Establishing Traditions with Social Justice

Establishing Traditions In 2017, Social Justice Day at Shady Hill was established to create a focused opportunity to learn with Social Justice about social justice within the classroom. For the past five years, the Middle School has set aside its By Tatum Lee regular class lesson plans to host this annual all-day event to raise awareness about a chosen theme relating to social justice. The programming creates a rich multicultural curriculum for Middle Schoolers to learn more about racial identity, the cycle of oppression, and various ways to be allies and changemakers. Celebrating and exploring the diversity at Shady Hill makes us a wiser and stronger community.

Social Justice Day offers students a conference-style experience that includes an open conversation with a special speaker with the entire Middle School, workshops in classrooms, and an arts-expressive project. Previously offered workshops included body positivity, social solidarity, politics, identity and representation in the media, and other related topics. Students develop a more robust understanding of injustice through these activities and exercises, empowering and inspiring them to actively speak out against injustices. It is essential to teach children to explore human similarities and differences, challenge stereotypes, and understand how perceptions affect ideas about truth. These meaningful conversations validate children’s individual lives and prepare them to succeed in a multicultural society.

In addition to Social Justice Day, the Middle School has added a new Social Justice Spotlight program, which coincides with Affinity Gatherings. Social Justice Spotlight is a series of non-affinity-based activities and discussions for students who do not attend affinity gatherings to engage with their classmates to “honor differences, challenge prejudice and strive for racial and social justice.” This pedagogical shift underscores to the community how powerful it is for all children to be doing this work in classrooms. It is one of our commitments to build a community that understands and values our diverse world through encouragement for social justice and the elimination of bias in school life.

Grade VI students in Ms. Hesko’s class performed poems from Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson in the 2022 Black History Assembly.

Social Justice Spotlight creates an equitable and safe space for all students to discuss race, gender, religion, class and other aspects of identity. Echoing our mission to develop students who are “intellectually adventurous and wholeheartedly just,” students learn to advocate for different social causes as they pave the next wave for social justice ambassadors. Both the Social Justice Spotlight program and Social Justice Day are evolving traditions that bring attention to the injustices of today’s world and empower our students with the knowledge and tools to have a racially just future.

I am so proud of the work we do on Social Justice Day. It brings me immense joy to see the students finding and using their voices to foster understanding and to inspire action. ”

-Laniesha Gray, Director of Equity and Inclusion