On May 9, Bank Street Graduate School of Education celebrated its annual commencement ceremony. Held at the United Palace Theatre, the ceremony commended the perseverance and accomplishments of the approximately 250 students who earned their master’s degrees and advanced certificates.
Bank Street also awarded the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, Honoris Causa to Robin D. G. Kelley, Distinguished Professor and the Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in US History at the University of California, Los Angeles. Throughout his career, Dr. Kelley has directly challenged conventional wisdom about race relations and class in American culture and history and has ensured that many stories of Black culture, which would otherwise be erased from history, are being heard.
Upon receiving his honorary degree, Dr. Kelley reminded the graduating class that as teachers, they also need to listen and learn from their students.
He said, “You’re teachers. You have the best job on the planet and you have the hardest job on the planet. You’re responsible for preparing kids for a world that is both hostile and beautiful, a world constantly changing and seemingly standing still. They need to know as much about power as about love, and that sometimes standing up to power is the greatest act of love. They need to learn how to think for themselves, how to think with others, how to listen, how to distinguish between the discomfort that comes with learning, principled disagreement, and safety. And they need to learn how to care for one another—across differences. This is not indoctrination. It is teaching.”
Following the conferral of the honorary degree, three graduating students—Dani Kirsch, MS in Child Life; Luna Britt, MSEd in Early Childhood Special & General Education; and Grasilel Diaz, EdM in Progressive Leadership—took the stage to reflect on their experiences at Bank Street and share a few key learnings.
The graduates also heard from Amy Stuart Wells, Dean, Bank Street Graduate School of Education. In her address, Dr. Wells spoke about the importance of the lifelong relationships each graduate student has built.
She said, “Our founder, Lucy Sprague Mitchell, saw teaching as a form of social activism. This is our legacy, but this is not individual work, this is collective, movement-building work. Your Bank Street family is where you will find much-needed allies in our collective struggle to fight for the respect that our professions deserve and the survival of institutions that serve our children and their families.”
President Shael Polakow-Suransky, GSE ’00, also took the stage, encouraging the new graduates to remember this year’s 70th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision and the power they have as educators to change the world.
He said, “We must keep teaching stories of liberation, we must keep building learning environments that nurture critical inquiry, dialogue, and the space to understand each other. Through this work, each of you has the opportunity to invent a different future. I am filled with hope when I think about the work you are setting out to do. My hope stems not from the people in positions of formal power and what they will or will not do but from each of you, the committed individuals who are intent on ensuring our children have access to a loving, thoughtful, and supportive environment to invent and reinvent the world around us.”
Click here to see the day’s program and view a slideshow of the ceremony and celebration of the exceptional accomplishments of our graduating class.