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All throughout elementary school we celebrated Columbus Day, but never learned the history behind it. The only Jewish tradition we heard about was spinning a dreidel. We never talked about why our school had such little diversity and we never learned who J.C. Nichols really was. These conversations were intentionally overlooked.
What started off as an attempt for elementary schools to put everyone on the same level racially, religiously and economically has become a system that’s denied students of their individual identity and created a stigma and sense of ignorance around our differences.
Because we lacked conversations in elementary school that would’ve built us a base understanding, teens are struggling to grasp the idea of inclusion after being exposed to high school. Students think it’s okay to shout barbaric comments at opposing teams during football games or share hateful posts on social media making inhumane jokes. When they’re chanting, posting or commenting, students don’t think about the kid that sits next to them in math class that has to hear their race, religion, sexuality, abilities, mental illness, socioeconomic state, facial anomalies — their identity — insulted.
It isn’t just disgusting and sad that East is getting this reputation at football games or even being associated with the word racist, it’s shameful. Elementary and middle schools shouldn’t stray away from having these tough but necessary conversations, stopping students from learning that it’s unacceptable to make insensitive remarks in the future.
We simply lack awareness.
It’s unacceptable that only now at the age of 16 are students beginning to learn about mental health and being kind to themselves. And they aren’t even learning this in school. Students have been forced to gain these lessons through social media. We should already understand that love is love and people can identify however they choose. We should already know that some of our classmates fast throughout school days for their religion. This all should’ve been understood long before high school.
It’s true that, a greater social awareness comes with age, but it’s important for these conversations to begin when we’re young enough to establish a consciousness for sensitive topics. Why are we taught to shy away from controversial conversations that would teach us lessons we’ll eventually need to know? Since we aren’t taught these things by educated adults, we’re forced to learn them from less informed teens.
A main topic students are lacking education on is religion. From kindergarten to senior year in public school, we adopted a new name for our two-week winter break, “Christmas Break,” but have never been taught the ideology behind Kwanzaa or Hanukkah. Public schools attempt to keep all religions on the same level, but by not discussing religions in class, it’s only segregated students instead of celebrating our differences. Silence doesn’t show equality.
As kids, we should’ve learned about a variety of religions and to embrace diverse backgrounds and to love people for who they are. Our teachers and adult figures should’ve broken down stigmas around mental health, eliminated derogatory statements and banished hurtful social media behavior before eighth grade. Talking about it in schools would give students the opportunity to foster peaceful discussions, rather than bringing out arguments into the real world.
Yes, we were taught to include, but on a small scale. We learned to let everyone play tag on the playground and allow everyone’s thoughts to be represented in the group project, but inclusion is so far beyond that. We should’ve learned the importance of inclusion throughout life — not just on the playground.
This school year, we’ve seen a shift in the right direction of the student section behavior, according to Pep Club sponsor Shannon Nolan, but a single East student can ruin it by shouting slurs, derogatory remarks or inappropriate commentary at the opponent’s players.
East is full of allies — teachers and students who are there to hear your specific struggles and help encourage others to hear you and your story. But there’s still a gap between what’s happening in the student section and throughout social media and actually knowing about it.
Students need to take steps to further educate themselves about diversity and inclusion. One way to do this is through the RACE project, one of many groups at East that discuss inclusion and educates East on recent social events that some students might not hear about in their communities. Their goal as a student-run organization is to create a culture of inclusion. By engaging in and fostering these conversations, people could have better awareness about the impact of their words — preventing further altercations in the hallways or in the student sections.
English teacher and RACE project sponsor Samantha Feinberg explains that the RACE project and CORE (previously known as KickBack) have started a project that will include an event similar to The Care Fair that will occur during session B of WIN time. Organized inclusion — driven groups such as Gay Straight Alliance, Jewish Student Union, LGBTQ+ Club, and Pep Club will set up a space where students can share their experiences of exclusion that other East students may be blind to.
It’s not that nothing is being done. Some elementary schools are beginning to implement diversity education for young students. In recent years, Prairie Elementary has implemented the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging training for staff. They’ve also started showing Kansas City local Jen Greenstreet’s “Just Like Me” films to celebrate differences in all forms. By representing topics like food allergies, anxiety, diabetes awareness, down syndrome and more, these films are made to make every student feel seen. These are steps in the right direction, and should be continued throughout the district.
The school system needs to do better with actually discussing these hard topics with young kids to help them navigate tough conversations of today instead of glossing over them just to avoid conflict.
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