As part of its growing program to engage students, faculty-staff, and parents in learning and reflection, this year D-E extended invitations to educators, scholars, writers, journalists and some students to offer conversations in our community. Faculty-staff began the year with the leaders of Making Caring Common at Harvard University, and were engaged in a series of conversations designed to help them reflect upon the historical impact of race and racism as part of professional learning for diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. In the fall, students across the divisions were offered a series of “Election Reflection” conversations in advance of the 2020 Presidential election. After the election, the DEfining series continued with guest speakers and panel discussions across a range of engaging topics.
In anticipation of the 2020 Presidential Election, D-E sought to prepare our students by presenting them with a variety of election-related topics and conversations intended to engage them in critical thinking and respectful conversation. In the Lower School, teachers facilitated multimedia lessons and conversations in their classroom spaces teaching younger students about leadership, voting, elections, and the importance of honoring different perspectives. Knowing that the election would be fraught, as a school we wanted to encourage our Middle and Upper School students to be in civil dialogue with each other across their diverse political beliefs while presenting them with perspectives from scholars, journalists, public figures, and their own history teachers to inspire intellectual reflection. The Election-Reflection events in the Middle and Upper Schools were as follows.