Building a Community of Belonging
Without community, there is no liberation…but community must not mean a shedding of our differences, nor the pathetic pretense that these differences do not exist. Audre Lorde
One of our highest values at Bright Water Waldorf School in honoring the humanity of every individual. We believe that by learning and growing within a diverse and vibrant community, each student can best meet the challenges of the human being in the modern world. In this spirit, we welcome, value, and support families of all races, ethnicity, national origins, religions, economic backgrounds, abilities, sexual orientations, and gender identities and expressions. We seek to provide an environment that require people to learn to engage with differences and to be willing to listen and to find common ground. Therefore, one of our highest goals is to have our school community reflect the abundant and changing diversity of our city, the United States as a whole, and the world.
From NWAIS Self-Study, 2018-19 Academic Year
The Bright Water Waldorf Board of Trustees fully endorses this statement from the Association of Waldorf Schools in North America.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Circle
The DEI Circle creates and maintains regular opportunities for study and action for faculty and our extended community. Our aims and domain includes Preparing, Supporting, and Empowering each other to take anti-racist action and lean into deconstructing implicit and explicit biases. This work is not but a summit, a lecture, or sojourn; it is instead a lifelong learning and unlearning of white supremist norms.
DEI Circle Aims
Consistently support diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging at Bright Water to enable everyone in the school and extended community to feel welcomed, represented, and seen
Engage the community by hosting DEI educational opportunities, taking collective action, and having an annual summit.
Support DEI integration and expansion of curriculum and activities in the classroom.
Identify, revise and create policies and procedures that support our DEI values.
Support organization of Martin Luther King Jr. Day Assembly.
Work toward becoming an anti-racist organization.
Solicit and field feedback for the school. For transparent and or confidential feedback, please email Melissa Lang Lytle, mllytle@brightwaterwaldorf.org.
DEI Circle Domain
DEI education and integration
DEI policies
Belonging work in daily life at the school and at school community events
Food for Thought is great, thought into action is better
Our faculty and staff review and discuss many issues within the Belonging and DEI umbrella and meet for discussion weekly at the College of Teachers meeting. Please check back often for resources that might support your own work in these areas.
topic 1:
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack - Peggy McIntosh
topic 2:
Ending Curriculum Violence - Teaching Tolerance.org
topic 3:
We Pay Real Rent, Please Join Us
TOPIC 4:
Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris, Featuring: Why We're All Suffering from Racial Trauma (Even White People) -- and How to Handle It — Guest Speaker: Resmaa Menakem
TOPIC 5:
Divali in the Classroom - Teaching Tolerance.org
TOPIC 6:
Implicit Bias - New York Times Video: Check Our Bias to Wreck Our Bias AND Mahzarin R. Banaji - Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People
TOPIC 7:
James Baldwin vs William F Buckley: A legendary debate from 1965
TOPIC 8:
Othering and Belonging Institute
TOPIC 9:
Chloe Valdary: Theory of Enchantment DEI Training