Bard's Struggles With Identity: A Short Story of an Opinionated Girl
Alexa David-Lang, ‘22
As some of you know, last month I wrote a rather, let’s say strongly-worded opinion piece about BHSEC culture. I wrote about how the start of the 2021-22 school year was bumpy with Writing and Thinking and attributed that to Bard’s challenges with race and other issues just before the pandemic, concluding stating the class of 2022 was the last class with “true Bard culture.” And, as some of you know, I had some mixed feedback from said article. I got some pushback from some faculty members and students who I will not name for the sake of their privacy, but others congratulated me and said they completely agreed. After I looked back on it, I realized that this topic was even more complex and important than I had realized, and deserved some further insight.
When I initially thought about Bard and what it was like before the pandemic, I was only thinking about the things that I thought worked well. From my perspective, I saw Bard as a place where everyone respected each other and as a result, we were able to be more mature about the open ways in which we discussed things. But that isn’t the full picture. Take the norm of just saying your thoughts and not raising your hand to be called on, for example. That kind of thing, which I found freeing and greatly appreciated, led to a select group of people dominating the conversation. And I see this in Bard classes today; a couple of students who love talking will just talk the whole time and not leave space for others. I am definitely guilty of that as well.
This Bard that I was yearning for was one where everyone felt comfortable around each other, but I also assumed that everyone else felt as comfortable as I did. Those who follow my writing know that I have a lot of opinions, and I don’t feel shy about sharing them with the world. The fact of the matter is, many people aren’t like this, especially not most teenagers in high school. This “forced” structure that I despised so much in Writing and Thinking actually made sense because, while rough at the beginning, it would create the foundation for people to have intellectual discussions on their own time. We can’t expect people to step into Bard and be ready to debate the deep systemic roots of patriarchy and racism. It takes time to trust the people around you, and having more of a structure than usual will only help that trust be built up more quickly. One of the things I love about Bard is that it takes a look at the world around it and tries its best to make changes accordingly. But many of us often take it for granted. In most high schools, the faculty members are more concerned about test scores than creating a comfortable environment for their students. Honestly, looking back at my article now, I sounded so privileged.
Yes, the environment of Writing and Thinking this year felt more stilted to me, but any time someone creates a curriculum that tries to address sensitive issues surrounding race, gender, and more, things will feel awkward. That’s just how the world is. And complaining about how things aren’t like they used to be is an old-fashioned way of thinking. Instead of thinking, things are so bad; I miss how they used to be, we need to change that discourse to, things are so bad, but I am willing to be uncomfortable with these new occurrences in order to take the necessary steps forward. So, was this year’s Writing and Thinking curriculum completely perfect and guaranteed to make Bard a better place? No, everything has its flaws. But was it a necessary start that we should look into more deeply? Yes.