By Dr. Hughes, LGB Principal
In the LGB Express a piece was published anonymously on cultural celebrations. There were a few inaccuracies that I would like to rectify in this response, but also a general approach and set of assumptions that I would like to challenge.
Rectifying inaccuracies
1. Christmas does not go unnoticed: we set up a wish tree in the Centre des arts – a creative Christmas tree, staff sing Christmas Carols at the annual Porto before the Winter break and, most significantly, there are holidays during Christmas and the Christian New Year. Whilst it is true that we do not run specific activities at break, Christmas hardly goes by unnoticed. Furthermore, the school has decided to celebrate Christmas more emphatically from next year.
2. The article claims that not running Christmas is part of an effort not to be too Eurocentric. We celebrate the Escalade and Sankta Lucia: Europe is represented in the celebrations, in fact more than other parts of the world.
3. The decision on which festivities to celebrate is taken by a team,not a person as the article claims, and we are always open to suggestions.
Assumptions
4. The article claims that the school “refuses” to celebrate Christmas and that this is an act of “discrimination”. No one actively refuses to celebrate a festival, we select some and not others because of a host of reasons including logistics and not every festivity can or will be celebrated given that there are about 60 in a calendar year. To call this discrimination seems disingenuous to me.
5. The anonymous author describes the festivities we celebrate as “exotic”, “attractive” and “exciting”. This is highly problematic language wrought with bias and stereotypes.
6. Queen Elizabeth is likened to Nelson Mandela, as if to say that we should have put the flag at half mast for her since we did it for Nelson Mandela. Here we get into lengthy debates about which international figures who are connected to the school or have fought for peace should be formally recognised or not. The nobel prize winning anti-Apartheid activist who was imprisoned for his convictions for 27 years is a universally recognised figure aligned with Ecolint values, hence our decision to put the flag at half mast.
Anonymity
I enjoy critical discussion and intellectual exchange, in fact I think it is one of the core functions of an educational institution. However, we have to stand by what we say. Anonymity takes credibility away from your points and weakens your stance, it also makes it easy to say things that are problematic since you don’t have to own them. I’ve reflected on this point before in the LGB Express: I strongly encourage you to have the courage to stand by what you say.
