Progress is Power at Grace Church School
Art provided by Juliette Robertson ’25
A selling point of Grace Church School is its ability to adjust to the volatile social and political ecosystem surrounding a New York City private school. Essentially, the school can stay current with trends, issues, and discussions in society and politics, ensuring that students are educated in a relevant way.
To many, this power has become dampened by one oversimplified term: “woke.”
Unfortunately, the one-dimensionality of such a term undermines the importance of being able to create safe environments for students of all identities. The negativity surrounding the term “woke” erodes the school’s efforts to challenge harmful notions persisting in media and government, and provide an education unhindered by the chosen identity of the students whom the school has pledged to keep safe.
“I find I’m allergic to labels for Grace,” said Robbie Pennoyer, head of the school, “and I get itchy when I hear the school described with catch-alls like ‘traditional’ or ‘progressive’ or ‘woke’ or ‘classically liberal.’”
However, if Grace Church School is going to be reduced to certain labels, it becomes the duty of its members to understand what these labels mean and where they may come from.
Mr. Pennoyer can help us here: “If it’s ‘traditional’ to care that kids acquire a strong foundation of knowledge and hone academic skills, then we’re certainly that,” he wrote in an email response to my questions. “If it’s ‘progressive’ to believe that every child at the school deserves to be well known and well loved, then I suppose we’re that, too.
“If it’s ‘woke’ to believe that there are obstacles to feeling a deep sense of belonging at a school like ours and that we should try to address them, then I guess we’re that, too. If it’s ‘classically liberal’ to believe that schools should value multiple thoughtful perspectives on complex questions, then, yes, we’re that, too.
“I’ve heard folks use all four of those shorthands to describe our school,” Mr. Pennoyer concluded, “and I find that each flattens out the essential aspects of the Grace ethos beyond the point of its being recognizable.”
The school has been undermined by an inaccurate “woke” label, notably by the New York Post, New York Times, and Daily Mail. Any quick Google search related to Grace will bring up language such as “indoctrination,” “white privilege,” and “wokeness.” While most labels found in the news have roots in at least a reflection of truth, our system, departments, policies, and pedagogy stand to be stronger reflections of how Grace really persists compared to one dimensional labels of any kind.
From my perspective as a student, I understand the “our system” to be the components that the school has built in order to combat forms of exclusion and ignorance in our community.
There is a subtle truth to the fact that Grace is a more liberal and “woke” school than its many private school counterparts. Yet if we try to understand the labels that Grace is being called, the more precise language would be “progressive.” Understanding the difference between being “woke” and being “progressive” leads to a deeper understanding and highlights the good that Grace Church School is doing for its community members.
The label of wokeness has strayed far from the original usage of what the term “woke” actually meant. Someone being woke was awake: observant and aware of their surroundings and their own place within the larger ecosystem around them. The term is now understood as a radical form of self-righteousness, a label used to attack and undermine the credibility of something by labeling it as pompous.
Something that is “woke” has been made to feel like something that is too pretentious, and does not solve real problems. This leads to the impression of covering up injustices. On the other hand, a progressive school, according to school counselor Mel Chan, is a space where we “talk about and empathize things like inclusion … and hold these values to be true, reflected in our curriculum.
“We are trying to teach something that is more expansive.”
Being liberal and woke are closer to political ideologies, while being progressive seems closer to practical pedagogies.
However, an unfortunate aspect of the reality of Grace Church School is that it is not a perfect institution, and there are still unfortunate situations going on within the community. A progressive school still has its challenges.
Prudence R. ‘26 says the school is sometimes “too focused on talking about the problems, and not dedicating enough energy to solving them.”
Even though there may be an urgent desire of the administration to play a role in breaking down harmful systems, our community, like other predominantly white private schools, still has substantial issues: students of color are being confused with other students of color and classroom discussions are often dominated by white male voices. The issues also extend to bigotry following traumatic events, such as when Jewish students reported hearing anti-semitic jokes in the days following the Hamas-led attack on Israelis back in October. But given just a few examples of certain injustices in the community, it is extremely important to consider the extensive systems the school has in place to combat these issues.
An aspect of the “woke school” premise is that we do not actually deploy systems that counter harm in our communities, but instead make empty arguments and baseless claims for what we are pretending to be doing. At Grace, this argument remains untrue.
Grace Church School has more than 10 faculty members dedicated to being student support guides: hubs for stability and emotional support. Additionally, there are two different learning specialists whose jobs are to help students plan, organize, and help them build their own systems of stability.
The Grace Office of Community Engagement, according to its mission, is a “dedicated team focused on our commitment to building a healthy, equitable, antiracist, and sustainable community”. Grace’s MLK Symposium is a week of service inspired by the acts of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Finally, there are numerous chapel services dedicated to celebrating different affinity and racial groups.
The strength of the school is the promise of active demonstration and inclusion. Being defined as a “woke” school categorizes the institution as a politically dominant and image-first school. And yet, the truth is that Grace is a different school compared to most, especially in the New York City private school circle.
Grace’s education extends beyond the books, arming the students with a foundation of systems that teach and reward mindful and inclusive thinking. This multidimensional approach is critical to a pedagogy of joy, always working towards the mission of an injustice-free community, where diversity is a strength, and progress is power.
Wesley Tyson ‘26, the author, is a staff writer for The Grace Gazette.