Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Justice
There are many privileges associated with being an independent school. With those privileges come both a responsibility and an opportunity to make HVWS accessible and to establish relevant and continuous dialogue in our classrooms, within our faculty, and amongst parents and the extended community. The Housatonic Valley Waldorf School’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice (DEIJ) Committee is active and works hard to provide relevant and timely resources including:
- Information and curriculum development materials.
- A growing library of diverse literature.
- Community events and collaborative projects in support of diversity and inclusivity.
- Opportunities for education, study, and training to our faculty and parents.
During the 2021-22 school year, HVWS worked with Alma Partners to audit and improve areas including curriculum, policies and procedures, and family experience, with a focus on racial justice. Alma Partners met regularly with school leadership and representatives from the DEI committee, as well as worked with faculty and staff at faculty meetings, hosted a parent evening for BIPOC/global majority parents and parents raising BIPOC/global majority children, and audited and made recommendations regarding school polices and procedures.
Beginning in 2018, HVWS was awarded a generous, multi-year grant (renewed in 2021) from the NoVo Foundation to support diversity and SEL initiatives. We continue to dedicate a portion of these funds to adding greater representation to the books in our classrooms and libraries. We have worked in consultation with our teachers, other educators across the country, and local bookseller, Byrds Books, to add to our book wish lists as well as our collections. You can view our current wish list and recent additions (as we have time to add them!) on our LibraryThing catalog.
In 2019 the DEI Committee hosted “Deepening the Dialogue,” a series of discussions around issues of diversity and inclusion.
February 2019: Dimensions of Gender, an evening of voices, education, and conversation about gender identity. Our guest speakers—educator Jessica Ann Vooris, student and activist Leah Juliett, and volunteers from the Stonewall Speakers—addressed questions such as What is gender? How do I talk about and understand gender variance? How can I help create a more inclusive environment for children and adults? Stonewall Speakers, a program of the not-for-profit Connecticut Stonewall Foundation, Inc., is a volunteer speaker’s bureau comprised of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people and their allies. Their speakers share their hearts, stories, and time to help eliminate hate and promote understanding. Speaking engagements combine personal life stories with a judgement-free question and answer session. Stonewall Speakers first visited HVWS to share their stories with parents and staff in 2014.
Our Faculty and Staff:
Fundamental to Waldorf education are a cultivation of trust, personal responsibility, and self-reflection. As conscientious role models to our student body, HVWS faculty and staff work very hard together daily through critical self and group reflection to ensure that no individual, nor any group, is left out, tracked, neglected, or otherwise alienated. We do not avoid conversations; we have conversations, even if they are challenging, in order to promote a healthy environment for everyone.
AWSNA:
HVWS supports the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America’s Statement of Equity and Racial Justice.
Our Students and Families:
HVWS aims to develop a healthy social consciousness within each student. Pedagogically, Waldorf education encourages a critical consciousness by nurturing students’ inherent curiosities, helping them to develop critical reasoning skills, and promoting a consciousness among students that is both empathetic and socially responsible. In addition to the work in the classroom, HVWS parents play an important part by sharing their unique cultures and lived experiences with the school. We see the active contributions of our families as vital assets to deepening our understanding and appreciation of each other.
Honoring and exploring diversity is an essential strength to both our community and the education we offer. Students benefit from a deep and rich understanding of the world that is inclusive of all perspectives and experiences
Our Commitment to Equity and Inclusion:
The Housatonic Valley Waldorf School is comprised of a community of adults and children from varying cultures, religions, interests, abilities and backgrounds. Our commitment is to create and uphold an environment where each individual is seen, heard, respected and honored. In our classrooms our teachers build up capacities of respect, inclusive behavior, empathy and kindness so that our students meet a diverse world. Our goal is that every member of our community finds themselves in a place where they are able to express themselves freely and feel safe in doing so.
We recognize the work of inclusion and promoting diversity is ongoing. It requires dedication and an openness to change. Waldorf education, as we live and practice it today, is rooted in the principles of human dignity, equity, compassion, and social renewal.
We stand with the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America in denouncing any racist or discriminatory statements made by Rudolf Steiner. These are not the foundation of our work and do not represent the heart of Waldorf education.
“Waldorf education espouses principles of respect for human dignity. Any narratives or indications made by Rudolf Steiner that are in contradiction to these principles are not the basis for Waldorf education and we unequivocally denounce such statements.”
– Association of Waldorf Schools of North America
As an AWSNA member school, we join in the shared journey to create a more inclusive, equitable, and just educational movement. We invite our community to join us by asking questions, listening deeply, and acting with courage and love.
We are committed to:
- Growing as individuals and educators by identifying and unlearning our own biases. This is ongoing, necessary work and essential to building a just and inclusive school culture.
- Reimagining and evolving our curriculum to ensure it reflects the stories, histories, perspectives, and contributions of people of all races, ethnicities, cultures, genders, and abilities.
- Creating classrooms where students are encouraged to engage thoughtfully and age-appropriately with the complexities of the world around them.
- Striving towards diversifying our faculty and staff to better reflect the broader community and to foster a wider range of perspectives and experiences.
- Ensuring that our school remains accessible by supporting economic diversity and continuing to develop our variable tuition model, so that cost is not a barrier to a Waldorf education.
- Actively working against all forms of discrimination, including racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and ableism. These have no place in our school community.
- Upholding and passing on a pedagogy grounded in authenticity, equity, and justice to the children we serve.
We are committed to this work. We will continue learning, growing, remedying our own missteps and striving to embody the values we want to see in the world. Our work is never finished, and we welcome the ongoing challenge of rising to meet it.
For opportunities to engage with DEIJ work, please contact office@waldorfct.org.