Opinions
Sept 10
A Response to the Mpls/St. Paul Magazine Article “Blake’s True Colors”
Hannah Tieszen
Staff Writer
A midst the pages of the Septem-
ber Mpls./St. Paul Magazine,
a profile of our own Blake School
spawned over a seven-page cen-
terfold. The article focused on the
profiles of Blake students, past and
present, and Blake’s initiative to pro-
mote diversity and pluralism. If you
read between the lines, however, this
article may be neglecting the posi-
tive attributes and diversity every
Blake student brings to the table.
It is apparent that Blake’s
recent progressive initiative is ad-
mirable; the use of tuition and en-
dowment is used to make Blake’s
resources and education more acces-
sible to student from all backgrounds.
Programs like Learning Works have
taken off in the right direction, work-
ing to make Blake more ethnically
and socio-economically diverse.
While this article did fully ac-
knowledge Blake’s roots as an Ivy
League college breeding ground,
it went on to criticize a large por-
tion of Blake’s student body.
The cover picture clearly
mocks our “rich kid” mentality and
asserts that this attitude must be
erased. It also mentioned offhanded
comments from past alumni and stu-
dents, as well as families who left the
school because they were not on board
with the new pluralism campaign.
Woooahh, back up there. This
does not seem like the school I have
attended since kindergarten, one
that decides to separate and call out
members of the community, of any
race. The article makes pluralism, di-
versity, and widespread acceptance
seem like a revolution as opposed
to an evolution. It is fair to say that
Amonth
to Ms. Graybeal for a fantastic first F to the senior class for the lack of
Editors’ Report Card
of school. You’re officially a
Blake bear.
DPlaya’s
to the massive overreaction to the C to the traffic in the lunchroom.
Club. All they are trying to do is Something has got to change if we
get Blake fans into the stands.
My True Colors:
our school is evolving to encom-
pass more aspects of plurality, but it
is unfair to jump to Blake’s past for
only negative stories and opinions.
I want to see Blake move
forward in the right direction. This
means that everyone feels welcome,
respected, and included—all of which
have been core values of the school
since the founding. This means that
students should be taught to be caring
and honest to their peers and teach-
ers every time they walk through the
doors to the Blake School. By saying
Blake has to revamp the way it works
entirely, including its curriculum and
attitude of its student body, is in-
sinuating that the school was foster-
ing solely negative attitudes before.
While in reality, many have al-
ready embraced the proactive ap-
proach that Blake has taken on.
As I finished reading the Mpls/
St. Paul article, I pondered the men-
tion of Chiamamanda Adichie’s, “The
CJB applications. Don’t you care about
Danger of a Single Story.” Adichie says
not to generalize one culture, or to as-
sume that a lone person can represent
an entire race, socio economic class,
or gender. As I look at the opening
picture of the article, it tells me “not
to think like a rich kid.” The word rich
in this picture not only has a negative
connotation, but also implies that the
wealthy faction of Blake student body
Ellie Alldredge
is the only source of Blake’s prob-
lems. To generalize a socio-economic
class is to paint a single story; just
because a family is considered upper
class does not mean they foster nega-
tive views towards other races or
families with less money than them.
Here is my take: The article
painted a great picture of one part of
Blake’s future, but it was incomplete.
What about the student body as a
whole? Aren’t we all supposed to be
one big community, united by green
and blue? Disregard the race and
class differences of Blake students for
the well-being of your student body?
want to have more than five minutes
to sit down and eat.
Spectrum
04
just one moment. How about profiling
Blake as one school, with all different
factors included? Why not include
interviews from kids that are intel-
ligent, creative, and driven by a love
of learning, regardless of where they
came from or what they look like?
Blake is filled with students of ev-
ery ethnicity, religion and race, but
it is also overflowing with differ-
ent types of diversity. There are
kids who have different learning
styles, different ideologies, differ-
ent political views, singing talent,
sports talent and so much more.
I am not trying to put Blake
on a high horse; obviously no school
is perfect, but why not an article
celebrating the strides Blake has
made with pluralism and their com-
mitment to ALL types of diversity?
Students at Blake are more active
than ever before in expanding their
world perspectives. What the Mpls/
St. Paul article neglects to men-
tion are the multitude of service
trips Blake students take each year,
and the work CSB does to focus on
community outreach, and so much
more. Blake students are already
reaching out of the Blake commu-
nity to experience something more.
So, lets consider this initia-
tive: Working together as a whole,
without generalizing or isolating
anyone. In order to move forward
as a school, the whole student body,
faculty, and parents should acknowl-
edge the parts of the school that need
work, but also the parts that deserve
praise. The core values still stand: re-
spect, courage, integrity, and love of
learning. By sticking to these, we can
move forward, each individual work-
ing to create a united community.