The hope of the world is in our Schoolhouse—
—studying and playing; building academic, emotional, and civic skills; and stretching out towards the future—a future that will be made better by our students' presence and influence. It is an extraordinary responsibility and joy to foster intellectual curiosity and empower meaningful contribution in so many potential antigens for all that ails the world. It is vital to support each and every one of them in learning how to see across and through socially constructed barriers, understand and employ empathy, and embrace the principle and practice of honoring differences.
Initiatives in Our School Community
Preparing Faculty Through Professional Development
Belmont Day faculty participate in Friday afternoon professional development workshops dedicated to equity, inclusion, and belonging topics throughout the school year.
Collaborative teaching engages students on these topics and activities, among many others:
- learning about social identity, social bias, and social justice
- exploring race and racialization
- book reads
- problem-solving class group challenges that centered on social identity and honoring differences
A Google Classroom resources site gives teachers quick access to material on these topics:
- empathy
- benefits of diversity
- racism
- teaching resources
- metacognition
- pedagogy
- worldview
- socioeconomic status
- race
- sexual orientation
- gender
- ability
- age
- physical appearance
- family and heritage
- social Identity, social bias, and social justice
The Ally Pact
The Ally Pact invites all of us to make our inclusivity practice explicit and active.
The Ally Pact is a way to move beyond passive rules for engagement on matters related to equity, inclusion, and belonging and stare down what’s really at issue when socially advantaged people interact with those who are socially disadvantaged.
Teachers at Belmont Day hold instruction and enrichment in matters related to social identity, social bias, and social justice as having importance and value on par with instruction and enrichment in every other area of our educational program.
A thoughtful, engaging, enriching, and developmentally appropriate EIB curriculum is developing. Although details of this scope and sequence map will change as this work progresses, this introduction is a reliable window into what we’re building. The Social Identity Prism provides the constellation of topics and conceptual framework for the kind of comprehensive, clear knowledge we want students to gain about the dynamic interaction between social identity, social bias, and social justice.
Growth, Development, and Belonging
Focused attention to key health and wellness and EIB content will equip our students to keep themselves and each other safe, maintain respectful relationships, and express their feelings.
How are we developing policy and practices that promote equity, inclusion, and belonging?
Belmont Day upholds a clear policy on how to approach the presence of one of society’s most charged and complex terms, the n-word, in curricular material. The following lesson plan was used to introduce students to the policy. By adopting this approach we achieved a community practice that relieves teachers from having to determine on their own what might be the best practice vis-a-vis the n-word and that safeguards students from being offended or causing offense to others.
Honoring Differences in Hiring Processes
Diversity is a quality that is as valuable as the knowledge, skills, and abilities sought in any role. Study upon study confirms the importance and power of exposure to both familiar and novel models and narratives of humanity. Children, especially, feel more welcome, secure, confident, and motivated, and are more able to empathize and get along with a global citizenry when they are surrounded by mirrors and windows. For these reasons, we are explicit and deliberate in our efforts to recruit and retain students and faculty who represent the widest possible range of human diversity.
Avoiding Social Bias in Team Meeting Discussions
Maintaining an awareness that all of us are susceptible to implicit bias enables us to create practices that resist inadvertently appraising, discussing, and treating children unfairly. This set of guidelines supports teachers in connecting actual disciplined preventive practice to awareness of implicit bias.
How are we engaging parents?
Parents and caregivers are invited to participate in gatherings throughout the year centered around fostering belonging and furthering the work of equity and inclusion in our community and beyond. Facilitated learning forums are offered that focus on specific EIB topics.
Student Affinity and Ally Spaces
Affinity Spaces
Affinity spaces give students who share an identity—usually a marginalized identity—a safe space to gather to exchange experiences, feelings, thoughts, and ideas and then transfer that discussion into action that makes for a more equitable experience at school.
Ally Spaces
Students who participate in ally spaces share a commitment to exploring their own identities and their place in our inequitable society. They work to develop an activist mentality to support and uplift marginalized groups.
