AMENIA — Seeking to build on the legacy of commitment to inter-racial progress that underpins the significant history of the Troutbeck conference center in Amenia, the 2023 Troutbeck Symposium was held over three days, celebrating the year-long work of 14 local schools.
Students in area independent and public schools had set out to explore the many aspects of the history of racial, religious and ethnic divides, the forgotten narrative of the marginalized. This was the second symposium following last year’s event.
Over three days from Sunday, April 30 to Tuesday, May 2, the students’ work was a focal point of the symposium that also presented lectures by renowned educators who explored the well-known, little-known and forgotten narratives of the American experience for Black citizens, Native Americans and other minority populations.
Troutbeck’s early owners, Amy and Joel Spingarn, had engaged with and supported the early history of the NAACP, when their estate had hosted the Amenia Conferences of 1916 and 1933, establishing the enduring legacy of social reform.
“I’m trying to learn this history along with my students,” said Rhonan Mokriski, history teacher at Salisbury School at the opening session on Sunday, April 30, adding that he and his students are engaging with themes of accessibility and sustainability, amplifying the stories of all people who contributed to the building of our country.
“Why do we still have these inequalities,” asked Christina Proenza-Coles of the University of Virginia, speaking at the Sunday opening. “We are trying to retell the narrative of American history to illustrate the best of our ideals.”
Helping to establish context and a definition of place, Proenza-Coles provided an outline of the centuries of the history of the Western Hemisphere and its substantial population of indigenous peoples, nations and tribes. She also covered the influx of the Spaniards and their influence on the Caribbean culture, the migration of Africans to South America and the history of slavery in North America.
Many of the early western cowboys were Black or Hispanic, she noted.
How people over history strive for and achieve their freedom was a focus of the narrative, Proenza-Coles said.
“White people are trapped in a history they don’t comprehend,” she said, suggesting that people reach toward the freedom achieved by knowing more, paying attention to the detail afforded by historical reality.
A feature of the Sunday session was “Cotton,” a documentary created by Sharon Center School students to tell the story of local artist Katro Storm’s guest teaching at their school about cotton as a plant, cotton as a crop, and the relationship between cotton and slavery in the history of the southern states. He also guided the young students in interpreting that history in individual art projects.
“This work is not academic; it’s the work of recovery,” Mokriski told the audience. “Students sought the ignored stories seeking a more open story, a new vision of history,” he added.
The Civil Rights Act of the 1964 was not the end result, Mokriski said, explaining that there was then an obsession with the idea of racial integration, the idea that proximity to white people was the overarching goal. It was not, he said. The goal was equal treatment and the rights afforded by freedom, a struggle that continues to the present day.
“We will be looking to you,” Mokriski told the students. “Take this project experience and reimagine your space and you will see that it shapes the trajectory of our nation.”
Student-produced documentaries were part of the “Coloring our Past” project initiated through The Salisbury School and now extended to all 14 of the participating schools. Topics explored local stories linked to Black and Indigenous narratives where students interacted with local and area historical societies to uncover fragmentary evidence and do the detective work to piece those puzzles together, shaping the stories of courage and commitment.
A highlight of the symposium was the participation of Prof. Hasan Kwame Jeffries of The Ohio State University who offered his thoughts on each of the schools’ presentations.
Jeffries said, “We need to teach the true history of the past. It has to be taught across the curriculum. People need to study the place of activists and their positive effect over time.”
One documentary produced by Housatonic Valley Regional High School students had explored the local connection to the 1958 state action to close schools in Little Rock, Arkansas, rather than to integrate them, leading two Black students to be invited into a Lakeville home and welcomed into HVRHS to continue their high school years and graduate.
On Monday, May 1, students from The Salisbury School presented the story of “someone who was meant to be forgotten.” The story of Rachel Cesar, an Algonquian sachem needed to be told, but it was made difficult by “the elusiveness of the lost detail of the historical narrative.” A sachem was a high-ranking representative, a king, elected by the tribe rather than by inheritance or appointment.
In a departure from the documentary genre, the young students from Cornwall Consolidated School had chosen to create a “Crankie Theater,” telling their story of Cornwall’s Foreign Mission School using a scroll powered by a hand crank. It proved to be a crowd favorite.
Both guest educators offered high praise for the Troutbeck Symposium. Proenza-Coles proclaimed it to be the best symposium she had ever attended in her entire career of attending innumerable symposia, and Prof. Jeffries said that he intended to brief his brother, House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), on the whole Troutbeck Symposium experience.
“It’s an example of what can happen when a community gets behind and supports its teachers,” Jeffries said. “This is a model of possibility,” he added.
Region One Superintendent Lisa Carter spoke on Tuesday, May 2, praising the project.
“This symposium is really important, where all area students can come together as a community,” Carter said.
A selection of projects from the symposium will be on display in Salisbury Association’s Academy Building from May 6 to June 3. Representing the Salisbury Association at the symposium was Executive Assistant Lou Bucceri.
Students and faculty delegations representing 14 area public and independent schools assembled on Monday, May 1, at the 2023 Troutbeck Symposium in Amenia. Photo by Leila Hawken
A featured speaker at the final day of the 2023 Troutbeck Symposium was Michael Morand, director of community engagement, at Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in New Haven, Conn. Photo by Leila Hawken
A dish with ornate circular designs.
The new class gives students opportunities to work with clay and ceramics in school for the first time since elementary school for many students. “I noticed that while ceramics was taught in the elementary schools, there was a major curricular gap once students reached high school,” Rand said “I worked closely with the administration to bridge that gap and build the program back up so students could continue developing those skills.”
The ceramics class is taught next to the school barn in the Science and Technology Center, a space the class shares with many diverse other courses. Rand said the space had its benefits and its drawbacks.
“An advantage to using the STC is that it gets foot traffic so that students who may not have known what the ceramics class was can now look over and see what we are doing,” Rand said. “Because we are sharing the STC, all of our materials and projects have to be meticulously put away to keep them safe, and tools that would normally be stationed in one spot have to be moved into the pottery ‘cage’ at the end of every day. The students have to be incredibly organized and plan ahead when moving projects and materials back and forth.”
“Pinch bowls” created by Lilly Rand’s ceramics class. Shanay Duprey
While there are struggles that come with the space, the class seems to be a favorite amongst students. Tenzing Sherpa, a senior who took the class during its first semester last fall, speaks highly of it. “I wish it was a full year course because it is a great way to relax and enjoy your time in the school building and a full year would allow for more experience and experimentation,” Sherpa said.
The class’s popularity is shown in the numbers as well. “The student interest is clearly there, as 68 students signed up for ceramics this year, and seeing the work they are producing is proof that this program was a missing piece of our curriculum.” Rand said.
The class focuses on the basics of ceramics, a historic art form. “I try to balance foundational hand-building skills,” Rand said. “I believe in the philosophy often attributed to Pablo Picasso: ‘Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.’”
This class serves as an opportunity to experiment, and especially to learn ceramics skills. Rand said she rediscovered a passion for ceramics after college and learns more about the art form even today.
“My journey with clay started in college. . . About 15 years later, while teaching at Sharon Center, I rediscovered that passion.” said Rand. “I am currently using a new clay body and mixing all of my own glazes from raw materials. It’s been a significant learning curve, but I’ve actually discovered a fascination with the chemistry behind glaze mixing and I’m eager to dive deeper into that science.”
Even students with past experience still learn from Rand’s instruction. “I had done ceramics previously so I knew most of the fundamentals we learned in class,” Sherpa said. “I think the most valuable thing that I learned in the class was how the glaze we had available to us worked and how to apply it so it didn’t end up a mess.”
Rand said it was challenging to encourage original creations from students. “A big challenge right now is encouraging original thought; many students immediately look to Pinterest or their phones for inspiration,” Rand said. “My goal is to teach them how to look at the world around them—or their own experiences—for ideas.” Sherpa echoed that sentiment. “The biggest struggle for me was figuring out what I even wanted to make.” Sherpa said.
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Over 70 students responded to a survey asking them to rank their political awareness and how politics affected them in school. The results show that, of the respondents, Housy students generally rank themselves as having high political awareness and generally care more about politics, but are more divided on how they feel within school.
Students were asked to rank things like political awareness, engagement, and how they feel affected by politics in school and on social media.
The first questions asked respondents to rank political awareness and how much they care about politics, with most students responding with a 4 or a 5.
One anonymous surveyor says, “I think people who think that politics should be kept completely out of school are using that as justification for ignoring having difficult conversations. It is our duty to make people aware of these types of things, even if they disagree.”
Next, students were asked how much other students’ posts on social media influence the political climate inside school, and whether this was generally more positive or negative.
Illustration by Peter Austin
The responses are relatively equal, and students that ranked influence as a 4 or 5 generally believed its influence to be much more negative than those that ranked it as a 3 or less.
Students were asked to rank the extent to which they felt that political issues affected the learning environment and their relationships with their classmates. Students generally feel like the learning environment is not very affected while remaining mostly neutral on whether it affects their relationships with their classmates.
“Teachers should be talking about politics more with all their students to make them aware,” says one anonymous responder.
The last question asked students if knowing somebody else’s political views changed how they viewed them.
Illustration by Peter Austin
These responses have the highest variability by far, with over 50% of responses greater than 3 and over 30% less than 3.
One anonymous respondent says, “I know some people’s lives [revolve] entirely around politics and refuse to be friends or associate with anybody with a different political view and I’m like dude it’s not that deep. I don’t care as long as someone’s agenda isn’t pushed into my face.”
Although it can sometimes be difficult to gain an understanding of a political climate, analyzing student actions and running surveys can give a good insight. Students at Housatonic are generally aware of political issues in the world, and these issues often influence how we interact both inside and outside of school.
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