Creating Experiences and Opportunities that Develop Cultural Awareness

WE BELIEVE THAT STUDENTS benefit significantly from an education that affirms genuine respect for individual differences, molds young leaders who are ready to engage in a worldwide environment, and teaches them how to work collaboratively with those who represent different cultures, nationalities, and beliefs. In line with our strategic priorities, the Country Day Fund supports the people and programs that create experiences and opportunities that lead to cultural awareness and comprehension of the wider world.

Our teachers and administrators continually assess and revise curriculum through a lens that ensures what and how we teach is equipping students to think critically, act respectfully, and show sensitivity to the needs and feelings of others. For instance, beginning in junior kindergarten and kindergarten, the AMAZE curriculum helps children to see difference as a positive thing. Using high-quality literature, hands-on activities, and persona dolls, teachers explicitly teach children the knowledge, values, and skills they need to support and respect each other across differences of race, class, culture, gender, and so forth. In Lower School social studies, students access multiple texts so they have more than a single story about the event. This helps to build critical-thinking skills and develop empathy by asking “whose voice is represented and whose voice is missing?”

In Middle School, diversity and global themes are woven into the curriculum in numerous ways. For instance, themes of student perspective/identity, bias, stereotypes, and prejudice are examined through advisory, book clubs, and summer reading. In seventh-grade World Geography, students personally connect with numerous speakers from more than 30 countries from around the world. They also participate in an annual Immigration Day and hear from immigrants who share their stories, learn from an Immigration Services officer, and participate in other curricular activities intended to better their understanding of this issue. Students make connections with the required English reading of "Ask Me No Questions" and other interdisciplinary work in World Geography, science, Spanish, and math. Our mission is to foster healthy dialogue about the issues that emerge; not to tell students what to think, but to teach them how to arrive at their own conclusions and then how to discuss their ideas in a civil manner.

Opportunities expand further in Upper School. Freshman Seminar, a required course designed specifically for ninth graders, addresses various issues and developmental needs of young adolescents including harassment awareness, identity development, difference, and cooperation. In addition, all freshmen are required to attend Diversity Awareness Forum sessions. Through English and history electives, students can dive deep into courses such as Philosophy, Faith, and Fiction; Education for Social Justice; African-American History; and 20th Century Women’s History.

As a school, we embrace the term “glocal,” which emphasizes understanding the global diversity and resources in the community where one lives prior to exploring the world beyond our borders. In addition to curricular connections, students can join a wide range of global-themed extracurricular clubs, and students are regularly involved in community international festivals and events, and opportunities to meet with diplomats and honorary consuls.

Our commitment to developing cultural awareness in our students provides them with the skills, experience, confidence, and motivation to play an active role in a world that is becoming ever more interconnected.