By John Baird, Head of School, Westtown School

We have a teachable moment this fall, an opportunity to create a different kind of dialogue in which we can talk about issues and feelings,with empathy and respect, and to practice the kindness and dignity we’re not always seeing in the world around us. Westtown School has long practiced this kind of teaching, learning, and listening, focused on finding common ground and the common good.

Reflecting on this teachable moment, I offer a few guidelines for dialogue about the election and other challenging conversations with our children and students:

Listen first. Ask, “What have you heard?  What questions do you have?  What do you feel?” Reassure and support them.

Help students to complicate their thinking. Focus on policy, issues, values, rather than rhetoric and personalities. Ask, “Which of this candidate’s policies makes you feel so passionately about him or her?”

Make empathy a theme for these conversations. Teach children that they can disagree with others with empathy, encourage them (and yourself) to consider walking in someone else’s shoes when they think about an issue. Encourage them to set aside judgment so they can listen to others — and to themselves — more deeply.

When the going gets tough, turn to wonder. “I wonder what he or she is trying to say? What in his or her experience brought him to this belief?  I wonder what my reaction can teach me about myself?”

Help your children to take positive, age-appropriate action: write a letter to the editor, engage in community service, volunteer, or plant a garden. Help them to put their beliefs in action, even in a small way, and give them a sense of agency.

Speak your truth in a way that respects others’ truth. Remember the great authority that you hold as an adult. As Rosetta Lee said to one of her students, “I would not want your admiration for me to get in the way of your developing your own beliefs.”

Westtown School has long practiced this kind of teaching, learning, and listening, focused on finding common ground and the common good. We draw on a tradition of Quaker education that is respectful of both individuals and of the group. Westtown offers an education that engages students in their own process of inquiry and discovery within a rich diversity of perspectives.
From the earliest years, Westtown School provides opportunities for students to find their voice and use it to develop the rare confidence to take action, to declare themselves as leaders, to risk failure, and to stand up for deeply held beliefs. We take pride in creating an environment where transformations can take place. It is amazing to watch what can happen when a child feels safe to use their voice, take chances, and realize their individual gifts. As one new student said to her mom this fall after coming home from school, “Mom, I love Westtown…I don’t feel invisible anymore.”
Learn more about Westtown School, a private, independent, Quaker school in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Westtown is a co-ed, Pre-K through 12 day school with boarding options for grades 9 through 12.  
 
Photographs courtesy of Westtown School.