“The purpose of listening is not agreement but understanding…Listening does not grant the other side legitimacy. It grants them humanity and preserves our own.”
~ Valerie Kaur
With the 2024 election just over a week away, we recognize that each of us brings our own concerns, hopes, fears, opinions, and beliefs into daily experience; and our students bring to school the conversations that they hear at home and in the world outside of school. At Bixby we recognize this is a uniquely valuable opportunity to help our students learn about the importance of respect, curiosity, and empathy, especially when engaging with different perspectives.
In our classrooms, we’ll emphasize our shared Bixby values: We Take Care of Ourselves, Each Other, and Bixby. Teachers will use age-appropriate strategies to guide conversations, encourage thoughtful questions, and set respectful boundaries when needed.
Here are a few ways we approach this:
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Modeling Curiosity and Respectful Dialogue: We encourage students to express their thoughts kindly, understand different viewpoints, and learn to navigate disagreements with empathy.
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Validating Emotions: We help students articulate their feelings and understand why they feel strongly, fostering self-awareness and self-advocacy.
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Modeling and Promoting Self-Care: We encourage everyone to pay attention to how they feel and exercise the freedom to walk away or disengage respectfully in order to take care of themselves.
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Reinforcing Our Core Values: We gently remind students that kindness and respect are at the center of our conversations.
A strength of this community is the variety of beliefs, opinions and experiences that each of you contributes. We also acknowledge that this season can bring up strong emotions. It’s important for each of us to be gentle with ourselves and to remember that we all have many things in common, such as a desire to raise our children in safety, to live with dignity, pursue our passions, leave a better world for our children and grandchildren, and find joy and beauty in our daily experience. Even if we disagree about how to accomplish the things that matter to us, I ask you to keep at the center of our interactions at Bixby the recognition that we all care about our families, our community, and the world we share.
If you have any questions about how we’re approaching this at Bixby or would like to discuss ways to support your student during this time, please reach out. We’re here to support our entire community in using our shared values as a compass to help navigate this unique season together.
Resources for Families: