of yoga, but was never able to connect effectively with the mindfulness piece.
Over the last 5-7 years, the efforts to improve wellness programs and include mindfulness exercises has been a national trend in schools. At Brimmer, we continue to evaluate our programming, tweak existing options, and provide new opportunities. This has included inviting Will Slotnick from the Wellness Collaborative to talk with students about managing stress and anxiety and the risks involved in using alcohol, drugs, and, more recently, e-cigarettes. Slotnick addresses the subject from the perspective of managing stress and incorporates meditation and mindfulness into the program. After sessions, students report feeling more connected to their thoughts and feeling more relaxed. In addition to being armed with important information, they can physically be seen carrying their shoulders lower as much of the stress has melted away during the sessions.
In a 2011 article (full publication can be found here)from the American Psychological Association journal, Psychotherapy, Dr. Daphne Davis and Dr. Jeffrey Hayes share “empirically supported benefits of mindfulness.” The list of benefits is one that we would all want for our students and children: stress reduction, boosts to working memory, improved focus, and more flexibility in challenging situations. In 2013, in an article published by the National Institute of Health in Social Cognative and Affective Neuroscience, research on the use of meditation was reported to improve emotional stability, supporting and building upon the documented research of its benefits. This was further supported by neuroscience research that showed increased serotonin levels in those that practiced meditation. So, while incorporating mindfulness as skill has been a trend, it is also very much supported by nationally recognized research.
Knowing this, I have continued to listen and research what experts are saying, often trying out techniques to improve my own mindfulness. Slotnick has recommended phone apps like Meditation Studioto our students. Dr. Helen Riess, who spoke recently at Brimmer about her book, The Empathy Effect, suggested HeadSpace, and those with an Apple Watch or Fitbit are likely familiar with the built in mindfulness activities focused on controlled breathing and reducing one’s heartrate. I know that I have found these to be useful from time to time, but more importantly, many students have incorporated them into their daily routines to help manage stress.
I fear that when we talk about meditation and mindfulness we often lose people once we use those terms. For some people, meditation and breathing exercises do not work. What do we tell those who cannot connect in this way? During Thanksgiving preparation last week, while I was preparing my apple pie, peeling apples, slicing them, and rolling out the dough, I found myself experiencing a heightened awareness of my own senses. During that process, I recognized that I was experiencing what I was missing during those yoga exercises. It turns out that baking, and also sports activity, that requires intense focus and mimics the effects of meditation.
Pyschology Today writes that mindfulness is “a state of active, open attention on the present. When we are mindful we carefully observe our thoughts and feelings without judging them as good or bad.” As we continue to venture into a world that moves quickly and we encounter incredible amounts of information at unprecedented speeds, we are going to find mindfulness activities will grow in importance. Whether it be through meditation, breathing exercises, baking, or shooting free throws on the basketball court, it is important that we help our students and children develop these skills.
As a community we continue to engage on our school theme for the year Empathy and Ethical Thinking. Whether it is through professional development for faculty and staff, programming with students, a more intentional focus in classes, or presentations to our parent community, it has been a tremendous experience so far this year.
Over the first few months, one theme that consistently comes up is the difference between Empathy and Sympathy. In a recent Upper School Morning Meeting, I showed the following video by Brené Brown.
The video vividly points out the differences between sympathy and empathy. This past week, the Parent’s Association welcomed Dr. Helen Riess, Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Director of Empathy Research and Training in Psychotherapy Research group at Mass General Hospital, to talk about her research in Empathetics. Near the beginning of her talk (click here for an earlier version at a TEDx Event), she highlighted the Greek etymology difference of “sympathy” and “empathy”. Sympathy coming from “sym” “pathos”, meaning with suffering, and empathy coming from “em” “pathos, meaning in suffering.
If we start with the most basic definition of these words, the difference is so clear. To have empathy literally means to be in the same feelings as the other person. This idea means a person has developed a deeper connection to friend, family member, colleague, or stranger by being in that moment with them, with those feelings. In addition to this clear definition, Dr. Riess highlighted that compassion is the action that we take when displaying empathy. She differentiated that the empathy was the internal feelings you have, while compassion is the action you take towards a person.
As teachers and school administrators, the question becomes what does this mean to our students? What are the ways that students may develop empathetic responses towards their classmates? And how do we guide students towards learning with empathy?
The first comes through the regular conversations we have on an individual basis, in small groups, and as a community. What does it mean for a child if they see a friend looking sad or more reserved? We are trying to help students understand that these are times to engage with their friends and not avoid them. In many ways, this has been something that Brimmer students have regularly displayed. Often, listening to their friends and helping them when possible. The more complicated situations for students come when a person’s actions may be hurtful. The automatic human response, especially adolescents, is to rebuke the person. With teenagers, this can often have impacts on social circles which just furthers any divide that may be created between each other.
What if instead, we were able to help the members of the community to have an empathetic response?
Our hope, through this year’s theme, is to help students move past the hurt and work to understand what the other person may have been feeling. Perhaps someone is not hanging out on the weekends, because they have a family member that was recently diagnosed with a serious medical condition. Or could someone that is carrying a lot of anger, be carrying guilt for a decision they made at a different time.
In our classes, we are highlighting the importance of empathy as well. This takes a front row seat in Humanities and Creative Arts classes, where the foci of these classes is the human experience. Just imagine the last book you read or show you watched and the connection you developed with the characters. In history, teachers are helping students see history through more than one lens. This fall US History students have debated George Washington’s decision to maintain the status quo on slavery and recently discussed the question- should we celebrate Christopher Columbus or think about Thanksgiving in a different way based on the experiences of people that were colonized by Europeans?”
In our design classes, students regularly are working to understand the user as they developed their ideas. As a parent recently mentioned to me, “empathy is one of the pillars of design.” This comes to life in classes like Problem Solving for Design and Architecture, as students spend significant amounts of time learning about the needs of the users and important cultural information. I would invite you to explore more at the BrimmerID portfolio page.
Regardless of where students may end up falling on these debates, breaks from the normal routine provide an opportunity to pause and reflect. Whether the time-off means time with family and friends, volunteering, or just a slower pace, I hope that students can use the time to connect in a deep, meaningful, and empathetic way.
After a night of celebration and excitement with the Red Sox winning the World Series, Mr. Vallely and I want to take a moment to reflect on two more solemn things from this weekend.
I want to start by taking a moment to reflect on the antisemitism this weekend that resulted in the murder of 11 members of the Tree of Life Congregation in Squirrel Hill, PA.
I can still remember the smell of smoke and charred wood from when I was 13. Just a few weeks before my Bar Mitzvah, a man had come into my synagogue in Albany, NY, dousing the pulpit and ark with gasoline, and setting it on fire in order to destroy the holiest part of the building. The person came into the synagogue for no other reason, other than it was a Jewish building. Thankfully no one was hurt and though the damage was extensive, it would eventually be repaired. For me, this was not my first nor would it be my last experience with antisemitism. There had been and would be more swastikas painted and engraved on walls, derogatory comments directed at friends, and pennies thrown at me as I walked to my synagogue. Yet, despite these experiences, like most, within the walls of my place of faith there was a sense of safety.
However, something has changed over the past few years. We have seen people feel emboldened to use hateful speech. We have seen words of hate and bigotry turn into more deadly actions. Targeting specific faith base communities because of their beliefs or the way they appear. A shooting at the Sikh Temple in Wisconsin in 2012, the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church of Charleston, SC in 2015, and The Islamic Center of Quebec in 2017 are just the first ones that come to mind. Hate-filled people searching out those that had a different skin color or held a different faith.
Then. This weekend. This weekend we experienced a person filled with such vitriol go into the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh, PA with the intention of killing as many Jewish people as possible. Another example of unchecked hate that has taken the lives of at least 11 people. Mothers, fathers, grandparents, sisters, brothers, daughters, and sons.
Words are so powerful. They have the ability to build people up or to cut them down. They have the ability to build deep, deep, profound connections or to develop deep misunderstandings that lead to inhumane beliefs. While this inexcusable tragedy has left many with more questions than answers, out of darkness there comes light. The days after this tragedy have shown an outpouring of support- the Pittsburgh Penguins canceling a Halloween Party and hosting a blood drive instead; church communities offering to line the entrances to synagogues to show solidarity and provide safety in numbers; Muslim organizations raising tens of thousands of dollars to support the victims’ families; and an outpouring of love and kindness. We only need to look at the overwhelming response of support across the country to understand that our world is not as broken as it sometimes feels.
When my childhood synagogue completed rebuilding the damaged area, it included a thirty foot stained glass window of the tree of life. In Squirrel Hill, PA, The Tree of Life synagogue’s namesake is a symbol in western faiths of peace and tranquility. Amidst the turmoil and chaos of our world, this symbol serves as a reminder to lead with kindness and love.
To honor the victims of this tragedy, let the words you use be a beacon for building people up, creating understanding, and bringing about peace. By doing this you can be a part of the light that pierces through the darkness.
A version of this statement was shared at Morning Meeting on Monday, October 29, 2018. It has been edited for this format. In addition, thoughts were shared by Carl Vallely on the internment of Matthew Shepard.
Last weekend I had the opportunity to see the historical musical narrative Hamilton at the Boston Opera House. As a lover of musicals and American History, I, along with my family, have been enjoying the soundtrack for the past two and a half years. While historians will point out some of the artistic liberties taken in the telling of the story, there is little doubt that the musical has reshaped the way in which an entire generation of Americans will view the Founding Fathers. For many young people, the musical has been a source of inspiration to find ways to lead. While Hamilton the musical did not share this specific quote, in 1784 Hamilton, under his pseudonym, Phocion, wrote, “A share in the sovereignty of the state, which is exercised by the citizens at large, in voting at elections is one of the most important rights of the subject, and in a republic ought to stand foremost in the estimation of the law.”
Over the past eight months the country has seen an uptick in student civic engagement, which has been focused on elections and voter participation. In the spirit of Alexander Hamilton and this national civic engagement, students at Brimmer led a Voter Registration Drive on Thursday during lunch. Regardless of their political beliefs, students were given the opportunity to register to vote if they were 18 years old or pre-register to vote if they were 16 years old. I am proud to know that our students are thinking about the power they either hold or will hold as voters.
I love going to the movies, and when a friend asked if I wanted to see Mission: Impossible, I could not resist the offer. So, there I was sitting in the movie theater enjoying some popcorn and ready to escape to the fictional world, when right at the start of the movie, within the first five minutes, Tom Cruise’s character, Ethan Hunt, was faced with a critical decision. Should he protect the plutonium that could be used by the bad guys to create a nuclear weapon or save his teammate and close friend? Here right in front of me, Ethan Hunt was at the intersection of empathy and ethical thinking, living out our theme for the year. And I was left wondering, how does one make this type of decision?
As you heard from Mrs. Guild and Mr. R-V, at the heart of empathy is being an authentic listener and working to understand and share the feelings of others. Ethan Hunt knew what his friend was feeling and wanted to help him, even if his friend was telling him not to worry and to save the world.
At that moment Ethan Hunt had to make a choice–to save his friend or to save the world? What is the correct decision? Now, I do not want to share a spoiler, but I know we cannot all be super spies and manage to both make the empathetic choice, while also saving the world from disaster. However, I have seen plenty of evidence of your classmates being engaged at the intersection of empathy and ethical thinking.
Last year the Middle School and Upper Schools came together to fundraise for hurricane relief. With three devastating hurricanes, Harvey, Irma, and Maria having ravaged Houston, St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, and other Caribbean Islands, a group wanted to help as many people as possible. However, they were faced with a decision on how to best direct the resources. Was there a right way? Is there always a right decision?
The second example from 2017-2018 was the emergence of a new community service effort–the Prison Book Program. In this program, students volunteered on weekends to send books to incarcerated people. Again, at the crossroad of empathy and ethics. Should someone in prison receive our help?
In both cases, students found ways to connect with the people impacted and made informed decisions. Whether it was finding an organization to distribute the funds efficiently or learning that by sending books to people in prison and supporting their development, it helps reduce the likelihood of them returning to prison, students used the research and critical thinking skills they learn in class to collect the necessary information to make an empathetic, ethical decision.
So, this year when you continue to volunteer at organizations such as Greater Boston Food Bank, Community Servings, Wingate Senior Center, the Charles River Clean-up, or by identifying organizations on your own, you are attempting to feel and understand what another person is going through and choosing to find a way to help those people.
This intersection of empathy and ethical thinking does not just live in the realm of social justice. It lives in our classes and hallways as well. As Mr. R-V just said, this is the purpose of the humanities is to challenge our understanding of the world through a different medium, to feel the story of another human, and to engage intellectually about the decisions confronted in the text. When you combine empathy and ethics, you get real life. Every day, you face these moments–a friend upset about something that was said about them, looking at the ethics of gene manipulation in science, or learning about another culture through our global programs.
But, I also want to challenge you today, as we start a new year. How can we as individuals and as a community do better? How can we understand what a classmate or colleague is going through and how can we better help them? Can we lead with kindness? Can we work towards having more in-person interactions and fewer online, where words can be misinterpreted and are often hurtful? The world around us is modeling something different, but let’s be better. Let’s be a model for empathy and kindness.
As anthropologist Jane Goodall said, “Young people, when informed and empowered, when they realize that what they do truly makes a difference, can indeed change the world.” “You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world [and people] around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” What do you want your story to be this year? You do not need to be a super spy named Ethan Hunt. Let your story be one where you choose your path, listen and feel for those around you, and make choices that will better our community and thus our world.
During the Brimmer and May Commencement we work to honor the accomplishments of the graduating class. During the primary graduation speech, we read vignettes about each graduate highlighting their time at Brimmer and May. To view the full graduation or watch the vignettes, you can click here for a replay of the Commencement Ceremony. The individual stories start at the 23:00 minute mark.
I had the opportunity to speak to our 12th grade students and families the night before Commencement and then to give concluding remarks at the Commencement ceremony. Here are my remarks about Brimmer and May’s incredible graduate, the Class of 2017.
Senior Dinner Speech, May 31, 2018
Thank you to all the students and families for joining us this evening to celebrate the Class of 2018.
I want to share a story I heard earlier this year. In 1989 Hurricane Hugo came through the Caribbean and left a path of destruction. It made landfall in Charleston, South
Carolina and at the time, it was the most devastating hurricane on record. After the Hurricane had moved on there was a reporter along the shoreline looking at a row of houses. Among the destruction only one house remained standing. The reporter found the owner of the house that survived and ask the woman, “why did your 150 year old house survive while the other houses were washed away by the sea?”
The woman answered, “When they built my house first they laid the big field stones, then they added smaller rocks, sand, and dirt. Then they repeated this layer after layer after layer until they were done.” The reporter said “I see, I see, but how did your house survive?
The woman repeated, “First they put down the large field stones, then smaller rocks, then they filled in with sand and dirt. Layer after layer until the foundation was complete.” Again the reporter said, “Yes, yes, I understand, but WHY is your house still standing. All the other houses were washed away.”
The woman repeated again, “It is because of the foundation. They put down layer after layer until they had built a strong foundation.” Again the reporter said “I get it, they put down all the rocks to make the foundation, but you have not told me why your house is the only one still standing?”
The woman finally just responded, “It must have been an act of G-d” and she walked away.
As individuals and a group you have each helped to strengthen our School’s foundation. You brought your unique talents and views to Brimmer. This school is built upon the foundation of all those that come through and each of you has helped to put down a new layer, fill in the gaps, and strengthened the foundation. You have engaged in profound discussions in class, raised awareness of important issues, brought joy to audiences through performances, raised championship banners in the gym, and brought a new level of creativity to the school. Your class has left a strong base for those that follow you.
At the same time each of you have been building your own personal foundations. Layer by layer, grade by grade, each year, strengthening the base that you will build upon in the years to come. The field stones of knowledge, rocks of extracurricular activities, and the sands of experience.
As you move on from Brimmer, remember your foundation. You will experience all the highs and successes of life, but will also be faced with the storms that life often brings. The house that you begin building in the coming year and will continuously work on during your life, will sit upon your Brimmer experiences and can bring you stability throughout your life.
And to help you with the small fixes that may come up, I hope that the toolkits you’ll find in your bags will remind you of your Brimmer foundation and help you make any adjustments along the way.
It has been a true pleasure getting to know each of you over the past two years. And I cannot wait to hear about all your successes in the years to come. Congratulations.
Commencement Concluding Remarks, June 1, 2018
I present to you the Brimmer and May Class of 2018!
As we near the end of Commencement, I wanted to take one last moment to address this year’s graduates.
In front of us you sit. 37 unique individuals with your own talents, ideas, and futures. We just heard of your stories, your passions, and your strengths. How you have left an indelible mark on the school, one which the classes that come after you will build upon as they work towards their future. Today we focused on all the success that you had individually and the great things you accomplished as a grade. However, for every success there were failures, skinned knees, stumbles, disagreements, and mistakes. Self doubt has most definitely crept in at times.
Maya Angelou in an interview once said “We may encounter defeats, but we must not be defeated. It may even be necessary to encounter the defeat, so that we can know who we are. So that we can see, oh, that happened, and I rose. I did get knocked down flat in front of the whole world, and I rose. I didn’t run away – I rose right where I’d been knocked down.”
As you, the Class of 2018, move forward in life, you will be faced with great successes but also more defeats than you will be able to count. Each day we are faced with choices. Not every decision you make will work out. Let your defeats, your failures, be opportunities to grow and learn. Let those be the moments where you rise back up and allow them to be defined as moments of growth instead of failure.
Along the way, do not forget your Brimmer foundation. Hold tight to the lessons you learned here and use them to guide you through all the failures. As Abby Wombach recently said at the 2018 Barnard Commencement: Failure is fuel and fuel is power. I say, may your failures fuel you in the path ahead and lead to all the successes you each deserve.
Congratulations to each of you and to your families.
At Opening Convocation in September, I shared a quote from Golda Meir. She said, “Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.” As we near the end of the school year, it seemed apropos to look back at some recent observations that show the depth of achievement our students have made this year. One such example of students transforming the sparks of possibility into flames of achievement comes from the success of our spring sports teams.
All of our teams should be proud of their seasons, including the Varsity Baseball team, which won the League Championship, but I want to highlight the Girls’ Varsity Tennis and Girls’ Varsity Lacrosse teams. Both of these teams have generally flown under the radar during the spring, but this year, they made Brimmer history by each winning their team’s first league championship. Two teams that came into the year with modest definitions of success, both saw those sparks catch fire.
In the classroom, it seems like it was not that long ago that the Class of 2018 was starting Upper School. Over the past few weeks, teachers and administrators have been busy listening and watching our twelfth grade students present their culminating humanities project. Each student dived deep into the works of an author and produced a scholarly paper and presentation on their research. The students wowed their teachers with their interpretations of the text and the personal connections they made to their work.
A final example comes from the tremendous creativity that filled our School this week at the All-School Arts Celebration. I often find myself, and others, pausing in front of displays in awe of the way students have transformed their medium to create such wonderful artwork.
The list of personal and grade level achievements goes on and on. The students should be proud of their accomplishments this year! Billows of smoke have filled our hallways, from the sparks of possibility that have turned into their flames of achievement. Congratulations to everyone!