Dear Lower School Families,

 

This week we return to "The Formative Five" by Tom Hoerr. Our fifth topic is Embracing Diversity, and Hoerr defines embracing diversity as “understanding that we should recognize and appreciate the differences among us. The attitude acknowledges our history of differences while empowering every person to succeed and enables all of us to come together in a caring, respectful, and productive way.” As with the other aspects of "The Formative Five," an assessment survey is offered for you to explore with your children and develop dialogue as a family.

 

The following survey is designed for children to gather a sense about their feelings about diversity. It is a tool to elicit reflection and discussion, not a scientifically valid instrument.

 

Directions:

Place a 1-strongly disagree; 2-disagree; 3-not sure; 4-agree; 5-strongly agree for each item.

 

___ 1. Every student comes to school with the same chances for success.

___ 2. I have close friends of different races, ethnicities, and genders.

___ 3. Everyone would get along better if we all knew more about my culture.

___ 4. I respect the holidays and celebrations of religions and groups that are different than

mine.

___ 5. I consciously reach out to students who are in a minority group (racial, religious, sexual

orientation, etc.).

___ 6. The election of Vice President Kamala Harris means that racial bias is no longer a

problem in the United States.

___ 7. I am comfortable being around people regardless of their sexual orientation.

___ 8. Boys are naturally better athletes and leaders than girls.

___ 9. It’s OK to use stereotypical language as long as you are just kidding.

___10.I understand that society has favored some groups over others.

 

Scoring:

____ (A) Total points for 2, 4, 5, 7, 10

____ (B) Total points for 1, 3, 6, 8, 9

____ (C) Subtract (B) from (A) for your “embracing diversity” score

 

If you scored…

 

Hoerr shares that embracing diversity means playing an active role in supporting the safety and dignity of others and ensuring that they are respected, and making sure that we teach our children to do the same. Regardless of age, we can all be champions for diversity by being aware of the biases that we and others hold and that are ingrained in the world. He outlines steps for teaching children aspects of how to embrace diversity:

 

Last summer, Sarah Wright, Director of Inclusivity, and I developed a professional development outline for the faculty and staff to focus on our DEI work as a Lower School. The Lower School Faculty and Staff have been reading and discussing Culture, Class, and Race: Constructive Conversations That Unite and Energize Your School and Community this year. We are also engaged in professional development exercises each month to develop a deeper sense of comfort and practice in having conversations about diversity with one another and with our students. We are also focused on our grade-level curriculum review and establishing a curricular framework for the upcoming school year.

 

In planning ahead for the upcoming year, Sarah and I would like to host small focus group discussions with parents, as we consider our next steps in our DEI work as a Lower School. If you would like to participate in a discussion group, please submit your information through this link. Once we collect the responses, we will connect with you this spring to schedule participants for a specific meeting day and time.

 

Thank you for your feedback as we have explored "The Formative Five" through Dr. Hoerr’s book and his recent SPEAK presentation. I hope that each of the five provided you with an opportunity to review and explore a wide range of topics together.

 

Invitations to include times and Zoom links are posted on your child’s classroom page.

 

Please see the flyer on the Lower School Resource Page.

 

Kind regards,

Angie Crabtree

LS Principal