Lower School teachers are planning a program where all fourth graders will participate in an initiative centered on integrating the Lower School
Drawing inspiration from the Upper School Student Diversity Board after visiting one of its forums, Racism 2.0 on Nov. 21, Lower School teacher Tresa Wilson created the Young Global Leaders initiative and currently focuses on advancing the initiative in the spring.
The initiative engages all fourth grade students in age appropriate experiences and encourages them to ask questions and seek answers about various global communities.
After Wilson attended the forum, she was able to step back and look at her fourth graders.
“When I teach about a certain multicultural novel…I see how the [students] want more. I see how they want to ask the questions deeper into the topic, but I have to stop.” Wilson said. “I need to give them an outlet to ask those questions, to wonder why.”
Not only will Young Global Leaders give the students such an outlet, but it also will provide them with the opportunity for leadership in supporting the school’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Under Wilson’s supervision, the fourth graders will lead the initiative in addressing issues primarily dealing with friendship.
“A lot of these girls have been together since Pre-K, and so, they’ve had that same connection, that same relationship,” Wilson said. She hopes girls will branch out to build new relationships as they move forward into Middle School.
Throughout the school year, Wilson will meet with groups of fourth graders to discuss issues significant to the culture and community of Lower School. The girls will implement three types of programs organized for the Lower School: Mix- It-Up Day, Structured Play and Act-It-Out.
Wilson hopes through these programs the girls will learn that “It’s okay to be all different. Yes, we are all the same in some amazing way, but those differences are just as important as those similarities.”
The opinions that Lower School girls develop about one another and about diversity issues are often merely reflections of those of their parents.
Katie Mimini, a junior representative on the Student Diversity Board, said the initiative will influence students to be open to different perspectives early on. “That way, they would not be stuck to the one their parents have,” she said.
Young Global Leaders is similar to the Student Diversity Board in its focus on integrating the community.
Upper School history teacher Steve Spencer, a sponsor for the board, said each year more students have applied to be grade representatives on the board. The increase in the number of applicants, with the creation of Young Global Leaders, reveals a budding interest in diversity issues.
However, while mainly students will drive the board, Wilson will direct Young Global Leaders to ensure that the topics discussed are age appropriate.
The two groups will also differ in their scopes of potential participants. While sponsors assign positions on the Student Diversity Board from an open group of interested Upper School students, this initiative will include only fourth graders.
This characteristic stems from Wilson’s hope to spark girls’ interest in the Middle School Kids Stand Up elective and the Student Diversity Board, which all share the same goal to raise awareness of various issues. Wilson wishes all three groups will meet and discuss various issues, which she says will give the girls tools to learn to accept others.
“The world is changing,” Wilson said, “And the more prepared the child is, the more successful I feel she will be in the future.”
– Catherine Jiang
