Convocation Delivers a Warm Welcome and an Anti-Racist Commitment

Headmaster Temba Maqubela called for an end to anti-Black racism, emphasizing the school’s commitment to curricular reform during his address at Convocation, the event signaling the official start of the new school year.
 
“We must not and cannot be exhausted. We must not and cannot look away. We must not and cannot avoid difficult conversations around race,” he said. “In doing this work, we empower the students and liberate ourselves.”
 
Students, faculty, staff, and parents tuned in on Sunday, September 13 to the virtual event, which also introduced the community to the school’s new chaplain, the Reverend Allison Read, who joins Groton after twelve years at Trinity College in Connecticut. During Convocation, Chaplain Read and other campus spiritual leaders offered prayers and contemplation, and Dean of Admission Ian Gracey P ’12, ‘14 introduced new students.
 
Convocation also included remarks by Board of Trustees President Benjamin Pyne ’77, P’12, ’15, who praised Groton’s adaptability over generations. “What impresses me is that Groton continues to evolve to be relevant in today’s world,” he said. “While there is a core experience that remains similar and that binds graduates in the current era to those in the past, as the world has changed, so has Groton.”
 
While acknowledging appreciation for some longstanding traditions, he emphasized the importance of embracing that change. “Tradition for tradition’s sake only becomes hollow and weighs down the potential of the school and all of you,” he said.
 
Mr. Pyne also explained the contributions of Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mahatma Gandhi, and Nelson Mandela—the people behind the new busts that will be installed in the Schoolroom, diversifying the collection. And he stressed the trustees’ commitment to build upon the success of the GRAIN (GRoton Affordability and INclusion) initiative. “I have been amazed at what the Groton community can achieve when we align around an objective. The success of the initial GRAIN program is one example,” he said. “That we are all here today about to begin a school year like no other in Groton’s history is another.”
 
The theme of change permeated remarks, notably in Mr. Maqubela’s emphasis on an anti-racist examination of Groton curricula—not just in English and history, but across disciplines. He shared an anti-racist lesson related to science, discussing the Tuskegee Institute, founded by Booker T. Washington, a former slave who visited Groton twice, at the invitation of school founder Endicott Peabody. Years after its founding—by a Black scholar—the institute was the site of the infamous Tuskegee experiment, which deliberately denied treatment for syphilis to Black men.
 
“Is it no wonder why Black people don’t trust the calls for volunteers to step forward for the COVID-19 vaccine?” asked Mr. Maqubela, who teaches organic chemistry at Groton. “All this anti-Black racism happening to a school founded by a former slave who worked so hard for its success! We must teach these truths in science.”
 
When a science teacher asked Mr. Maqubela for guidance on how to make science curricula anti-racist, he pointed to Benjamin Banneker, a pioneer in astronomy, and Egyptian Ahmed Zewail, a 1999 Nobel Prize winner in chemistry. “Their contributions must be at the center of what we teach,” he said. “These truths must not be taught later in the year or when we have time. Let us constantly lift their voices and honor their contributions. That is how we can make Black Lives Matter in the curriculum, on our Circle—which like our country and the rest of the world, is imperfect.

"Anti-Black racism is not imagined; it is real," he continued. "Let us commit to rooting it out from our midst, in our curriculum, and on this Circle.”
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