At New City School, our work with children and families is guided by our four pillars: Academic Excellence, Diversity Beyond the Numbers, Joyful Learning, and Personal Intelligences. Learning should not be a chore, and we help children nurture their innate curiosity about the world around them. We also work to help children develop a strong sense of self – who they are and how they fit into the larger community. Interwoven throughout is diversity, a word that we define in the broadest sense possible.
We believe that our students should have a deep appreciation and understanding of diversity in all its forms. Our curriculum reflects that commitment, as themes of identify and social justice are central to the work of our students. Grappling with issues of diversity can be challenging, and one aspect of diversity that has proven harder to tackle than others is that of political diversity. Respect for all viewpoints is crucial, and this year’s presidential election has provided our community with a challenge – how do we help develop children’s acceptance of and understanding of different political viewpoints, particularly in a contentious election season?
We have faced this challenge before. Our school happens to be a polling place, and four years ago the faculty decided to hand out buttons with the word “Respect” printed on them. Those buttons helped to visually display our approach to respecting the diverse political views of our faculty, school families, children and community members. With November 8 just a few weeks away, the faculty at New City have once again been preparing for Election Day, and our most recent faculty meeting provides a template for how schools and parents might consider planning and preparing.
Led by our director of Diversity and Inclusion, we convened our faculty and asked them to talk about the first presidential election they remember as a child. What role did their teachers and school play in creating memories around presidential elections? We then asked teachers to role-play, and asked how they might respond to different scenarios involving politically related questions and thoughts from students, parents and faculty.
What will you do when a child asks who you are voting for? What will you say when a child shares a challenging remark from the presidential debate or newspaper? What will you do when children share their parent’s political views in school?
Teachers discussed how they would approach the election in their classes, with answers ranging from frank conversations in classrooms with older children, to mock-elections (what is your favorite book cover?) with younger children. We embraced the 2016 Election Contract, “Speak Up for Civility”, published by Teaching Tolerance (tolerance.org) and agreed that, throughout all of the conversations, we would connect everything back to the main tenets of our school’s rules to live by: Personal Best, Active Listening, Truth, Trust, and importantly, No Put Downs. And, of course, our “Respect” buttons will be out as well.
Alexis Wright is head of school at New City School.
