Engaging in Citizenship Together: This Year’s Equity and Engagement Theme

Civil and thoughtful discourse about the upcoming political season is a priority, said the speakers. Head of Upper School Melissa Anderson stepped to the podium first to talk about how people can share core values even when they disagree on politics, using members of her own family to illustrate the point. Rivers is nonpartisan, she said, but not impartial when it comes to core values—chief among which is creating and sustaining “a community in which belonging must be nurtured.” She cited a session held last week, hosted by the debate club, where students met to debrief the recent debate between the presidential candidates. “The conversation was rich and thoughtful,” said Anderson, adding that while the school has asked students and professional community members to refrain from wearing political shirts, buttons, and the like, it also welcomes productive dialogue such as the debrief session. “Express your thoughts with words, and by listening, not with T-shirts,” she urged the students. 

Jenny Jun-lei Kravitz, director of institutional equity, also addressed the assembly. Kravitz emphasized that while people may not always agree—indeed, agreement is not the goal—members of our community can and should seek to understand one another and approach discussions with open minds. On the large screens in Kraft Dining Hall, she projected a drawing that could variously be interpreted as depicting a horse’s head or a frog, to help illustrate her point. After a show of hands, it appeared as though the room was fairly evenly divided between frogs and horses. “Our goal is understanding, not agreement,” Kravitz reminded the students. “We just want to understand what the other person sees.” 

In the coming months, said Kravitz, our community will seek to “define citizenship as a verb,” following several tenets that include not making assumptions, entering into conversations with empathy and openness, offering criticism only when it encourages conversation, not repeating hurtful language, and supporting conversations that in turn support connection and relationships.

The announcement about the year’s theme may have come on Monday, but activities to support it had already gotten underway. As noted in Anderson’s remarks, the previous week had seen a discussion session following the September 10 presidential debate. Students had the opportunity to view a recording of the debate on Wednesday, and on Thursday, a large group gathered in a Campus Center classroom to talk about what they’d heard and seen. Leaders of the debate club briefly reviewed topics that had been covered in the debate, such as the economy and immigration, and then split the attendees into two groups to ponder such questions as “To what extent should the U.S. be involved with foreign countries that are not its allies?” and “Should the U.S. ban fracking?” In the lively and very civil conversations that followed, students grappled with those and other topics, displaying an impressive knowledge about both the issues and about the political gamesmanship that inevitably colors both sides of the election. 

Of course, an engaged citizenship requires a voting citizenship, and there, too, students have been busy, holding voter-registration drives at lunchtime to sign up eligible students. Even those as young as 16 could pre-register, so as to be ready to vote once they’re of age. Business was brisk as students filled out the necessary paperwork, ensuring their voices will be heard this year and in election years to come. 

Further equity and engagement programming is on the horizon. In October, Upper School students will read and discuss an article titled “The Other Side Is Not Dumb,” which makes the case for considering the validity of differing views. And as part of the ongoing professional development programming on campus, a Critical Conversations lunch session for the professional community will focus on how to navigate difficult situations that might arise across the presidential election, vote certification, and inauguration. More programming will follow as the year progresses.

Perhaps most critically, the theme of Engaging in Citizenship Together gives the entire community the opportunity to gain a more nuanced, thoughtful, and empathetic outlook, not just on this year’s election but on the broader task of civic engagement. As Kravitz put it at Monday’s assembly, while sharing an image of the M.C. Escher print “Relativity,” with its gravity-defying staircases and shifting perspectives, “Things are always more complex than they appear.”