For the first time in almost a decade, Galileo hosted a Lunar New Year assembly on February 8th during 3rd period. Previously, the Lunar New Year assembly was removed because it was during the same time as Black History month, however, this year, the school felt it was wrong to not celebrate Asian culture so the Lunar New Year assembly was put back into place.
One of the strongest proponents of bringing back the assembly, assistant principal, Mr Flores, says, “This school is 65% Asian and for us to not celebrate Asian culture, for me that’s disrespectful.”
Celebrating the holiday, the assembly started off with many different people from different parts of Asia speaking their languages. Some of the other performances included: singing, Lion Dancing and K-pop dancing.
Mandarin student teacher Kris Cou, who was a part of the K-pop performance, thought it was really cool that the school was having a Lunar New Year assembly. He said, “I’m an Asain American so I feel really proud and happy that the school is having the assembly to celebrate. It took a lot of teamwork to make this happen, students, staff, and teachers all worked together. I’m happy I was given the opportunity to perform at this assembly.”
Another performer, senior Celine D., who sang during the assembly was also glad that the school recognized her Asian culture by having an assembly. She said, “ I feel happy that the school is having a Lunar New Year assembly because we didn’t have one last year. It’s good having one because students can enjoy it instead of being bored. I’ve been practicing for my performance since winter break.”
WIth both a Lunar New Year & a BSU assembly in February, Galileo has tried to represent some of the cultures present at the school, and show how important culture is within the community. A question raised though was whether the school is able to really represent all the cultures.
Senior Patrick T., answered the question, saying, “No, the school is not doing enough to represent different cultures. In classrooms we can do activities for different cultures so everyone can get to know each other’s cultures.”
Ethnic Studies teacher, Mr. Delgado, added, “I feel like we can always improve and do more for sure. We can improve by getting more students involved, ask them how we can improve? How can we represent every population of people no matter how small the population might be at the school we still need to definitely represent.”
On the other hand, junior Meriam N. said, “Yeah, I think the school is doing enough to showcase different cultures: we have a BSU club and a Chinese club which I think is good.”
