A New Perspective

ADVANTAGES OF DISTANCE LEARNING York School and its faculty have always been committed to a robust process of continuous improvement, and these challenging times have provided York an opportunity to enhance student experience, both online and eventually for on-campus learning. To prepare for this goal, during the summer of 2020, the entire York faculty and academic administrative team completed a comprehensive multi-week professional development course in hybrid learning offered by One Schoolhouse, a leading organization in independent school online learning. York is the only school in the Monterey Bay area that completed this nationally regarded professional development course. “What was amazing about the One Schoolhouse training, was that they focused on the benefits of online learning,” explained York’s long-time history teacher, Michael Borrowman. The training focused on a positive approach to introduce new kinds of lessons to enhance student experience in a remote learning setting. “It’s been an invaluable experience,” continued Mr. Borrowman. Another important element of distance learning at York is to maintain the social and emotional well-being of students and continue to foster York’s deep sense of community. To achieve this, York continued to hold all-school assemblies virtually, clubs met online, and town halls and virtual coffees with the Head of School were also offered to keep families informed. ON THE RIGHT PATH During the summer of 2020, in the midst of planning for a return to school under pandemic restrictions, Head of School, Doug Key, and Dean of Students, Joyce Sherry, began discussing the essential need to position York School as an antiracist educational institution. As the year progressed, the planning grew to involve a committee of faculty and staff who meet quarterly to talk about progress and next steps.

Joyce has engaged in several workshops and study groups, including One Schoolhouse’s consortium of schools conducting audits of their curricula and practices for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Faculty began professional development around talking about racism. It’s a painful topic, and we want to be able to engage in the difficult conversations while providing a safe space for our students. We partnered with the National Coalition Building Institute for a two-part workshop in understanding ourselves, celebrating diversity, and developing tolerance for the often challenging conversations about race. Further professional development opportunities wait for us ahead.

As the year got into full swing, several teachers committed to including equity work within their curricula. The language department, for instance, has explored international examples of bias, prejudice, and racism. The primary venue for our conversations is the advisory period, PATH. We kicked off our discussions with a convocation in which we introduced the year’s theme: “Developing as antiracist individuals and an antiracist school.” In all-school forums and small group PATH meetings, we have grappled with many subjects.

Historical racism in America set the stage for contemporary struggles, and the PBS documentary series; “Race: The Power of an Illusion,” provided a launching point we needed for our discussions and learning. York School’s mission is more evident now than ever: to be an inclusive and diverse community, always evolving, learning and listening.

LISTEN. LEARN. REFOCUS. In the fall of 2020, Arts Department Chair, Spencer Williams, created a new class, Musical Theatre History: Broadway ReFocused. This course was designed to create a more inclusive approach to teaching about musical theatre’s past, with the intention of bringing everyone into the conversation: students, our York community, and even the broader theatrical community.

Broadway ReFocused is an educational platform that looks at Broadway’s past with a new lens to understand Broadway’s future. We celebrate stories of women, queers, black, indigenous, and people of color in musical theatre.

We study through a curriculum that is designed to dive deep into the social/political movements of the day to understand why a musical was produced on Broadway.

We listen by hearing new voices on the Broadway ReFocused podcast. Each unit, we interview underrepresented individuals to understand how we can do better in the future.

We refocus the stories of the past by creating blog posts that give a deeper and more comprehensive look at Broadway’s past.

We amplify these voices through our social media platforms to create a broader conversation.

Together we listen, learn, and refocus so that we can move forward in a more diverse and inclusive way.

During the course of the semester, we were fortunate to have ten Broadway professionals join our talks with our students: Broadway producers, choreographers, directors, artistic directors, casting directors, actors, and music directors. This gave York students an opportunity to meet BIPOC, queer, and women artists in the business today.

At the end of the semester, our students presented their two-show Broadway season to a panel of judges of BIPOC Broadway producers. They had to present a revival of a musical, a brand new musical, and tell us why these stories are important to tell in 2021. Guest judges and composers asked students difficult questions and gave valuable feedback. A total of fourteen industry professionals participated in the presentation.