For the last few years, Corpus Christi has been using a wonderful, free, age appropriate educational resource called Teaching Tolerance. Their mission is to reduce prejudice, improve intergroup relations and support equitable school relations. These goals align so beautifully with our school’s mission that we’ve committed to weekly lessons around the themes within the Teaching Tolerance curriculum. The faculty agreed to focus the month of September on Community.
Community lessons have varied from class to class. How to build a community. What a community needs to be successful. How we, as individuals, impact our communities. Here’s a look at a few classes and how they approached the subject.
Kindergarten discussed choices. How all of the choices we make impact our community. They had one on one discussions about the importance of each individual’s choices on the class as a whole. We all impact our community!
In 2nd grade, the discussion focused on being different. Each person brings different abilities and qualities and that is what makes for a wonderful, vibrant community. Ms. Quillici was impressed with the depth of sharing. It’s good to be different!
In 3rd grade, the discussion focused on how being different might be perceived. Does it make someone unintelligent if they do not speak the language? They role played how it would feel to be in another country and try to fit into a foreign community. How do we see people who are different in our own communities?
4th grade discussed all the different places in our school community. All of the people who are here to help us and how those people are gifts to our community. We all have something to offer!
8th grade did some work around empathy. Every community does better when empathy is in practice. Literally, standing in someone else’s shoes and trying to understand their experience. It was a fascinating conversation which will continue.
Each grade has shared a community based lesson and our teacher’s report that the students are truly engaged and connected. It will be an interesting journey throughout the year as we explore other themes. We will keep you posted and hopefully, the conversations can continue at home. These kids are the future and within each one lives the power to make our world a more loving place!