Our Name
Each of us will understand the significance of the name of our school in a different way, depending on how we interpret and interact with Baldwin’s work and legacy. Here is just interpretation of the importance of our name:
In our mission statement we state that our goals “can best be accomplished in a school that is a democratic community.” And we claim that, “As a democratic community, we strive to exemplify the values of democracy: mutual respect, cooperation, empathy, the love of humankind, justice for all, and service to the world.”
We believe that one element of our striving to live these values is in adopting the symbols that embody them – and in recognizing and honoring the work and lives of people who have exemplified them. For this reason we decided that James Baldwin’s life and writings should be part of the name, and, more deeply, the culture and practice of our school.
Like our students, James Baldwin grew up in New York City, a childhood that figures prominently in his writing. As a New Yorker, and a celebrated thinker, reader, artist, writer, his work serves as model for our students’ own reflections and creations.
Reading James Baldwin, we remark that his words emanate from a place that is deeply personal and honest. He hides neither his love nor his anger, neither his questions nor his convictions. And it is armed with this – his love, rage, questions and convictions – that he both assaults the hypocrisy of America and affirms its promise of freedom and democratic community.
Baldwin’s mode of being and his mode of artistic expression parallel what we wish to create in our school: He posits the truths of personal experience as his points of departure; and with the strength derived from the honest interrogation of that experience, and the self-knowledge that this reflection engenders, he takes an unflinching stance in the naming of injustice. He is not disconnected. From his personal experience he builds outward and asserts his belonging in wider communities, which includes our nation, the ongoing American experiment in freedom, with all its blessings, missteps, flaws and potentials.
We would emulate this stance in the school we are creating.