“At a time like this, when every one is thinking in terms of world problems, it is sometimes hard to keep our minds on the small problems of the day-to-day life of our children. Yet the way that the foundations of democracy are built is by daily habits of recognizing the rights of those who differ from ourselves,”
— Elisabeth Irwin, founder of LREI, Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School, 1940.
We remain faithful to Elisabeth Irwin’s vision that the School will always be a leader in progressive education and in educating for democracy, for equity, and for justice.
There is ample evidence to support this, evidence spanning nearly a century. We are a school that has welcomed a diverse group of students each fall, beginning on our first day in 1921. We are a school that welcomed families rocked by the witch hunt of the “Red Scare.” We are a community that hosted students boycotting schools that refused to integrate. We have led the way in welcoming LGBT students, teachers, and families. We give as much or more financial aid than all but a very few other NYC independent schools. And today, with a student body roughly 30% students of color, we are working to increase that number to mirror the city in which we live.
The thought that this school would purposely separate students in order to deprive one group of children of their human and civil rights is at the very least a deep misunderstanding of LREI’s historic and current commitment to equity and justice.
Facts:
- For many years LREI has considered race when placing students into classroom groups in the lower and middle divisions as we know that seeing oneself in one’s classmates can have a significant, positive impact on achievement. This is common practice in independent schools. Race is one factor, though not the primary factor, that we consider along with friendships, learning styles, family structure, etc. when placing students in groups.
- During the 2017-2018 school year, in our effort to even better support students of color, in three middle school grades we placed all of the students of color and a number of white students in one homeroom (the total number of students was half of the grade). They were in this group for approximately 30% of their academic day.
- Anecdotally, many of the students of color grouped this way found the experience to be positive and supportive.
- We also heard from families of students of color who felt that while this support might well exist, they saw downsides to students of color feeling that the first thing the school sees is the color of their skin. We must remember that our students of color have a variety of experiences.
Next Year:
- In 2018-2019 we will consider race as we always have but will not use it as the primary factor in determining class placement as was the case in three middle school grades in 2017-2018.
- We will also continue our work to find the very best, mission driven, ways to support all of our students and families. Having conversations, gathering input, and solving problems is a challenge that we ask our students to embrace, and one that we, the adults, should embrace as well.
- In answer to the question, “You changed your plan for the 2018-2019 school year, does this mean that your previous plan was a mistake?” our response is: Last year’s approach was a new iteration of our longstanding policy. The feedback we received, both positive and negative, led us to reassess and reinstitute the older version while at the same time recommitting ourselves to listen closely to students, families, alumni, and faculty to make sure our initiatives and goals are supportive and well understood by the entire LREI community. This is all in service of making sure that the LREI experience is inclusive of all community members.
Our Commitment Going Forward:
- We owe all students the very best LREI experience.
- LREI acknowledges that race exists, its impact on members of our community differs depending on their identities and that as a school that strives to be a part of the world we need to recognize this impact on a child’s experience in our school.
- We work every day to address this issue. Some say we are creating a bubble for our students, allowing them to avoid the challenges of the world. We say our goal is to allow all of our students to fully participate successfully in the school’s academic program. We, the adults, need to do everything we can to mitigate obstacles to this.
- In articles about the school, and some subsequent social media posts, it has been suggested that our class placement policy will inhibit the students’ ability to learn to speak with each other and to learn with – and from – each other. We strongly disagree. It is important to remember that our class placement policy, however implemented, does not exist in a vacuum. Conversations about equity and diversity are embedded in the student experience throughout LREI’s 14-year program.
We do all of this to be true to our founder’s ideals. As Elisabeth Irwin said,
“Democracy builds on understanding others, accepting responsibility for them, escaping from the narrow cell of personal needs and interests and cultivating the widest possible understanding and appreciation of all the peoples of the earth, a commitment to using knowledge to make a difference in the world and to enrich human life, to reduce human drudgery, and to study community problems and act upon them in constructive, democratic fashion.”