Institutions, like humans and families, are far from perfect. For instance, Diego has experienced both true belonging and true exclusion within our school district and the Catholic Church. Our family, including my big extended family, delights in Diego, but even I, who love him more than life itself, have deliberately excluded him at times.
Thank you for that honesty! In the conversation I had with Heather, I appreciated her thoughts on creating spaces of belonging as well as spaces that are deliberately set apart around affinity, whether that's an AP Physics class or a group for students of a particular ethnicity or cultural background. The conversation about the difference between spaces that "other" and spaces that "honor" was helpful to me in thinking about it all.
Institutions, like humans and families, are far from perfect. For instance, Diego has experienced both true belonging and true exclusion within our school district and the Catholic Church. Our family, including my big extended family, delights in Diego, but even I, who love him more than life itself, have deliberately excluded him at times.
Thank you for that honesty! In the conversation I had with Heather, I appreciated her thoughts on creating spaces of belonging as well as spaces that are deliberately set apart around affinity, whether that's an AP Physics class or a group for students of a particular ethnicity or cultural background. The conversation about the difference between spaces that "other" and spaces that "honor" was helpful to me in thinking about it all.
A fine organization fostering belonging in schools is the All Belong Center for Inclusive Education.
www.allbelong.org
Thank you for that recommendation!