Black History Month at EMES

Maria Archer, EMES principal inspires us all with her dedication to equity. In a world where peacemaking and a commitment to restorative justice can often feel challenging, EMES has remained resolute in its mission to embody, teach, and promote practices that make peace. This endeavor includes actively engaging with our curriculum to create a more welcoming, informed, and loving environment for our faculty, staff, and students. As you will see in her message below, this is not merely a performative act designed for social media satisfaction or to check a box. Instead, it represents a hard-earned on-going journey through conflict that leads us toward a safer and more beautiful community. We continue this work, acknowledging our imperfections, yet united in love. 

Read Maria’s heartfelt words here:

As you know, February is Black History Month. Since 2005 when EMES began, we as a faculty and staff have tried to honor this month by focusing on people of color in our study of history, in our choice of literature we read (see examples from Hannah Bailey’s 1st grade class below), in the way we examine the ways our society has treated people unjustly and the ways black and brown heroes have contributed to our communities. We acknowledge that we haven’t always done this well as a school, but we are committed to continuing this important work.

We also recognize that Black History month can’t be the only time we focus on these things, it needs to be woven into the ways we teach…Black and Brown history is American History.  “Black History Month should be recognized as a crucial opportunity to broaden students’ knowledge and help them see how the past connects with their lives today—and how it has inspired movements for change.” (Why we need Black History Month, Dillard, 2019)

Practicing empathy, care, and standing up for what is right, are all parts of our curriculum at EMES. We continue to learn the best ways to do that with our students and with each other as faculty and staff. We plan to continue this learning and educating far past February as we focus on how we want to live with each other at school, in our communities and in the world and how we, from the youngest to the oldest, can also be agents of change.

Hannah Bailey, 1st grade teacher shares slides in her weekly slide deck with parents.

Hannah’s slides are both informative for parents in content and in affect.

Hannah shares these examples so parents have a framework for having good conversations with their 1st grade students.