By RON FANFAIR
Until Grade 8, Karen Hudson was the only Black student in her classrooms in Nova Scotia. In junior high, that changed when three female Black students joined her.
“I felt like I was in heaven,” Hudson recalled. “It was amazing.”
She also felt empowered.
Wanting to learn more about Black history, Hudson sought permission from her teacher to read ‘Soul on Ice’ written in 1965 by Black Panther leader and political activist Eldridge Cleaver while he was in California’s Folsom State Prison.
Telling the student that ‘the book would be too difficult for her’, he provided Gordon Parks’ ‘The Learning Tree’ which is a fictional study of a Black family in a small Kansas town in the 1920s.
Parks was one of the first African American filmmakers to direct films in Hollywood, developing films relating the experience of slaves and struggling Black Americans. He also helped create the ‘Blaxploitation’ genre.
“I wanted to read books written by people of African ancestry,” said Hudson. “The teacher took that into consideration, saying ‘This is a book for your reading level’.”
Recognizing the power that educators hold that could influence change, she pursued the profession.
The award-winning educational leader was among 100 accomplished Black Canadian women recognized at an event in Etobicoke on September 28.
In 2018, Hudson pioneered the first Africentric cohort in Math and Literacy within a public school aimed at empowering students by infusing Afrocentric concepts into the curriculum.
The Learning Partnership recognized her groundbreaking initiative a year later, naming her one of Canada’s Outstanding Principals.
Hudson has been at Auburn Drive High School in Cole Harbour for the last decade after serving a year as principal at a junior high school.
Eight years ago, the late Preman Edwards – a Math teacher at Auburn – reminded his principal that Black students were underperforming and suggested she, with a background in Afrocentricity, is the best person to confront the issue.
“We brainstormed and the data I was looking at showed that Black students were taking low-level Math and they were in individual program plans (IPPs) and resource rooms,” said Hudson, who was awarded an honorary degree by Saint Mary’s University last May.
“Further investigation revealed that most Black students were told this is the Math they should take. I decided we should try something different and, in 2017, we did a small test by placing half of our students in a Math cohort class to see how it would work. From that, we could see how they were pushing each other. The next year, we did a full class which was critical for us in that it changed the trajectory in terms of what we were doing next. The students wanted to be together working as a cohort. That was powerful.”
Becoming an educator was not something Hudson aspired to do.
“Though it was not my first love, I knew if I went into it that I would want to do something different,” she said. “I did not want students to experience some of the things I went through. If I had the opportunity to make a difference, I promised to work hard and influence young minds without seeking recognition.”
Role models play critical roles in shaping lives.
For Hudson, her guiding light is multidisciplinary artist David Woods who, through the Cultural Awareness Youth Group (CAYG) of Nova Scotia he headed, provided leadership, cultural awareness and history lessons to local schools and community groups.
“David is my mentor and role model,” said Hudson who graduated from Mount Saint Vincent University with a Master of Education in Curriculum Studies in 2005 and a Master of Education degree with a concentration in Literacy in 2010. “If it were not for him, I didn’t think I would be in this leadership role that I am in today. He gave us the information that was missing in terms of us understanding our culture and provided opportunities for us to come together as young people to talk about critical issues, celebrate each other, learn how to debate and write plays.”
Hudson, who has actively helped expand Africentric cohorts to other Nova Scotia institutions, including Horton, Woodlawn and Citadel High schools, said her mother, Yvonne Hudson, was in her thoughts as she and the other distinguished Black women were celebrated at the biennial event.
“She is the epitome of honesty, integrity and an amazing work ethic,” the Black Educators Association’s interim president said. “She made sure her children understood that their life experiences are part of their richness of living here, that you recognize that community is critical and that you pay attention to your elders and the wisdom they bring. She represents the spirit of Black women and the knowledge that we sometimes don’t respect.”
