8 Questions to Help Leaders Prepare for Confrontation & Empowered Bias
There is an America that has been hidden for a long time that will enter schools stealthily. We must be alert and protect the values we embrace in our work with children.
There is an America that has been hidden for a long time that will enter schools stealthily. We must be alert and protect the values we embrace in our work with children.
Policies and legislation may call for safe environments, but it is the heart of the educator leading and teaching students that will make the most difference.
As with most things affecting school culture, the leader's ability to identify and address stressors makes a positive difference.
This is truly a moment for the adults who make decisions about whether they are going to accept social change and create the environments in which all children can flourish to be courageous.
Students are now coming out as early as in middle school and in the case of transgender students, elementary school. Safe environments are needed.
The bias that raged in the 20th century proved to serve no purpose other than to cause damage. As we have moved away from the exaggerated bias, fear mongering, and exclusion of those considered different from the majority, inclusion offers some healing.
As public school leaders, it is our moral obligation to make our schools safe for all children at all times no matter what is happening in the legal courts or the courts of public opinion.
The future of our nation is created during the years students spend in schools. We hold the hope, as educators, that the talents of no child or adult get overlooked because of the physical body in which they come wrapped.
Let us hold true to making the tough choices, stop marginalizing those who may be different from us. Let us come together to make schools safe for girls, for boys, for those who are different by race or religion or ethnicity or sexual orientation.
What we need to do is to create the safe and trustworthy environments where all are welcome. Standing up and accepting and supporting gay students and colleagues is courageous and necessary.
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