At a time when many parents and GOP legislators, including families at prestigious independent schools like New York City’s Dalton School, are clamping down on efforts to educate students about racism, Thacher is doubling down on its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts. Matt Balano, Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) has encouraged many transformations to Thacher’s culture.
According to Balano, who recently announced his departure from Thacher at the end of the 2021-2022 school year, some of the most significant changes are reflected in the implementation of culturally responsive education across the curriculum. This education focuses on identity, perspective, and global understanding by embedding these ideas with essential 21st century leadership skills.
By narrowing down the focus to oneself, teachers get an opportunity to understand students and students can understand each other. It also helps students in identifying and countering micro-aggressions as well as reporting them.
Notably, ninth-grade history education has undergone a shift. According to history teacher, Dr. Russell Spinney, ninth graders begin their history education focused on identity and the value of multiple perspectives, and learning to explore their ability to recognize counter-narratives and complexities of different issues.
Moving into the winter trimester, the ninth grade worked on a new topic, “The Story of Place,” in which students studied a place, its people, and how where they fit into the scope of world history. The idea behind the investigation of the place shifts focus away from Eurocentric history and concentrates on the culture and stories of the diverse people who all played significant roles in the world stage in an ethnographic way.
Students analyzed systems of oppression in relation to identity and the exploration of place. “For a more concrete example, instead of just explaining what racism is, we ask where it comes from? It ties with slavery, the rise of cotton and sugar, industrialization and all these different events in the past,” Spinney said.
The curriculum also shifts away from traditional frameworks used to teach history, “We get to see the movement and mixing of people around the planet and the systems that are designed to regulate them. With that ethnographic framework in looking at systems of oppression, it adds and shifts the perspective of students,” Spinney said.
Other History and English classes such as the sophomore History and English classes have begun to pivot in the same direction, paying closer attention to stories and purposes rather than historical dates and events. Similarly, these changes are also reflected in the Science, Math and Drama curriculum, shifting the focus from the subject and materials themselves and adopting a more worldly perspective. For instance, instead of traditionally focusing on just scientific processes, science classes have also gone beyond to learn about its correlations with real world events.
Additionally, faculty and staff have been engaging in professional development focused on maintaining cultural responsiveness, self-reflection, and equity literacy, which places a focus on recognizing, responding to, and redressing inequity, and creating and sustaining equitable spaces for their students.
Tangibly, the Multicultural Center has been a commitment and project led by Balano to create a space for affinity group meetings, community dialogues, film screenings, and other community events with the hope that it builds community, celebrates identities, and encourages empathy.
It is intended to be a comfortable and safe space to engage in conversation, meetings, or academic work. Balano also often reinforces that the Multicultural Center is “not just a safe space, but a brave space.”
He encourages students to take initiative to engage in meaningful, brave, and at times uncomfortable, discussions and conversations, and suggests that communication across differences is an important component in disrupting stereotypes, ignorance, and prejudices.
“The world looks different depending on where you’re standing,” Balano said regarding the shifts in language we use on campus. “Traditions evolve to fit the needs of the community.”
The language used on campus, alongside faculty training, and updates to the curriculum, is simultaneously generating positive changes to the school. This year, many commonly used terms on campus have changed, a result of the School’s initiative to question the purpose of the language we use.
The former Judicial Council has been renamed the ‘Honor Council,’ as the Council’s purpose is to uphold the Honor Code rather than to hold a judicial trial on a student. Formal dinner has been rebranded as Community dinner, as it is a time meant to focus on community bonding instead of formality.
With society’s growing understanding of gender fluidity, the term “freshmen” has also changed. Instead, the school has opted to call first-year students ninth graders.
The words “diversity”, “equity”, and “inclusion” are nuanced and complex. While it is always important to strive for a better community, we also must recognize how much the school has overcome during the 2021-2022 school year. What is equity? What does diversity mean? What does inclusion look like on campus? As we transition into a new academic year, these are all questions our community will continue to answer.
Photo by Keira Yin ’22.
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