This year I have been assigned to teach public speaking to the 7^th grade class.  For the first assignment, I asked the students to give a short speech about any topic of their choice, hoping to establish their “default voice,” that tone and style unaffected by formal technique. 

For the most part, the students did what you would expect—they talked through trips to Disneyland, memorable birthday parties, and concerns about global warming.  Near the end of the session, Jaidyn opened a neatly folded piece of paper.  It had five bullet points, each only one word.  She began, “Today I would like to tell you a story about two men who went for a walk.”

She continued, “My great grandfather and great uncle were born in North Carolina to a former slave.  They decided to walk to Florida to be with other members of their family.  The walk from North Carolina was dangerous and difficult.  They were forced to hide.  They moved in constant fear.”

“They finally arrived in Florida and spent the next several years there.  Then, one day, after they had grown into men, they decided it was time to walk home.  The walk home was no easier.  In fact, it was even scarier this time.  My great uncle ended his walk in North Carolina and my great grandfather walked all the way to West Virginia.  It was there, in those states, that they started their own families.”

“These two men took a walk.  It was difficult.  It was scary.  We are all on our own walk and sometimes, when my walk is hard, I know I can reach my destination because I have their blood in me.”

I repeated this story to our students, faculty, and guests at a Chapel Service early in September.  Looking back at me were faces reflecting a cross section of the version of America we hold in our hearts—a mix of ethnicities, cultures, races, and religions, united by our Core Values—out of many, one.  I felt inspired.

Recently, students have expressed to me confusion and fear about our world.  They feel troubled by the road ahead.  Jaidyn’s story reminds me that because our students attend a school where they study and work, learn and play, with friends from many backgrounds, they will have the capacity to understand and appreciate the differences among people throughout their lives. 

This edition of SEA Ties celebrates our Core Value, “Understanding and Appreciation of the Differences Among People.”  At St. Edmund’s Academy, we believe that diversity enriches our students’ education, helping them to become kinder and more perceptive.  We believe that majority and minority groups alike benefit from the friendships formed at our school that transcend race, class, and gender differences.  We cherish our student body's diversity, recognizing the opportunity we have to give rise to the country we carry in our hearts, a wide and open road with room for all.

We seek to have an understanding and appreciation of the differences among people not only because it’s ethically responsible, but also because research proves that we learn best when we feel socially connected and emotionally secure.  Human beings benefit from cross cultural competency—that deliberate effort to understand people seemingly unlike ourselves—because the attribute increases social and emotional wellbeing and breaks us out of the habitual thought patterns associated with being around only people from backgrounds exactly like our own.

Supporting our Core Value to have an understanding and appreciation of the differences among people, students at every grade level at St. Edmund’s Academy will spend some time during the month of October “Celebrating the Open Road.”  Symbolized by Jaidyn’s story of two men who went for a walk, our students will grapple with a series of developmentally appropriate questions designed to help them think in age appropriate ways about pluralistic democracy and civic responsibility, conditions that begin with self-respect and care.

We want them to be prepared to navigate their lives in principled, dignified, and emotionally intelligent ways.  To this end, and through a series of implicit and explicit conversations and experiences, children will explore these questions:

Originating from our Core Values, we believe these questions will help shape their priorities and principles throughout their formative years and beyond.  By foregrounding these strategically sequenced questions, we hope to instill in our students a robust and generous sense of self and other. 

We believe that a small scale version of inclusive American nationalism exists at our school.  From my office each day this week, I have heard the third grade singing patriotic songs in preparation for their class performance.  I feel such hope for our country when their diverse voices rise in celebration of unity made stronger through our differences.  I feel their voices celebrating an understanding of the differences among people.

Inspired by their voices and Jaidyn’s story, I imagine our students extending roads of optimism and hope, as they prepare for the journey ahead where our democracy will be in their hands.

The spirit of it all reminded me of Walt Whitman’s opening in, “Song of the Open Road.”

Yet, walking the road and tasting its freedom is not enough.  Our children’s wisdom, their natural inclination towards inclusivity, emerges not only on the journey but at the destination.  Children at St. Edmund’s Academy in Janice Beyer’s social health sessions always leave an open seat in their classroom.  I remember visiting a class well underway and was greeted by a child who said, “Mr. Barnett, thank you for joining us.  We have a seat for you.”  I felt so encouraged. 

I accepted the invitation and thought about the great American poet, Langston Hughes, who in 1926 reminded us in his beautiful poem, “I, too, Sing America,” that the open road’s promise can only be fulfilled if the table has a place for all. 

As we celebrate our understanding and appreciation of differences among people at St. Edmund’s Academy, let’s remember to support each other along all the roads we travel and to always keep an open seat at our table.  Let us encourage our children to remember the power of saying, “Thank you for joining us.  We have a seat for you.” 

 

Chad Barnett
Head of School