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Making CCES a Model of Love and Respect

Bellow are the prepared notes from Dr. Leonard Kupersmith's talk during Upper School Assembly on September 9th, 2019, the 60th Anniversary of CCES.

Good morning, Upper School.
 
I am so pleased to have this opportunity to speak to students and teachers whom I admire and cherish.

Today CCES celebrates its sixtieth birthday. On September 9, 1959, CCES opened for business, the enterprise of preparing students for higher education within the Episcopal tradition of equity, inclusion, and social justice. That day 17 teachers greeted 218 students from four-year-old kindergarten through sixth form to inaugurate our CCES chronicle. Today, 1117 students strong and with over 200 faculty and staff serving these students, we avow our allegiance to those values. This morning I want to contemplate how we purposefully celebrate those values today.
 
I am going to play a clip from an interview with Constance Wu, star of Fresh Off the Boat, a TV sitcom, Crazy Rich Asians, and a new film Hustlers. She is a pioneer among Asian American actors. I will share a minute segment toward the end of the interview in which she responds to a question asking whether she thinks this is a great time for women in film:
 
 
Wu makes the case for the benefits of diverse personal perspectives beautifully.
 
I have chosen to sidestep a philosophical meditation or an exhortation to you to connect with your better angels and instead talk about the conduct of the school I am and have been privileged to serve for many years, the very school that you are privileged to attend. CCES is a pretty great place to spend the better part of each year. I present my observations as a reflection of my respect for you. You ought to know the premises that drive the decisions and initiatives that affect you at CCES. Naturally, I hope that you share my outlook, but understand if you buy in part way or not at all. I likely have nothing original to say but my comments are honest and forthright. Not that this moment is the first disclosure of my convictions. I have alluded to some of what I have to say to teachers and staff in meetings before the school year started.

I am going to co-opt fifteen minutes of your time sharing my views about diversity and inclusion.  I don’t have a direct line to ultimate wisdom or divine truth. I have experience, just as you do, and opinions, as you do as well. Each of us processes experience through our personal lenses. We process events and ideas independently, even when we channel others' opinions.  As the clip from Wu suggests, the scintillas of light each view brings to a matter furthers awareness and deepens understanding of small and big issues--from emojis to exceptionalism.  
 
To frame my comments, I want to qualify what diversity means to me. It cuts to the heart of the kind of liberal education we treasure here. It’s the means by which we construct our personal operating manuals. Diversity in my book means a wide range of perspectives that comes from people with varied experiences, convictions, values, and talents. The effect on a school of this sort of diversity is dialogue, debate, and dissent, the ideal brew for an exciting environment for learning, a desirable residential neighborhood, and exciting workplace.  A clash of ideas produces a better product in any environment. I am restricting my reference to environments, like ours, where respect and civility encourage active listening and reflection. Both the political right and left threaten this sort of open discourse. Hate speech, identity politics, xenophobia, triggers, safe spaces, and microaggressions threaten to shut down the kinds of discourse that we promote and cherish, conversations that enrich and clarify understanding and breed the generation of new ideas. The German philosopher Hegel described the progress of civilization through a dialectic of the juxtaposition of a thesis and an antithesis that generate a synthesis. Contrary points of view raise the level of play.  A vigorous marketplace of talents, wills, and perspectives challenges us to examine our premises and rethink our conclusions. We reach more enlightened convictions through contention and challenges. Competition in a free market of ideas makes each of us more resilient and the social polity stronger.
 
A community raises its performance level by maintaining high standards for participation on the playing  field. All members of this community must present credentials that qualify them for admission and employment and then justify their inclusion in our community in their conduct and competence. Lowering standards compromises the benefits of promoting a diverse community. 
 
CCES has been committed to a diverse community since its inception 60 years ago today.  All worthy projects are driven by ideas and ideals. CCES was forged as an outreach of the Mission of Christ Church. It is truly our mother. CCES was an Episcopal school at conception. Our Episcopal identity is coded in our DNA; it lies at our roots and in our bones.  Before there were classrooms in homes adjacent to Christ Episcopal Church downtown, there was the idea of an Episcopal School in the will and vision of the founders. Like a good mother, the Church willingly and joyfully granted CCES independent status. Though closely connected to the church, we separated from Church governance in 2001.
 
The Episcopal Church has been in the forefront of social justice movements in the United States: in the fifties and sixites, the Church promoted civil rights; in the nineties and first decade of this century, the Church championed gay and LGBT rights, and in the last decade has led efforts to address wealth inequality. It is fitting to mention the fortitude and integrity of Headmaster Rufus Bethea, who passed away a week ago, at the age of 92. In 1967, CCES admitted its first African-American students. Mr. Bethea affirmed then that “the policy of Christ Church Episcopal School since its inception has been one of being open to any qualified students without regard to race, creed, or ethnic origin in accordance with the canons of the Episcopal Church.” Equity has always been fundamental to our nature as a school.
 
When we formulated our Strategic Plan as a roadmap for the future, we placed our Episcopal identity at the top of the ledger. Designing the plan on the dual pylons of Episcopal identity and college preparation, we recognized that honoring and celebrating diversity speaks to both standards--we enact our Episcopal identity by respecting the dignity of all persons, the charge of the Baptismal Covenant, and enhance readiness for success beyond CCES by promoting cultural competence, a crucial attribute for success in multi-cultural college communities and the global economy.
 
We think better, do better, and live better through exposure to diverse points of view. Many of you have heard Juan Johnson speak--to the faculty during a professional development day and to students at Honors Convocation in 2018. Before he became the chief global diversity officer for Coke-a-Cola, Juan worked for the accounting firm, Arthur Anderson, where he learned the advantages of a diversified financial portfolio, spreading the field and not putting all of your eggs in one basket. A diverse portfolio puts you on the path to financial success; a diverse community paves the way for personal and social betterment. 
 
If I leave no other trace this morning, I want to emphasize that diversity without inclusion is null. Inclusion mandates that everyone has a place at the table, not just our friends, people like us (whoever “us” is), or those who think alike. It’s about leveraging the resources of all ages, colors, sexual identities, abilities, talents, national origins, regional affiliations, family configurations, faith outlooks, and political dispositions. Diversity efforts are counter productive when they close down voices that don’t coincide with a party line. That kind of self-absorption creates cynicism and suspicion. Still worse, tribalism creates walls and otherness. In pursuit of innovation and change, we should not dismiss tradition and constancy. Change must respect the past and include divergent points of view. People should not feel left behind in the wake of a diversity effort; instead all should feel included.
 
Our management of the aftermath of the Parkland shootings captured precisely the right tone: it provided an opportunity for students to engage in a silent vigil, the option to remain in classrooms, and reunification in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd, where Reverend Dr. Harrison McLeod gave a stirring sermon to the entire Upper School, coming together as a community in the place that knows no divisions, where we are truly under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
 
Communities need to conduct a comprehensive health check to be sure that they are scaled for welcoming diverse backgrounds and outlooks. When we welcome new neighbors into the neighborhood, we need to be accommodating of their newness and exuberant that they like us enough to join us. In assimilating new community members, especially those from different cultures and subcultures and different faith traditions, we need to be aware of our behaviors and artifacts that signal implicit bias. I would be deeply disappointed if students who want to join us feel alienated because of our insensitivity to bias. Concern about exclusionary behavior prompted us to include each senior on a banner. We celebrate all seniors for the accomplishment of making it to the senior year just the way we celebrate each senior at commencement for meeting the standards for graduation from CCES.
 
I conclude with what may not need to be said because the truth is so obvious. Nonetheless, the current environment has obscured or distorted precepts that we used to take for granted. Political contention looks at groups as identity blocs, monolithic and homogeneous. This premise belies the truth: there is diversity within all groups. I share a particularly memorable time in my life more than fifty years ago, in the summer of 1967, between my junior and senior years of college that opened my eyes in many ways. Every Sunday morning I would set out at about 6:30 in my 1966 Emberglo Ford Falcon, probably one of the least cool cars on the face of the Earth, from my all-white ethnic enclave in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, for basketball courts on 143rd street in Manhattan, the northern border of Harlem.  A buddy in his mid-thirties, John Goodhope, ex-Marine and resident in apartment projects near the courts, with whom I worked in a lower Manhattan post office every weekday evening, was my passport into Harlem. We played from 8 to 2 or 3, with breaks for orange juice at the local grocer, who charged significantly more for the same carton than I paid in my white, middle-class ethnic neighborhood store. The game was far more aggressive than I played in my neighborhood courts. City rules put pressure on hitting your shots because your opponents could put up the rebound right under the basket. The brand of basketball took my Brooklyn game up a few notches. I loved the rough and tumble, highly competitive game. I was the sole white guy among players from early adolescence to John’s age. I was a newcomer warmly accepted into the group. It helped to have John’s approval. One day, after wrapping up the stifling hot game after five or six hours of continuous play, John suggested that we go to a different neighborhood, 125th Street, the epicenter of Harlem where the renowned Apollo Theater stands. I got the cold shoulder playing with this crowd. Whereas the crowd uptown was welcoming, this temperament was openly hostile. To provide a context, we were on the heels of riots in Watts in 1965 and Detroit and Newark in 1967 and the rise of black militant groups like the Black Panthers. That summer was a time of heightened tension. The pent up fury triggered by urban squalor, poverty, and despair came to a head the following April when Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis. I was clearly unwelcome in the game at 125th Street. Same day, less than a mile apart, two very different black communities. The lesson is that Harlem is a quilt of many communities, not one shared mindset. Harlem is not just a black community; it’s a human community, laden with a human spectrum of differences that transcend race. This iconic black community like the Castro district in San Franciso, the signature gay community; Sun Cities, retirement communities; and religious communities like the evangelical Saddleback Church pulsate with differences within them. It’s a mistake to think that cultivating diversity is a matter of assembling contingents of color, ethnicity, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, age, or national origin. Membership in a group does not define a person. Each of us is a unique individual bringing special talents, interests, and outlooks to the aggregate.
 
As a derivative of Goal One of the Strategic Plan, the diversity and inclusion initiative resembles the other programs we have launched to put the Plan into action. The Plan takes much of what we have been doing organically and opportunistically, and doing well, to a new level that’s intentional and universal. CCES has always cultivated a growth mindset, has always been acutely concerned about student wellness, has always nurtured moral reasoning, has always been distinctive for the quality of writing skills of its students, and has always focused on continuity and coordination of curricula. Nothing new-but now deliberate, mandatory, and measurable. Acceptance and inclusivity have always been distinctive qualities of our community.  
 
My remarks are more than institutional rhetoric. They are deeply personal. I would like to think that we are creating a culture that rejects all forms of bigotry and repudiates hypocrisy, two of the most repugnant human attributes. We walk the talk when we love others for who they are, precious creations of a loving God.
 
I urge everyone to do his or her part every day and everywhere to make CCES a model of love and respect. 

I am thankful to serve you. I appreciate your attention. Let’s be all we can be and make this year unforgettably happy.
 
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    • After chapel, the entire school celebrated the 60th Anniversary of CCES with a popsicle treat in the chapel courtyard!

Christ Church Episcopal School (“CCES”) admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at CCES. CCES does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, color, national or ethnic origin, creed, religion, or sexual orientation in the administration of its educational policies, admission policies, financial aid, scholarship or other programs, or athletic or other school-administered programs and activities.