4 minute read
ON BELONGING: REMOVING THE INVISIBLE MASK
By Jessica Christian, Director of Equity & Inclusion
The 2020-2021 school year was, without a doubt, the most unusual year for students that younger generations have ever seen. COVID-19 shut down schools around the globe, severely impacting not just academic progress, but also the social and emotional development and well-being of our children. As the world slowly opens up again, schools, including Brimmer, are preparing to put in place programming that will address students’ mental health and wellness as they return to school.
Last year at Brimmer, we were fortunate enough to have access to resources that allowed us to keep school open, and the majority of our students chose to learn on campus. We moved forward with our curricula and programming, including critical Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) work. This involved moving beyond inclusion toward true belonging. It felt like a cruel joke that during a year when we worked so hard to address topics of diversity and inclusion we were barely able to see each other’s faces due to mask mandates. To be sure, diversity is about far more than what we look like, and how we have physical similarities and differences. But to have conversations about inclusion, equity, and belonging without being able to read expressions on each other’s faces or simply celebrate the uniqueness of a face different from one’s own added a new level of difficulty to DEI efforts.
As we prepare this edition of Brimmer Magazine, the world is managing new complications with variants of the COVID-19 virus, suggesting that a maskfree future might be a little further away than we’d hoped. While physical masking may be in question, we can surely address the “invisible masks” that so many in our community wear—consciously and subconsciously—every day at Brimmer. Like many older independent schools around the country, Brimmer began in 1880 as a school that enrolled wealthy, white students almost exclusively. Our values and the norms we have upheld continue to reflect, to some degree, what is historically honored in educated, white populations. Along the way, however, we have enrolled a much more diverse group of students and families, leading us to examine what we demand of our students. With students coming to us from a range of neighborhoods, countries, and traditions, to what extent must they wear the invisible mask of the “traditional private school student” in order to feel as though they belong at Brimmer? To what extent are we silently asking them to do this through our practices? These are the masks that must be removed, so that our students can feel safe showing up as their authentic selves.
I grew up attending independent schools in northern New Jersey in the 1980s and 1990s. Then, the only DEI programming that we had focused on “tolerance” and “diversity.” There was no mention of equity and inclusion, and there was certainly no talk of belonging. Schools are much better at this now, but research spanning the last several decades continues to talk about “code switching” as a very real and difficult part of everyday life for students of color and those from other marginalized groups. “Code switching” refers to how those from underrepresented communities often change how they present themselves when they show up in predominantly white, privileged spaces. This is a form of invisible mask-wearing, and it can be tasking on one’s mental and emotional energy and incredibly damaging to one’s mental health and wellness. For any student to feel as though they must change who they are to be accepted when they walk onto our campus is incredibly problematic and is our responsibility to address and fix.
As we focus on reconnecting with one another this fall, we will pay particular attention to the health and wellness of our students. The events of last year created an enormous amount of anxiety for our young learners and other community members. Layered on top of that was—and continues to be—a national debate about race, difference, and equity, providing additional stress that is nearly impossible to escape.
Each student at Brimmer must feel not only that they are included, but that they belong. Learning about what makes each of us unique and celebrating that—whether it’s ethnicity, ability, learning style, race, or gender expression, among others—is the only way to create an environment of belonging for everyone. And that feeling of belonging, particularly for those moving through their formative years, does wonders for one’s mental health and wellness.
We will continue with our DEI programming this year and have exciting plans to expand this work. I encourage you to diversify your conversations at home. Read books and engage with media that celebrate cultures different from your own. Talk about those with physical and mental disabilities to develop skills of empathy and understanding. Experiment with foods from other countries. Step outside of what is familiar. The variety in who we are is a gift if we allow it to be.
Class of 2021 Graduates.
