Officials at the Harpeth Hall School in Nashville have decided to do away with their annual George Washington Celebration.
Head of School Jess Hill declined to answer The Tennessee Star’s specific questions about the matter in an email Tuesday. She instead sent a statement.
“After much thoughtful dialogue spanning several years, Harpeth Hall has decided to discontinue the annual George Washington Celebration,” Hill wrote, adding many people support the decision.
In her email, Hill said school officials are ending the celebration for the following reasons:
• “It is not consistent with or relevant to the way that we teach history today.”
• “It does not demonstrate the significant role that women, people of color, and other underrepresented groups play in our nation’s history.”
• “A growing number of students, faculty, staff, and alumnae are expressing their discomfort with this tradition.”
“For the past several years, the Leadership Team, faculty, and students have questioned in separate discussions the long-standing tradition of the George Washington Celebration at Harpeth Hall – a place where girls are at the center of our story. During this past school year, we held focus group discussions with our Alumnae Board and Head’s Young Alumnae Council to gather their thoughts. We also conferred with administrators and teachers charged with leading the program over many years,” Hill wrote.
“In consideration of their feedback and our mission, we have decided that the George Washington Celebration held on February 13, 2020 marks our final performance.”
Harpeth Hill is an expensive and elite all-women prep middle school and high school. According to its website, alumnae include actress Reese Witherspoon, singer Amy Grant, and entertainer Sarah Colley Cannon, also known as Minnie Pearl. The school’s website also said that its middle school tuition costs almost $28,000, while upper school tuition costs almost $29,000.
Hill sent an email to school alumni Tuesday, which The Star obtained. The email describes The George Washington Celebration as a social event that originated more than a century ago.
“In 1913, young women at Ward-Belmont lived and studied in a protected enclave where young men were not allowed. In an effort to provide a social activity during a winter weekend that year, Ward-Belmont students planned a party where they imagined the lives of our founding fathers, dressed in colonial costumes, and danced the minuet to celebrate George Washington’s birthday. This social occasion was not a part of the educational program and continued for decades, with a multi-year hiatus during World War II when all citizens were called upon to conserve resources and support the war effort,” the email said.
“When Ward-Belmont closed in 1951 and Harpeth Hall began on the Hobbs Road campus, many former Ward-Belmont teachers brought traditions with them to continue the all-girls experience in Souby Hall, our first classroom building. The George Washington Celebration resumed in 1955 and served as an opportunity for beloved and revered Miss Patty Chadwell to teach dance in her Physical Education class.”
The George Washington Celebration “experienced many evolutions over the decades,” according to the email.
“In 1982 [it] became a seventh grade activity, where girls were assigned to be soldiers, sailors, captains of the guard, or one of the guests at the celebration. Two outstanding students, first in the junior class and later in the eighth grade, were honored each year as George and Martha Washington.”
According to its Facebook page, Harpeth Hall is an independent college preparatory school for girls and young women “whose mission is to teach girls to think critically, to lead confidently, and to live honorably.”
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Harpeth Hall School” by Harpeth Hall School.
While the article states that only a student activity for 7th graders is being eliminated, the three reasons given by headmistress Jess Hill for the elimination of the tradition is disturbing. Not one of those reasons should factor into any scholastic decisions. There should be more importance in maintaining school traditions regardless of how relevant or important they may appear to be in the present. Traditions should be valued more in this country for the same reasons history should not be erased. Knowledge of the past can only enrich our understanding of the present while giving us an understanding of what our future may hold.
The comments to this article are a sad exhibit of the poor reading comprehension in our country: an extracurricular activity is cancelled, and people berate the school for no longer teaching history. Subject matter was not altered in any way, if we can believe the school (although, admittedly, I’d take that with a grain of salt).
Your comment is a prime example of a liberal who thinks he or she is better than everyone else while it is really proof that you have low self esteem. HH has always been a communist leaning school for liberal hippies and drunks like Reese Witherspoon.
I just hope someone at Harpeth Hall is reading these comments. Sad people spend thousands of dollars to have true American History erased from their minds.
Jess Hill says the celebration is not relevant to the way they teach history today after conferring with staff and teachers. She is correct. Schools from K up through college teach Socialism/Communism is superior to our Democratic Republic. Recent survey indicates that college professors and lower level instructors are at a ratio of 48 to one, Leftists to Conservative/Constitutionalists. Well Jess, your snooty school would likely not exists if there were not fearless Patriots like George Washington who fought for and help found the United States.
The headline is misleading. The article clears up what is actually being cancelled. Read the article before you comment, friends.
Please read the article, folks. I went to HH as did my daughter. We were both in this pageant which is a snapshot of a birthday party that was held for Washington. It has always been an odd tradition (started in 1913) and HH has been considering eliminating it for several years. It is very outdated. It is fascinating to see such a knee-jerk reaction from people who may or may not know that much about Washington themselves beyond the cherry tree. Yes, HH still teaches about the first president…only the pageant is being phased out. I actually visited Mount Vernon when I was a student there. I believe there is still a trip to Washington in the 8th grade. Chill out, people.
Thank you. I never understood that tradition and I do not think the students got much benefit from it. The timing makes it look like appeasement and political correctness. My daughter graduated 2015 from Harpeth Hall.
Having read the entire article I would say it is not the removal of the celebration that is the concern, but some of the reasons given for that decision (especially with the current push by many misguided, and often lawlessness groups that are pushing for the removal of our history). It reads as pandering at best.