Recent DEI Work at KWS
Over the past few years, we have worked to deepen our emphasis on solidarity and justice, and to shine light on the beauty, truth, and goodness of human diversity. We have completely overhauled our high school English department offerings, updating our curriculum for each class with diverse authors and topics, while adding a course on African American Literature. We have developed an ongoing Math and Social Justice course, where students learn to take a data-based approach to understanding inequality. And as caretakers of ancient land, we have also been increasing our awareness of debt and gratitude to the Lenape people of this region. We include Native poetry in our 12th grade English classes, and have also added an Indigenous History Main Lesson, where we explore the history and culture of Native Peoples.
In addition to the ongoing evolution of our courses and curriculum, we also ensure a diversity of experience through events, workshops, and special guests, such as our recent Poet X workshops, and presentations by S. C. Says. We consistently participate in local community events, such as co-hosting vigils for Black Lives Matter, and we see the impact of our work spreading beyond our community in the work that our students do, as in our student-created website to support local businesses whose owners are from historically marginalized communities. Meanwhile, and from the beginning, our Early Childhood and lower grades work largely through story and mindful exposure to raise the awareness of young children and their parents.
We recognize the importance and beauty of human diversity, and we will continue to work at every level of our school to enact and embody the ideals of social harmony, economic justice, and unity-in-diversity. From multicultural stories and representation in our early childhood and lower school, to grappling with the deep complexity of human history across the globe through our broad, global curriculum, to the ongoing work of our staff Social Justice Committee and Section Meetings, where we discuss Dismantling Racism each week—we are doing the work, and the work is ongoing. That is what it means to be a life-long learner at Kimberton Waldorf School, and what we sometimes refer to as Responsible Innovation.
