Dear Families,
At the same time that many of us were gathering for LREI’s Spring Concert, a number of LREI community members and many, many others were joining together for a march and rally in response to the killing of Marc Carson, a gay man who was the victim of what the NYPD is describing as a hate crime. This killing both followed and preceded other assaults and at least one other murder that the police are also describing as hate crimes against members of the LGBTQ community. In general, reports from the city are that hate crimes have increased considerably this year.
How do we respond as a school to these events? What additional conversations should we have? What do we say to our children when they ask us to help them make sense of the conflict between increasing numbers of hate crimes against members of the LGBTQ community and the seeming increase in public/societal acceptance?
There are some clear answers to the questions above. We respond by participating in public expressions of grief and outrage. We respond with continued conversation. We respond with expressions of care and support for LGBTQ members of our immediate communities. We respond by looking at what we do each day to reinforce an understanding of all people, of the embracing of differences and similarities. While many schools will respond with reinvigorated discussions of bullying, and this will be worthwhile, if this is the only conversation, it may cast a negative spin on the conversation rather than a more positive discussion of valuing our neighbors as we value ourselves.
A student’s life in school should provide windows into the lives, needs, and wants of others. Through reading and history and writing and art, through language study and math and science—in innumerable ways we, as teachers, need to open up the world to our students. A school’s academic program should do more than to prepare students for the next academic test. The curriculum must challenge the children to better understand the world and its peoples. Studies of diversity and social justice should be highly intellectual endeavors. As we do this, and as families go out into the world, children will develop a respect for and a comfort with lives other than their own. This underlying respect and a sense of modesty about one’s own life in comparison to others will do more to increase understanding and peace than a one-shot assembly about bullying.
Raising children who are respectful and caring is a long and challenging effort, but clearly one that is well worth all that goes into it and so much more fruitful when schools and home work together as is our experience at LREI.
I invite you to join LREI’s Lesbian, Gay, Straight Alliance in a show of support for and pride in the LGBTQ community on Sunday, June 30, as LREI and the Calhoun School sponsor a float in the 2013 Pride March. Stay tuned for more details.