Missing the Point

As an institution that values diversity as one of its core principles, Phillips Exeter Academy hosted its annual celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day last Friday, including a keynote speech and a variety of workshops that students attended in lieu of classes. The school’s intention to educate its community about the legacy and present-day applications of Dr. King’s goals, actions, and dreams is a noble one, and I appreciate having a communal forum to engage in with my peers and teachers about these ideas. However, the inefficacy and fundamental flaws in how Exeter chooses to structure MLK Day will continue curtailing the desired effects of the workshops and promoting unhealthy cynicism about the holiday.To begin, there is a blatant double standard at the Academy, which threatens both the school’s philosophy and concrete reasons for celebrating MLK Day to such extensive ends, even forgoing an entire day of classes. At least for the years that I’ve been a student here, MLK Day workshops have been an obligation for students to attend, whereas faculty members are only encouraged, but not required, to be present, as long as quotas for chaperoning are fulfilled.This, by itself, is a poor reflection on the administration and faculty’s part in remaining consistent with the ideals that they seek to preach. With an implication that somehow, faculty members and other adults at Exeter are more “well-versed” in the notion of diversity at large, the Academy places an enormous roadblock in making progress towards community members developing a better understanding of one another. While the administration and faculty might have justifiable reasons for this decision, as long as there are many other instances, such as Assembly which only students are required to attend, everyone should participate when the school decides to dedicate an entire day to MLK Day workshops. It is not admissible that this situation exists, which runs contrary to the purpose of MLK Day. The school ultimately fails here to engage our community in a dialogue by cutting out a large fraction of people that students interact with on a daily basis.In addition to the aforementioned double standard, the structure of workshops also reeks of hypocrisy and the Academy’s attempt to dress up impractical attempts to educate attendees as grandiose, showy events. This perspective can easily be gauged by asking a few simple questions: How many of us, at the end of MLK Day, walk away with a thorough understanding of Dr. King’s vision, of his times, and the trials that they offered? What do we learn about the actual MLK Day and its contemporary implications? The school makes a dangerous assumption that just because civil rights and Martin Luther King Jr. are a classic thematic element in traditional American education and any American history course, students already have a thorough understanding of MLK Day. This assumption leads to a large divergence from learning about the rich history of the Civil Rights movement, where our focus should unarguably lie on this day.The aspiration for alternative methods of learning is reasonable, though, especially given the Academy’s renowned pedagogy, the Harkness method, and can be argued as such. However, the real irony lies here: Will watching an interpretative dance piece educate individuals better than engaging in small-group discussions about a speech made at the time, or some other fascinating, informative primary document? The act of simply sitting and watching a presentation, followed by futile attempts by faculty present to lead a weak discussion in a large setting, diverges from Harkness as we know it. There is no sense of collaborative learning, and the concept of learning from one’s peers is nowhere to be seen. The absence of valuable discussion is too easily ignored by students and faculty, but it is also a gaping hole that threatens to grow larger.One of my friends mentioned that students “twerked” in her workshop. When the value of MLK Day is reduced to abstract acts advertised as a “statement about culture,” and when the administration and faculty try to package these acts as some kind of novel educational experience, there is no longer a reason for students to miss an entire day of classes.At Exeter, conscientious choices are made by the administration and faculty in observing holidays, sometimes with the consequence of controversy. However, one national holiday that is not glossed over like any other is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. If the school wishes to highlight the importance of MLK Day and its ideals by sacrificing a full day of classes, it is imperative that the administration and faculty reassess their approach to the overall educational experience that they try to provide for the entire Academy community. 